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The last few years I've been killing tires left right and center, front and back. I'm not a huge guy, 180lbs and yea my line choice could be better, but I can't seem to not pinch flat tire casings all day every day, even in seemingly innocent moments where I'm at a total loss as to what happened. It's gotten to the point where I did a through and though on a rock at the bead and at the tread with a double down aggressor and a tannis insert at 26psi. I'll be moving to cushcore this year to help since the tannis didn't quite cut it, but at this point if I'm not cutting side walls, is there a point to running more than exo+ in the rear? I'm too old to fix my line choice and of I can lighten the wheels a bit of be happy.
I would also recommend going to a real tire insert like cushcore. I ran the tannus inserts for a while but after taking them out I didn't notice any appreciable difference.
I've done some experimentation with tires in the past year and I have found the maxxgrip tires feel really good. back to back with the maxxterra tires, the softer rubber feels way more stable. Even to the point that I could run my tires 3 or 4 psi higher without losing any traction. With that said there are definitely some downsides to using softer tires.
Inserts, particularly ones like Cushcore and tannus that provide some level of sidewall support can be very deceiving about the level of actual protection they provide at lower pressures. Many people gauge "my pressure is too low" by casing roll when cornering. Well, inserts with sidewall support prevent casing roll. They also (obviously) cushion rim impacts so it's much harder to tell when you are experiencing rim impacts which can result in casing pinches. Many people dont realize this until they either pinch, damage/crack a rim or pull out their cushcore and see an ungodly number of pinch marks on the insert.
Long story short, if you are getting frequent pinch flats (either at the bead hook interface or on the casing between knobs) then you are not running enough air for the casing you are using. Moar air or heavier casing.
Also: Digital guage used BEFORE every ride. Ive gotten to a point where I know how much pressure I can run if I want to take hack lines and not flat vs how much I can run if I want to eek out more traction but potentially pay the price if I come up short or pick a bad line.
So I'm for sure doing cush core but would prefer not to do DD or DH casing of I'm floating the weight of the cushcores as well.
I am an old enough to remember reading interviews with Overend and Tomac talking about how they thought it was silly that their competitors got so many flats in races because they could not figure out how to pump up their tires enough. I know the technology has changed but the point still stands in my mind.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, going to cook the pressure up a bit more and see if it works out with the cushcore and some exo+
I run both my ebike and enduro bike with exo+ and cushcore pro in the rear, xc in the front.
I weigh 85kg. Running 23psi in the back and 17-19 in the front. Riding 4-5 times a week. Maybe average 3000m descending and get about 2-3 tyre cuts a year.
And those are normally so bad, that the rim is dented and has a flat spot.
The trails in Nelson NZ are very rocky, loads of sharp edges and roots.
And tbh, most my friends are similar.
Are some riders just heavy and slam their bikes through stuff instead of working the ground?
We all know the one rider who disproportionately smashes gear.
Are you that one?
This is all with riding about 3 times a week March through October. Usually I average about 40-50 miles a week.
I ride dh tires in my hardtail and dd on my spire. Cushcore xc upfront and pro in rear. I ride 30 plus psi in the rear on the hardtail If I’m going anywhere With a lot of rocks. At my budget with my riding style/skill there is no reason to not have beefy equipment that lasts over lighter equipment which may be a few seconds faster on a dh or be a little easier on a climb.
30psi in the back was the necessary solution for me. Find the pressure where you don’t flat anymore and then you can start slowly reducing it and trying CushCore etc.
Another thing to consider… I found that if I rode flat pedals I tended to be heavier on my back wheel as I am generally a bit slower at lifting my rear wheel compared to when riding cleats. Maybe bad technique or whatever, but it is what it is…
Learning how to weight and unweight the wheels at specific points in the trail also makes a big difference to slamming your back wheel into things
I primarily ride lift accessed trails, or pedal up to those same trails if the lifts are closed. The area's I ride at around Quebec tend to be pretty rocky, with a lot of exposed bedrock and square edges. I've been running Michelin DH tires, with CushCore XC on Flow EX3's. I run around 26/30psi F/R depending on the conditions and where I'm riding. I've gotten my mitts on a set of carbon rims for this season (because NQA), so I'll be popping a CushCore Pro in the back and trying to see if I can get down to about 27psi in the rear without trashing the rim.
I agree with a lot of the commentary about the limitations of the insert/light tire solution- if you ride rocky trails and you're punching holes in your tires, I don't think a tire insert is going to be the solution for you. I think you'll either need to go with DH tires or more tire pressure or both. Cushcore prevents tire roll and protects your rims, but they can't protect your tire casing. EXO and DD tires run a 120tpi casing, which is supple and thin, and that's just never going to protect you from rocks. The double layering of 60tpi casings on a downhill tire is much more likely to survive sharp rocks.
I ditched cuschore this year just to see if I could notice the difference, so far my FR560 is straight and dent free.
You don't realize how much a cuschore saves your wheels until you take it off, it looks like a rat has been chewing on it, supposedly every nibble is a rim strike of sorts!
I switched to Schwalbe SG tires, since I couldn't sustain the tire replacement costs, and the casing felt like a stiff combat boot compared to a supple Maxxis trail running shoe kind of feel. Thankfully, the tire seems to break in and feel more compliant. I still seem to get hit-or-miss quality from Schwalbe, though, with ripped off side knobs and an occasional tire with "herpes".
Stan's Dart came to market after I had become fed up with other plugs letting my Minion tires down (dynaplug and bacon strip types). I heard good things about them saving tires and rides.
I'm also a Cush Core user, but I use them more for the vibration damping up front, moreso than for tire/rim protection. Calming that chattery vibrations that would make me death grip and drag brakes... this is a huge benefit that has made arm pump a thing of the past for me.
I'll add a +1 for a touch more pressure in the back and a lighter insert like the Tannus for a bit of insurance. At my 165 weight, I roll 23-25 psi on those same trails and try to pick smooth[er] lines when possible.
Now that I’m running different tires, I’m having almost no flats even though I’m on 2.4 trail casings that are ~300 grams lighter per tire. The real giveaway was only needing 1-2psi more than I was on the Maxxis dh stuff (talking wt 2.5 or 2.4 here).
Also, thanks to everyone to all the responses so far, it's hard to reply to everyone per post, but they've been great.
The unfortunate fact is that if you aren’t willing to fix your riding/line choice, the only solutions are heavier more robust wheels, whether it is casing or inserts or both
Supergrav/DD or DH casing if you need. PRO tip: fresh downhill casing rear tire before any vacation to unseen territory.
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