And up until around the beginning of this year, the number of punctures I had was maybe one or two, to be expected given that with the Marathon Plus tyre, punctures are supposed to be a "thing of the past". I'm sure I've done several thousand miles, including some of my longest daytrips - say, 60 miles without any problems.
But over the past two months - it's been one flat after another - I counted 6 in the same number of weeks; interestingly enough, it seems to have coincided with me consistently checking once a week that my tyres were at recommended pressures...I did think that maybe I was being a bit careless with attaching the pump and damaging the valve or something because I couldn't make out any punctures in the inner tube and on at least one occasion, I got a flat 1-2 days after making sure the tyre was pumped to the right pressure.
The latest one (on the front - 5/6 were on the front) happened when I was cycling to the shops in my lunch hour; having no pump (complacent because of the "puncture proof" tyres) and thinking I could ride the short distance on a flat, I tried before the tyre actually started to come off! I put in another inner tube at home, and pumped it up to the 80psi recommended pressure. I go upstairs when I hear a loud bang. Evidently, riding with a flat tyre had deformed the tyre so it wouldn't stay attached to the wheel and the inner tube bulged out of the gap and burst!
Anyway, enough was enough and I bought another tyre and inner tube. The tyre isn't a Marathon Plus, but a Bikehut (Halfords own brand) puncture resistant tyre. Still quite expensive at £25. I also thought I would buy a self sealing inner tube (also quite expensive at £7.99) for it, the first time I've bought one. It's got this milky resin liquid in it which is supposed to seal any holes in the inner tube up to 3mm wide.
Here's to some puncture free cycling! (I hope!).
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