I recently had a trip to the Italian Alps at the end of the summer (September/October time), where I knew I would be inundated with punctures from big thorns in the country side, particularly when riding more cross country style rather than over the rocks. I am used to dealing with thorns – after all we have enough brambles in England and riding cross country particularly down not well used paths often leads to the odd puncture here or there. I find having the tyre pumped up hard (35-40 PSI) really helps and I generally use Schwalbe’s Nobby Nics in the winter and Kenda’s Small Block 8 tyres in the summer. I have found that by running higher pressures allows me to use a lighter inner tube (Schwalbe, Geax, Vittoria, etc) and generally only get a puncture once or twice per hundred miles. Read on for my review of the Michelin C4 Protek tube.. More »