Armouring a Bicycle Tire for Final Puncture Protection.

Puncture protection tires are available (quite expensive) which have either an inlay of thick elastic material or a web of strong fibres. Liners can also be placed between the tire and the tube. An alternative to buy one of this products is to cut the bead of old tires and mount them as liners inside of the tires to be protected. Check this site for more information: http://bicycling.about.com/od/bikemaintenance/a/avoiding_flats.htm

All these systems give some amount of protection. However, a piece of glass that is big enough will make his way through any of the above protections. I propose you here a cheap and hopefully effective alternative. Of course this armouring increases rolling resistance and weight. However, these effects cannot be noticed in my 20 inches folding bicycle and I really don't care.

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Material needed:

- old tires, thinner than the tires to be protected,
- self-retracting tape measure;
- an old brake cable

Step 1:

Cut the bead of the old tires.

Step 2:

Cut the tape. The length should be a bit longer that the diameter of the tire, the extremities will overlap.

Step 3:

Cut the central knobs in order to make place for the tape. It may also work if you ignore this step.

Step 4:

Separate one wire from the cable.

Step 5:

Sew the tape to the old tire knobs with the wire. Alternatively you may try with dental floss or some other strong yarn, but it risk to be cut by the tape.

Step 6:

Place the old tire inside the tire to be protected.

Step 7:

Mount the tire and the tube in the wheel and inflate.

The tire is formed even without air. With an strong tape or many metres of tape it would even be possible to cycle without air at all!