bike - tubes

30 punctures in 3 wheels in one easy go. Thorns.

You can get em.

Even just getting one puncture in the rear tyre can be a pain.

Take off the rear panniers, then the trailer, let down the tyre to get it past the brake pads, take off the wheel, repair, then reassemble.

There’s 2 preventative measures to avoid this situation.

Slime, or its liquid latex equivalents, works for a while. But once you get a bigger hole it seems impossible to patch satisfactorily. The Slime seems incompatible with the patch glue and after a short while any patch leaks.

Thornproof tubes are a better bet. The tubes are about 4 times thicker than a standard tube. In conjunction with a decent tyre they do a reasonable job in hindering thorn penetration. 5000kms without a puncture is pretty reasonable.

Most replacement tubes for 26” wheels in Australia come with a Schraeder, or car tyre, valve. You can generally pick up a no-name brand thornproof in any country town or Kmart.

A 700 tube is less available away from the major towns, thornproof or not.

Be prepared.