PREVENT FLATS AND IMPROVE YOUR RIDE

Over the past decade, 29-inch wheels, bicycle-geometry evolution and improved suspension performance have increased the speed at which we ride our mountain bikes.

Meanwhile, gravel has us riding our unsuspended drop-bar bikes off the tar and onto rougher roads and trails. As a result, we’re hitting things harder, which takes a toll on our wheels and tyres.

We’ve also seen the widespread adoption of tubeless, the use of hookless rims, and the embrace of wider tyres. Brands constantly launch new wheels and tyres, claiming they’re the lightest, grippiest, toughest, fastest, or just bestest.

Along with noise about wheels and tyres is new momentum around something that’s neither a wheel nor a tyre, but that interacts with both: tyre inserts.

The modern iteration is a hoop of foam that lives inside a tubeless tyre. These inserts can fit all types of bikes, from road race bikes to downhill MTBs and everything in between and adjacent. For race use, inserts are most often seen inside the tyres of mountain-bike and gravel pros. There are some road races, however – the Spring Classics, and especially Paris-Roubaix – where an insert could be advantageous, as the roads in play are notoriously tough on tyres. Inserts can benefit everyone from the top pros to more casual riders.

The advantage that unifies most tyre inserts is flat protection. In a hard impact, an insert functions as a bump-stop, preventing the tyre’s casing from folding and bottoming against the rim (which often causes a pinch flat). This protection also cuts down on rim strikes that can dent aluminium rims or break a carbon one.