[Yak] tire pressure as a function of tire width and weight

[Vik Banerjee]

I would never use M+s [my time is too valuable to ride that slow!], but I have never had a flat in several thousand KMs on my two bikes with XRs. I've got 2 bikes with GS Scorchers and never had a flat in a couple thousand KMs combined on those bikes. The Scorchers do all their mileage downtown in the city vs. the XRs see lots of highway touring KMs so I actually think they have an easier life.

Given their construction I won't be surprised if I get more flats/km in my lifetime on the Scorchers than the XRs, but the Scorchers are so much faster I will still die with many bonus minutes in my pocket vs. XRs even after fixing a few flats.

A flat takes me 5mins to fix so I can live with a handful a year and that seems like a better trade than riding slow tires 24/7.

I had the same initial thought about putting flatproof tires on the GF's commuter bike, but decided against for two reasons 1) she is a low power rider and cannot afford to go significantly slower and 2) even M+s get flats so it's better to teach her how to fix a flat and make her independent than adversely affect every minute of riding she does to "protect her".

She's coming up on 9 months of near daily commuting on fast comfy tires and has only had two flats. Even if she ends up with 4 flats per year that's a good trade for significantly faster ride times and increased comfort on the bike.

safe riding,

Vik Banerjee
threeohm at gmail.com
www.thelazyrando.com

On 2011-04-05, at 3:58 PM, Daniel Santamaria wrote:

> i've done about 15,000kms on marathon XRs and marathon pluses. had two flats in that entire time. 
> 
> got some scorchers, had 3 flats in 300kms. 
> 
> scorchers are a great ride though. for me, i'll keep using the scorchers on the nwt because they ride so nice. i don't mind fixing flats so much. on the wifes bike, i'll keep marathons on there. because if she gets a flat, i'll get a phone call to come fix it! so far with her marathon pluses, she has not had a flat. 
> 
> D