Recommend me a good puncture resistant commuter tyre

lemonade · 23 Aug 2017 at 17:15

Hi

I currently have Schwalbe Road Cruiser Active Kevlar Guard Wired 700c Commuter Tyre fitted on bike, they came with it from new and probably have around 2-3000 miles on them. The rear tyre looks quite worn in places, some areas unevenly and one side of the sidewall has cracking all the way round. I've had 2 punctures in the space of 5 days, which is rather annoying, so I am thinking of changing the rear tyre as it might have seen better days.

I am not really sure what to get, I would prefer something better than what I have and something that has better puncture protection and will last longer.

I looked at solid tyres but they seem a bit iffy and expensive. Currently looking at Schwalba Marathon plus. Can anyone recommend any good tyres under £30 please?

My wheels are 700c32

Cheers

lemonade · 24 Aug 2017 at 13:50

Will have a look at the tyres. A bit reluctant to go with the Lifeline, just seems a bit cheap and downgrade from the Schwalbe's I have now. I read gatorskin tyres have poor grip and wear rate too.

I am riding in inner London, mixture of cycle superhighways and the normal roads. Really terrible roads, lots of rough, bad surface, debris on most, building work debris, glass, tree sticks woods, stones etc. So need something that can withstand these. My current tyres have done well to be honest, they have last a year with only one puncture which was an impact puncture from road surface, but my two recent ones seems to have been penetrated by something, last one had a small pin hole puncture and the tyre was full off all kinds of stuff in the treads.

I'm running my tyres at the recommended 5.5bar, i'm roughly 62-63kg, bike with all the accessories is probably 14kg.

I took a look at tubeless tyres, but not for me, too complicated and if I do get a puncture with one will be big faff changing them.

lemonade · 24 Aug 2017 at 22:56

I've had a read around, the Lifeline seems decent, I'm also liking the Schwalbe Marathon greenguard, so it will be between those two, the Lifeline has 5mm guard, the Schwalbe 3mm, but the quality of the lifeline tyres is bit of an unknown quantity. The marathon plus smartguard would have been perfect for puncture resistance, seems to get raved about, but the performance figures put me off, its a heavy tyre and I have a lot of high inclines, dont fancy the extra weight and resistance, its also said to be very difficult to fit. So the greenguard although less protective seems to be a good compromise, shame they do not make the road cruiser kevlar anymore, I would have just bought another. The Vittoria was a good alternative to the Marathon Plus, but is expensive and also said to have weak sidewalls.

That tyre calculator things looks very useful, would make sense, the rear has a lot of weight over it, which might explain some of the odd wear patterns. Will look into that. Just wary of having a blowout from too much tyre pressure.

lemonade · 29 Aug 2017 at 16:19

Cheers for the tip, i'm gonna up the pressure to 6bar maybe to 6.5 if its not too much for the rear. They do feel a little saggy at 5.5bar

I ended up buying the Schwalbe greenguard which turned up today, can't say i'm impressed by the build and finishing of the one I got, and the depth of the protection doesnt seem much!

lemonade · 12 Sep 2017 at 15:11

Cheers, its a bit small for my wheels I think. I already ordered the tyre though, but it looks in a bad state, bent and one part of the sidewall has a small bulge, do they all come in this state? Or hsould I return?