Comparison of tyres. Simple or "puncture resistant"

Waestrel

I am trying to price a few tires, I am wondering is it better to shell out the near 40 euro for a proper puncture resistance tyre, or just buy several cheaper ones? Which has the longer life time for the price i will pay? Do the Kevlar/resistant tyres actually last longer on the roads? or are they only resistant against piercing?

ROK ON

You can puncture on any type of tyre but some tyres are more prone to puncture.

That siad I prefer tyres that roll well and have grip - I am prepared to accept punctures.
In the past I have found that puncture resistant tyres (particulaly gatorskins and armadillos) are pretty much close to impossible to get on and off a rim.

I stopped using punture resistant tyres after spendng close to an 35 minutes fighting with a tyre halfway down the Wicklow Gap.

For some reason I have found the tyres with little or no punctyre protection are very easy to get on or off and consequently easier to change punctures..

Cee-Jay-Cee

I have been using Shwalbe Lugano puncture protected folding tyres for the last 2500km with zero punctures. They roll well and are simple to put on even without tyre levers. The ones I have are discontinued and were replaced by Lugano Active Kevlar guard which as far as I can see are identical (I bought a pair but haven't fitted them yet)

My rear tyre is fairly worn (it has a smooth/flat centre) but it's far from being done just yet. For the price of them you couldnt go wrong.

Ryaner

Over the last year I've switched to buying cheaper tyres in bulk compared the more expensive "puncture resistant" ones. Because they are so cheap, as soon as any damage starts and punctures follow, I just replace the tyre. New tyres generally puncture less so it has resulted in a load less punctures over the last year.

Also remember that the roads you ride on determine what you'll need. On my commuter I recently replaced the tyre after it wore down so much it was showing the kevlar belt in a few places. If I let the tyres on my trainer do that, they'd likely explode on the bumpy roads in Wicklow.

jimmycrackcorm

I use puncture resistant for my commute and they are well worth it to avoid constant stops on the way to work.

They might be more expensive but you save on tubes too. The price outweighs the inconvenience of puncture repairs anyway

cython

I would definitely say to get tyres with at least some form of puncture belt in them. You don't have to go expensive to manage this, but those tyres with no protection will often break your heart with punctures. For example, I have a Trek 1000 that came with stock Bontrager tyres that might as well have been made of paper for as many punctures as I got with them. I replaced them with a pair of Schwalbe Blizzards (or maybe Blizzard Sport) which just have a belt inside the tread surface, and the difference was immense. Not sure how much mileage I put up on them before I next got a puncture, and when I did it was a cut sidewall that probably all barring maybe a Gatorskin or Marathon Plus would probably have succumbed to. On top of this, I was pulling bits of glass and flint out of the tyre from time to time that almost certainly would have gone through if not for the belt, so it did its job.

Now in terms of price, the Blizzards would not have been expensive (e.g. http://planetxireland.com/products-page/clincher-tyres/schwalbe-blizzard-sport-tyre/) and I think may have been the predecessor to the Lugano mentioned already, based on the Blizzards' recent disappearance, and the similar price point.

Ultimately a lot comes down to intended use though, and plenty of people would prefer something like gatorskins for commuting through an urban area where there may be a lot of broken glass, etc. while others may be happy to take a "softer" tyre if they cycle exclusively on smooth gravel free roads (very unlikely in Ireland, but probably achievable in Europe.

However, if you're going for cheap tyres, IMHO it's well worth trying to find ones with puncture protection in your budget, as they are out there, and you're probably not a performance obsessive if you are going cheap in any case so any potential (and there may not be any) performance difference shouldn't matter.

One last piece of advice would be to steer clear of Continental Ultra Sport as a budget tyre, they are at least as bad as the Bontragers I mentioned above.

Jocry

I've a set of Continental Gatorskins and luckily some might say I've put 3200+ Kms on them without an incident, touch wood! Just my two cents!

mirrormatrix

Gatorskins are virtually puncture proof alright, but I found the handling on them to be abysmal in the wet. Am now running a set of GP 4 seasons and have found them to be the perfect balance of grip and puncture resistance. Still get the odd puncture or 2, but not enough of them to bother me significantly.