Tires, tubes, and pumps - oh my!

Everyone who has done any road riding - especially in New Mexico, land of the goat head - has had to change a tire on a ride.  It will happen to everyone, if not you, then you will probably be next.  That shouldn't stop you though, changing tires is pretty easy once you practice a few times.

Goat heads - they are everywhere!

Every Penultimate has some magic combination that makes their tubes stay inflated in the particularly difficult .  What works for them has been honed from a combination of anecdote and data.  I can say that probably most of our riders have a some sort of combination of the following: thorn proof tires, thorn proof tubes, tire liners, and tube sealant.

There are many combinations/brands out there, talk to your local shop to get their recommendations or talk to your fellow riders.  Me personally, I use Orange sealant on my tubeless tires, with a backup tube prepped with Stan's tube sealant.  I have an old fashioned pump (Road Morph G).  On my previous bike, I used a thorn proof tires (Armadillos) with regular tubes prepped with Stan's.  In 6 years of commuting and training I had one flat, and not while I was riding (exploded in the heat while parked in the sun at work).

Another thing to double check, is to make sure that your spare tube that you carry (you all carry one right?) is functional.  Just like the spare in our cars that we all (never) check, we should probably be better at checking our spare tubes too.

Along the same lines, Mr. Miyagi (Jeff) put together a quick list of things to bring on every ride in addition to food and drink.  I think it is a pretty good list:

Seat bag

Pump or CO2

Extra tube

Patch kit

Tire levers

Mini tool

ID

Money

sunscreen

Cell phone