After listening to this weeks podcast, I started googling tire inserts for road bikes. I had a terrible stretch of punctures/pinch flats last year. The idea of the Tannus tire armor intrigued me.
I am a fan of tubeless for off road use, but am not at all confident in the technology for road use.
I am a heavier rider at 90kgs and the thought of eliminating pinch flats has me excited.
Has anyone given these things a try? I’d love some input.
Yes and I’m a few kg higher, and receive a lot of of rear flats when running tubes with 26c and 28c tires. Less flats at 30c and 32c.
I’m sold on road tubeless in general. Latest tubeless miracle from two days ago:
About 4+ months ago, early December 2021, rode the Vittoria Air-Liner home after a sidewall tear:
I’m overall positive about tubeless and riding 30c or 32c on rear. Both of those have allowed me to roll without flats (except for sidewall tears).
Vittoria Air-Liner inserts are a tougher call, I like them however you can’t do roadside repair if its a sidewall tear. But you can roll home per above. After 8+ miles riding them run-flat, that Air-Liner had to be thrown into the trash. I believetThose inserts are rated at ~1 year lifespan.
Mr tuffy for me last 1.5 year and no flats at all in gp5000. My buddy used to get a lot of flat and he has not had one since.
I have the vittoria airliners, I have no experience with flats but they seal so well that you need special valves to get the air out, even when removing the valve core they’ll hold air in
You’re not going to do a sidewall repair anyway, these tires are goners at least with the airliner you’ll get home without damaging the rim
But yeah, they are a pain to mount and dismount (probably worse than gp5000 tlr although I never tried these)
Not repair, boot and a tube.
Any tips on deflating without the special valves? I just got a pair and installed them without the valves because they weren’t long enough for my 50mm rims. I can pump the tires up, but can’t get any air out now!
Take the valve core out and poke a 2mm Allen key or something in there to push the insert away from the valve.
Awesome, thought it might be something like that! Any idea if one can use valve extenders for tubeless? Might give that a shot with the special valves Vittoria provided.
Edit: just realized the extenders would need threads so it can be secured tightly to the rim!!
I recommend all participants in the 50+ category follow this advice. You could even up the protection by running Gatorskins AND Mr. Tuffys.
That would be even better……for me at least. 
Exactly. So if your tubeless valves extend far enough out of the rim you can use a nut on the valve and still put an extender on. But if your tubeless valve ends at the rim you’re out of luck there.
Long insert-compatible tubeless valves are a good solution.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZMGX89B/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_gl_i_78GBYQPGZTV72YSY3VVR?psc=1
Schwalbe extenders work, that’s what i used
Nice, I didn’t realize tubeless extenders were a thing. Here’s a pair available in the US (can’t find the Schwalbes stateside):
Fouriers Tubeless Presta Valve Extender Kit Extension with Core nut (Pack of 2) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0748HTRVP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_gl_i_PTCQTSFNZFC14XAV4XR9?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
That said, for just a few bucks more I think I’d go with long tubeless valves.
My buddy rides like 25K a year and would get flats all the time as you can imagine with that mileage. Since getting Mr Tuffy no flats in 20K miles for him.
Dang that’s solid… I wonder how much the rolling resistance goes up using those strips. I’ve flatted out of 3 races this season on tubeless GP5000 S TR tires and I’m trying to think of every possible way to lower the chances of flatting out now!
Very little I would think as it is just a flexible plastic that weighs a small amount. Yes he does ride a lot indoor and outdoor and usually is top 15 on veloviewer.
Edit: and we run tubes in road setup.
Hmmm, looking at this data:
I see that going from Continental Race 28 butyl tubes to Vittoria/Challenge latex tubes saves 7W for a pair of wheels at 45kph / 28mph on a set of GP 5000 tires. Looking at that chart you can see that weight isn’t what determines rolling resistance, the lightest tubes are the Tubolito S Tube and they are 3W higher than the latex that weigh 3x.
And that chart is race tubes only - it doesn’t include any normal or heavy duty tubes.
Without pulling up some other charts, the fastest tires all seem to have really thin and supple tread.
Before getting a road bike, I used Mr Tuffy on an old mountain bike with slick tires for the road. Definitely affected road feel. And yes it stopped the flats, but so did putting better Schwalbe tires on the bike.
Given all that, I’m having a real difficult time wrapping my mind around the thought that Mr Tuffy is an undiscovered gem for going fast without flats. Wish I had access to a drum and equipment to test it.
70 miles a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year average. Did I read that right?
Yeah about 20+ hours a week for last 3 years.
Edit: My best buddy and most dedicated and disciplined person ever met. Geta up at 5am and rides 1:30-2 hours and then rides after work on weekdays. 2021: 27,221 miles, 1,206 hours and 353 active days. He does not run just bikes.
Interesting. I have been doing 20+ hours a week for about 5 years and get about half those miles. Must be a location thing. Well, my MTB miles are a lot slower too.
