Pinch Flats on Heavy Rear Wheels

[greenmug]

I have a 29er setup with Rohloff hub. I'm plagued by pinch flats and I'm looking for experience/tips to reduce the hours spent swearing at the side of the trail.

Firstly, I expect the very heavy wheel to have some effect and so I pump up the tube to high pressure.
The worst place for them are the stone built water channels that diagonally cross maintained paths. Although I've had some rolling over sharper rocks.

1) I'm wondering if others with a heavy rear end (oh err) either because of gear hub or maybe panniers have had similar problems.

2) Secondly is there a dramatic reduction in pinch flats with high quality tubes?

3) Any other changes/tips that would reduce pinch flats when running heavy?

Many thanks

[Bearbonesnorm]

Tubeless will solve all your problems

[ericrobo]

I've had tubeless on my Scott Genius since Nov 2013 - no punctures ..yet ! And the bike became 2lbs lighter.
Tubeless also on my Cannondale Flash since March 2014... no punctures except after sweeping down a little local path fast with plenty of brambles/cuttings I noticed some white 'liquid' coming out of the front tyre. I'm told by my bike shop it was a puncture, which sealed instantly. Didn't lose pressure.
On this Cannondale the wheels are DT tubeless ready, but on a few occasions I have hit rocks where the tyre must have forced slightly off the rim and I needed to inflate a bit... last week riding in the Dales I hit an awkward rut and came off heavily, and had to pump the tyre up.

On the Scott this has never happened. Wheels are Stan's No Tubes.

[composite]

Tubeless for sure.

I have had one puncture in the last year that didn't seal. I'm not using tubeless rims or tubeless intended tyres and don't even use Stans tape just some inch wide gorilla tape. Only "proper" tubeless thing I use is the sealant.

[Mart]

Tubeless will solve all your problems

I run an Alfine and Tubeless : never had a problem

[Chew]

Prevention vs Cure

If your main cause is water ditches then you probably want to look at your technique. If you're coming from a FS background it would have been easier to get away with clattering through things, whereas without the suspension a little more finesse may be needed?
Either learn to bunny hop them, slow right down to roll over them, or if you're heavily laden get of and carry across.

If you're hitting an object that hard that its hitting the rim to cause a pinch flat, the problem will remain. You might get away with it more being tubeless but you'll just end up with a load of dinted rims (making tubeless harder as well)

[mountainbaker]

Learn to lift your back wheel over obstacles for sure. And tubless also.

[Zippy]

Quick note from a tubes perspective. I have a trek fuel ex circa 2010, with 26" wheels and bonty rhythmn wheels. I was clattering along over rocky sharp things at a trail centre with some friends when I punctured on the rear - was a pinch. So popped a new tube in and got on with the ride, only to pinch again, and then again when I nicked someone elses tube coz I;d ran out.

Turns out, with my wide-ish tyres, I did need the big fat tubes in it to stop pinching, the little skinny ones did pinch more - too much in fact and I had to buy fat tubes specifically even though I had 10 x spare standard width 26" tubes.

My rear tyre is now worn out, so I'm going tubeless with a new tyre when I get around to it

[Ray Young]

If your running high pressures and still getting regular pinch flats on water bars and sharper edged rocks then I'd say you are hitting them too hard. Slow down and pick the best line you can or even stop and walk it, slows you down yes but faster and less annoying in the long run.

[composite]

Prevention vs Cure

Tubeless is both prevention and cure.

[Chew]

Tubeless is both prevention and cure.

The point I (and others) were trying to make is that pinchflats can be pretty much avoided by changing riding style (prevention)

Trying to cure it by just switching to tubeless will reduce pinch flats but if you're still clattering through obstacles you're still going get rim/rock incidents. You may avoid pinch flats, but still risk denting rims which while tubeless will have the same effect (if not worse).

[composite]

Tubeless is both prevention and cure.

The point I (and others) were trying to make is that pinchflats can be pretty much avoided by changing riding style (prevention)

Trying to cure it by just switching to tubeless will reduce pinch flats but if you're still clattering through obstacles you're still going get rim/rock incidents. You may avoid pinch flats, but still risk denting rims which while tubeless will have the same effect (if not worse).

I understand the point, I missed out the on the previous post.

[AlasdairMc]

I'll add my vote to tubeless. Bear in mind though if you've had a load of pinch flats already, check the rims to make sure there are no dents before you try to seal the tyre - tubeless will stop punctures but it's useless if the rim has a dent that the bead can't seal around.

[paramart]

Tubeless will solve all your problems

I run an Alfine and Tubeless : never had a problem

apart from the blowout in wales,

[jameso]

I used to notice this when I was first riding an MTB with Alfine, then more so on an Alfined CX bike. Tubeless will help but Chew's right it'll just mean dented rims if there's no adaptation in your riding. I'd look at the rim and tyre choice too. Rims are harder to replace but a rim like a Flow, or wider ideally, will give any tyre a bigger contact patch and a less balloon-shaped tyre profile. So what you could then do is use the same pressures and have a similar feel but gain more resistance to pinches. Proper UST tyres have stiffer sidewalls also and that helps - something like a Racing Ralph is light but the paper-thin sidewalls are much more prone to folding and many 'TLR' tyres aren't much better.

[Mart]

Tubeless will solve all your problems

I run an Alfine and Tubeless : never had a problem

apart from the blowout in wales,

Wasnt so much of a pich flat though, it was more a 2 finger hole in the tyre

[FLV]

I have a rohloff 29er on a blunt.

I still hit things harder with the back wheel when 'going for it' a bit. Tubless certainly stops a lot of pinch flats but I use a biggish volume tyre too (ardent 2.4) and certainly adjust my style a little compared to riding my SS with similar rim / tyre.

So I guess I agree with everyone. Go tubeless, tweak your style a little to counter the rear weight.

[VeganGraham]

Another Rohloff 29er tubeless rider here.
I really don't see how you could blame this on the Rohloff.
It's the overall weight on the tyre that increases the risk of pinch flats, assuming everything else is equal. having a hub that weighs 1kg is no worse than having 1kg in a saddle pack.

[greenmug]

Thanks all for your replies. Its really great to get a range of experiences and reassuring that there is a general consensus.

Tubeless kit ordered. Looking forward to a workshop evening full of faff and goo.