Ditto. Changing the tire solved my puncture cluster. "Once a year, or more" for me is an average, counting the punctures separately. Count them together, and it looks like a bit less than once a year, but it's marginal.
I put "don't ride a bike", but I certainly intend to be riding a bike soon, and therefore will note with interest whether or not I ought to learn how to do puncture repairs. (I think I'd be OK with sitting at the roadside and crying until someone helped about once or twice a year.)
But, saying that, I've done 36 hours of cycling ever, and have had a puncture. My first ever cycling experience was in the gardens of Versailles on a hired bike in the early eighties.
That was the BMX era, and I was used to how some of my friends rode their bikes up and down kerbs. Nobody told me you shouldn't ride a normal bike down a kerb like that — whoops.
I used to get them far more frequently when I was living in Chesterton and working at St John's Innovation Centre - eventually I gave up and got closed cell foam tyres (http://www.greentyre.co.uk/), which were horrible, but puncture proof. I haven't had a puncture for well over a year now though (using Marathon Plus (http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/shop.sfxp?page=product&id=1147&usmSID=888232-009-951) tyres, at least on one bike).
A better criterion: once per <mileage>. I used to get a puncture every couple of hundred miles, which was rubbish, then I swapped my racer for a mountain bike, and it dropped to once a thousand miles*. When I moved to London I took from my parents' place the racer they gave me for my twelfth birthday, and went back to having frequent punctures; but then I forked out for an Armadillo rear tyre. It was expensive, but worth it. I probably get well under one puncture per thousand miles on my rear tyre now, though my front tyre seems to be puncturing once every five hundred miles or so. I didn't think I needed a so resilient tyre on the front, as it's the rear that takes almost all the weight, but maybe I'm wrong.
* I used to do 1200 miles a year. I suspect it's a bit more now.
I'm in the "couple of times a year" camp, and do c 40-50 miles a week c 50 weeks a year. So that's around one in a thousand miles. Was similar on skinny tyres to the current slightly more substantial ones. Keeping them well pumped up helps I think. And replacing them when they get old.
You can reduce the frequency of punctures by getting thicker tyres (as on mountain bikes), but I don't think they are worth it. It only takes 5 minutes to fix a puncture, after all, whereas the pain of thick tyres is with you all the time.
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Date: 2005-09-02 01:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 01:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 02:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 02:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 02:15 pm (UTC)But, saying that, I've done 36 hours of cycling ever, and have had a puncture. My first ever cycling experience was in the gardens of Versailles on a hired bike in the early eighties.
That was the BMX era, and I was used to how some of my friends rode their bikes up and down kerbs. Nobody told me you shouldn't ride a normal bike down a kerb like that — whoops.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 02:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 03:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:02 pm (UTC)I haven't had a puncture for well over a year now though (using Marathon Plus (http://www.schwalbe.co.uk/shop.sfxp?page=product&id=1147&usmSID=888232-009-951) tyres, at least on one bike).
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 04:46 pm (UTC)* I used to do 1200 miles a year. I suspect it's a bit more now.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-02 10:02 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-09-05 07:46 pm (UTC)