What's Up With Puncture Resistant Tires?

My bike came with Vittoria Randonneur puncture resistant tires. Is there such a thing as true puncture resistance? Am I able to ride over broken glass or a tack without getting a flat? I assume not, and I assume that as the tires wear, they will be more prone to punctures?

 

No tire is puncture proof. Even the most expensive tires will get a puncture, although some tires are VERY good at preventing punctures. Just watch where you ride and enjoy the bike.
BTW: would you purposely drive your car thru glass and trash?

 

I commute and I use tire liners on two of my three bikes. I will put them on the new bike at some point. I think I bought Mr. Tuffy's. They put a firm barrier between the tire and the innertube at the expense of suppleness. I had been having problems with goat head thorns and the tire liners did the trick. However I had a 6 inch roofing nail go up through the sidewall last year. I have had innertubes wear out on their own, which ends up being like a tear; and I experienced sidewall separation on an old pair of tires. But with the tire liners I have had no thorns, nails or glass puncture the innertube through the tread. The two drawbacks are a slightly firmer ride and potential extra difficulty changing innertubes.

 

1. There is no "puncture proof" there is only "puncture resistant".

2. Bicycle tire manufacturers often offer tires but with varying degrees of puncture resistance. The best tires relative to rolling resistance, ride quality, and road holding tend to have very light, supple sidewalls. Tires with the best puncture resistance tend to have very stiff, heavy sidewalls. When you buy tires you get to pick whichever is more important to you.

 

Well, there is no puncture proof tire on the market that I know of right now. But before Mr. Dunlop invented pneumatic tires (tyres?), you could ride solid rubber tires which were puncture proof. The new tires are so much more comfortable they put solid rubber out of business.

 

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) is a standard measure of reliability.
Compared to 1970 tech tyre, kevlar protected ones have much longer MTBF. I would estimate MTBF for old tech to be about 3-6 months and for modern everyday tyres, 12-18 months. High protection tyres such as Schwalbe Marathon Plus are effectively puncture proof, inc small tacks and pins but fail with massive metalwork.
MTBF will vary according to local nasties such as goat head thorn or flint shards.

 

There is no puncture proof, just puncture resident. They should be tougher tires than regular ones, but you'll still need to exercise caution and be prepared on long rides.

 

Commuted 200+ miles per week for ten years. Schwalbe Marathon Plus' were my choice after much investigation. I'd buy them in 3s as the rears wore @ 2x the fronts.

Conservatively, I commuted 80,000+ miles in that span. Used Schwalbe Durano Supremes in wet weather. ONE flat. Lucky? Certainly. At the same time I had a road bike with 110 psi airless, too. They slow one by 2-3 mph. Excellent training tires, though. Gave the bike and tires to a close cycling friend. He still has the bike. Wore the tires out. lol

I use SMPs on ALL my bikes. Except my winter mtb. On that I have Nokia studded. Truthfully, I believe my last flat was about 6 years ago. I have an mtb close purpose utility, cyclo cross long purpose utility, touring bike, fixed gear conversion fun bike and the aforementioned winter mtb.
Living car-free requires a higher level of gear hence the expensive tires. I use a trailer for grocery shopping. It has 20 inch SMPS on it.

NOTHING other than airless are puncture proof, but for wear rate against flat rate I'll hang my hat on SMPs.

 

Won't be puncture proof unless the tire is made of steal, in which case it won't be melt proof, lol!

 

I'm not sure which is funnier. Puncture resident dancing lady said. I'm always wondering if people misspell on purpose or just don't pay attention. Puncture resistant tires? I just picture some commercial with broken glass all over the place and someone riding it through it. You know like crazy glue where the guy with the hard hat is holding on with his hands while his feet are scrambling all over the place. He's hanging way up high on some construction site. Puncture proof tires with this guy in a thick overall suit cause the glass might fly up and cut him. Work boots and safety glasses or I don't know a shield. Work gloves and he's plowing through a heap of glass. Crazy tires you can drive through a junk yard of glass. Lol

 

I have thought of acquiring a pair of these although they are really rare in my country and I can't find them anywhere. Those could be useful since nowadays bike tires are really fragile and break way too easily. Anyone know how much a pair of these kind of tires would cost?