hi all
planning a trip to Africa soon ,
my nightmare is flat tires ,specially when I'm loaded ,
i need to know the best way to get the best from the inner tube for my Honda Africa twin
i used slime before ,
heard of mousse ,and other things
so what is the best to avoid as much to have a puncture,
i found the heavy duty tubes are so hard (at least for me ) to fit the tire side of the road and i had more punctures with it than the normal type of tubes
cheers and ride safe all of you

I've heard that thick tubes are a problem because they heat up too much. I wouldnt think they are harder to fit,though. Maybe I'm wrong here....

Ive used Slime stuff and it was effective but made any larger hole difficult to repair. But I certainly got less punctures.

Get thick heavy duty tubes. Forget that "heat up" bullsh*t. They resist damage better and they're also easier to repair and work with.

Forget slime. It won't stop anything but the TINIEST puncture in a tube and it makes a friggin mess everywhere and makes patches impossible to patch.

I find heavy duty tubes EASIER to change. You can be a *little* rougher with them.

It's all technique. It's not an easy job. Practice practice practice. There are lots of videos on youtube

The best advice I can give you is to get A LOT of HIGH QUALITY patches and at least three tubes of glue (they split and dry up- Dont get stranded). Get some good levers too. A valve key is essential too.

I think these are BRILLIANT. I haven't nicked a tube since I started using them.

Sealey VS1818 Deluxe Tyre Lever 300mm | eBay


I once had 15 punctures in one day whilst in Tanzania. I had a high quality heavy duty tube which was wrecked in a big blow out (nothing to do with the tube). After that I was stuck with cheap tubes and more punctures than I care to remember.

If you haven't got a centre stand on your bike... GET ONE NOW !!

Also, a quality 12v pump will make life easy. I have a 'cyclepump"

http://www.zenoverland.com/tools/cyc...adventure.html

Those crappy £5 pumps are asthmatic and are a bit of a lottery.

Fingers crossed you won't get a single puncture..... You can go months without one and then like me, get 15 in a day.

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Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Mousse is ONLY used for rallies and get changed every day - and are not good for high speeds - they ar NOT for you.

Heavy duty innertubes are made thick to prevent damage from pinching when you let out the air to ride offroad. The thicker tube does not in any way prevent punctures from thorns or other foreign objects that are able to work their way through the tire. However, if you have a rim which is full of rust and debris, I would immagine that you would have more to go on when it comes to chaffing - then again, your rims should be clean anyways.

Maybe also you reduce the risk of destroying a tube when changing it - i.e. from pinching it with the tire irons. I however pinched and punctured my heavy duty innertube the last time I changed the tire, so the heavy duty was no help to me here.

As for the overheating of thicker tubes, the argument makes sense, but I am not so sure if there is any significant difference the way most overlanders ride. Maybe if you ride higher speeds for long periods of time, on scorching hot pavement... like 140 km/h???

This summer I rode my f650gs 2.000 kms in two days (France-Germany), most of it at 110 to 120 km/h - using heavy duty tubes (max comfy speed of the f650gs with loaded panniers). I set off with a tire that had way too little air in them to begin with (The bike had been sitting for ages so the leak was likely very slow, I had no pump, and I was racing agianst the clock - stupid and reckless, I know). Upon my arrival, my tire was completely flat. I pumped it up and rode arround with it for another couple of weeks having used tire repair on a can - but it still leaked quarter a bar every 24h. When I finally came arround to change the tube I found there was a leak where the valve was attached to the tube - which I assume had been the culprit all along, but which had been made worse from the fast riding at low pressure. So, if an old leaky heavy duty tube, can hold up with very low pressure, at 120 km/h, for 2.000 kms., it is good enough for me, and I don't give a damn about the over heating argument - my top cruising speed is 120 km/h anyways.

As for Tanzania. I had two sets of tubes in Tanzania, a regular and heavy duty one that I would rotate whenever I punctured, whic was often. But all the punctures was from all the thorns and other foreign objects that would slowly work their way through the tire. This year I rode from Spain to Bissau, some of it offroad with low tire pressure, all with regular tubes, and I only got one flat.

I allways change tubes when I change tires. I now ended up ordering regular tubes - simply because they could be shipped faster than the thick ones (not in stock). Regulars are always more readily available and are cheaper, so it would be best if these were good for the job (which is my hunch). I will now try the regulars for a while and see how it goes, but I will still bring heavy duty as a spare. My gut feeling tells me that they will do great, even off road with low tire pressure.

So what should you choose, regular or heavy duty? I really don't think it matters much. Maybe regulars are better as allround tubes in Africa, maybe not??? Go with whatever makes you feel most confident. For me, that is having heavy duty on the bike, and regulars as a spare. I don't feel more confident that the heavy duty will puncture less easy (except maybe if I ride offorad with low pressures for a long time). But, I feel more confident that the heavy duty tube may hold up a little better for repairs, if it went flat and I had to ride with it for a little while, or if I didn't notice that it was flat when riding offroad.

That much said I wouldn't be the least bit concerned riding off with just regulars - as I am doing now.

I just Read Lois Pryce's book Red Tape and White Knuckles - she rode straight through the center of Africa and had zero flats - she used heavy duty tubes.

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There's 3 types (maybe even more), the standard 1mm tube, the 'cross' or heavy duty 3mm, and the UHD (ultra heavy duty) 4mm tube, which I'm using now.
I find the UHD, branded Continental and difficult to find, a bit difficult to fit, but I'm well pleased with them. I drove 32000 km through Africa so far, and not one single flat. Even drove them at 1 bar for 1500 km in the DRC.

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Now, that is one strong argument in favour of UHDs from a reputable manufacturer! Still, can we attibute no punctures to this tube or would a regular tube have held up the same?

Your choice of tire has probably far greater impact on punctures than your choice of innertubes, as is having an immaculate rim interior, and making sure you do not damage the tube even a tiny bit when you fit it... well, that is just my guess anyhow. Therefore, it would be of great interest to hear what type of tires you have fitted and their condition. Also, do you use a rim lock, and how do you secure your valve when riding with low pressure, etc?

Some tires I've used just seem to eat sharp objects, letting them work their way slowly through the carcas/thread to the point where they start chaffing or cutting the tube rather than puncturing it, until you, for no apparent reason, get a sudden blow out after hours on a perfect stretch of new spotless tarmac, doing 70 km/h. It happened to my pal on our last trip. Hours before, after riding fast on desert hot tarmac for a long time, we had parked on the shoulder with fiery hot tires. The shoulders is a typical place where small pieces of glass lurks in the sand and dirt. Our hunch was that the softened rubber ate a piece of glass, that later worked itsway in in the ever softer rubber as we continued on our fast ride on the desrt hot tarmac.

Funny thing, I think all my flats have occurred on tarmac - never on gravel or offroad. Even after I have taken into account the fraction of tarmac vs no tarmac, I should still have had some flats. Why is this? I am thinking that heat has something to do with it. Tarmac gets extremely hot, and when you ride fast - your tires and tubes get soft and vulnerable.

I'm no expert, but I would assume that a tire's ability to dispipate heat, or not get hot in the first place, has a great impact. Radial vs Bias? Rougness of thread? Hardness of rubber? Ammount and type of reinforcement in the tire? Number of plies of rubber and reinforcement? Weight and ammount of material in the tyre? Tyre pressure? Etc. It would be really interewsting to have a tire expert comment these things - and by that, I don't mean a dealer - but by some tire engineer or something.

My gut says that dual sport knobbies, or offroad tires, are less puncture prone:

Here is an article that may support my claim: http://www.off-road.com/trucks-4x4/t...cle-19432.html

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I certainly dont mind a robust difference of opinion - but I´d prefer it if you didnt scream "bullshit", even if this is something you know well.

¡"15 punctures a day" is an interesting outcome to your ideas on this topic! GIGO?

You could pick up some useful info from Wheelie´s very good post. And I´d say that the levers you use are far too long, encouraging tyre damage; they´re a bit of a gimmick. The handle is unnecessary and would be better with a normal profile.

Hey buddy... It was no offence to you. I hadn't even seen your post let alone your comment about the tubes heating up.. Saawwwy

Levers are a very personal thing. I probably own every type imaginable. I've used them all A LOT. Spoons are no gimmick. They've been around from the beginning. I find them lovely to put the tyre back on. I actually use a combination of one smaller motion-pro lever to get them off too. Having a lever with good grippy handle helps a lot too. Especially if it's cold and your hands are sweaty or it's raining. Frozen *heat transfer* fingers and skinned knuckles anyone ??

As for tyre damage. I believe they cause less. The smooth 'spoon' rolls the bead nicely over the top and spreads the load. In my experience, it's the smaller 'pointy' levers that tear rubber off the bead.

But hey.. Horses for courses.

15 punctures a day in Tanzania. They weren't mine. They were my riding buddies that I fixed for him. Along with countless others. Standard BMW tubes on his F650gs. I only got one flat that day on my HD's. We were riding thorn bush hedged roads. It's almost impossible not to get a flat on them.

I think I fixed near to 100 punctures on mine and mostly other peoples bike while in Africa. The tubes and patches are always cheap crap from Asia. They puncture like water balloons and the patches and glue are also bicycle stuff. They're not heavy duty enough.

Quality counts...

__________________
Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

hi famous touring Ted ,thanks a lot for your usefully information ,
well i had 34 puncture in my trip from Cape town to Cairo
used Slime , heavy duty inners ,and i hit a rock damaged totally my front tire ,
thought in the past 2 years something new came to the market
i do have a cycle pump too the one you used with hand and it works well
i do have acenter stand ,i didn't have one in my last trip cross Africa and it was so hard to find the right rock to put it under all by my self in middle of no where most of the time
but thats how i learn
thanks again Ted
cheers and greetings from Egypt

Omar - 32 punctures - fantastic!

Stories of hardship and coming through is part of making this pass time of ours so exiting - knowing that things can go seriously pear shaped and that perseverance will not only get you through, but help make the adventure...

I bet this was one of the more memorable parts of your trip, for good and for bad. While you hope for better luck next time, it was part of making the adventure and sense of acheivement so great, I am sure.

I bet you are a devil at changing tires now. What's your best time? I mean, with changes this frequent, you could potentially have been able to shave off a a minute or two every time. With tire changes this fast, burning rubber gets a whole new meaning - swish, swoosh, done!

And, now you will probably invest in the best repair kit on earth, center stand, etc... and probably never have a flat again.

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