Enough with the flat tires already!!!

[OakLeaf]

She said she had 2K on her front tire. I easily get 3500 from a front, and I typically replace mine well before it's down to the wear indicators.

Two thousand on a rear would be getting towards the end of its life, IME. On a front, azfiddle is perfectly justified in her frustration!

[azfiddle]

I appreciate the suggestions and cautions.

Enlighten me about wear indicators, if you would be so kind, since I don't have that much experience.

I have been riding just over 2 years, and after my encounters with goat's heads in fall of 2009, I switched to gatorskins on my old bike. I am taking off the original (Specialized) front tire from my Ruby (March 2011, about 2200 miles), but I completely mangled the rear tire not that long after I got it, and have had a trouble-free experience with the gatorskin on the back.

I will give some thought to the liners.

[OakLeaf]

Not all bici tires have wear indicators. The GP4000 is the first tire I've used that has them. I don't know about the rest of the rest of their line. On those, it's just two little sunken dots kind of offset from each other, one closer to the centerline and one closer to the sidewall.

(The other thing about the GP4000 is that they have directional tread, but the difference in the tread pattern is subtle, and the arrow on the sidewall is really hard to see. They've gotten installed backwards more than once after a roadside flat, both by "helpers" and by myself. If I remember, I write over the directional arrow with a silver Sharpie when I install a new tire. Again, I'm not sure whether all of their road tires are directional or not.)

[azfiddle]

Tire update... the new front tire is doing just fine.

Today, however, today the back tire went flat as I neared the end of a ride. I couldn't find any sharp objects or obvious cause but it has a few nicks and cuts than I remembered. I'm just going to retire it today, especially as my DH alerted me to the fact that there is a brand new tire just hanging in the store room, waiting for a friendly rim.

[PinkBike]

really coincidental you should bring this up. DH and I were commenting about all the flats we've had recently and I have my own theory. They seem to have heightened since the Big Haboob, and I think a lot of stuff was sent into the street from the desert.

[azfiddle]

Pink Bike, the general consensus in Tucson is that the monsoon tends to wash a lot of junk into the streets and flats are more common. I am looking forward to a nice, flat-free period now with 2 brand new tires.