Every year the Asphalt Industry Alliance surveys local authority Highways Departments in England and Wales to provide a snapshot of the state of Britain's roads. The latest survey states that to provide a one-time fix of the potholes of England and Wales would cost £16.3 billion and take 10 years to complete. If you ride a bike this will not come as a surprise to you. A lot of our roads are terrible. Repairs are often just some tarmac thrown into a pothole, transforming a concave hazard into a convex one. Or worse, someone from the Council just sprays a yellow outline around the hole. It's enough to make you think that cyclists aren't welcome on the road, at least until you see the price that motorists are paying: £474 million per year. That's the cost of broken suspension, wheels and tyre damage. What these stats don't include is the damage to bicycles. And bikes ain't cheap.
Once upon a time £1,000 bought you the same bike that was winning the Tour de France. Today, you'll need to shell out five figures to have the same bragging rights. Cycling is an expensive hobby. For many cyclists buying upgrading components as they wear out is the norm. Buy what you can afford today and add some bling later. Probably the biggest upgrade you can give your bike is a set of carbon wheels and bettert tyres. Carbon wheels offer superior aerodynamics for less weight than a traditional box-rimmed aluminium wheelset. That's free speed for the same effort. But even a modest set of deep section wheels will set you back the better part of £1,000. That's a lot of money to be at the mercy of dodgy road surfaces.
Fortunately, whether you run inner tubes or a tubeless setup on your road bike, Tannus offer Armour inserts that will offer impact protection to your lovely carbon rims.
Armour with inner tubes
Tannus Armour can be used with inner tubes on tyres from 28mm width. It offers 15mm of impact and puncture protection beneath the tread of your own choice of tyre. If you're a die hard weight weenie the additional weight can be partially offset by the use of ultralightweight inner tubes, since there isn't much that will be penetrating that 15mm of puncture protection. For most of us the additional weight will have negligible negative effect on our riding. Do the maths. As a percentage of the mass of yourself and your bike, a tyre insert will probably be less than 0.01% of that total weight. In fact, wheel manufacturer Swiss Side analysed the data from a one hour circuit race and calculated that a 400g lighter wheel only saved 0.7 seconds due to isolated rotational inertia reduction (the bit attributable to weight rather than other factors such as wind resistance). With the addition of Tannus Armour you can also run lower pressures without worrying about your carbon rims being damaged. Lower pressures mean more grip, more comfort, and a more enjoyable ride.
New Tubeless Armour Lite
If you are running tubeless tyres on a newer road or gravel bike then the new Tannus Armour Lite offers 10mm of rim protection and weighs only 40g. That's about the same weight as a biscuit. Armour Lite is designed for tubeless tyres from 32mm width. Armour Lite will be available from May 2024.
Tyre inserts have become standard equipment for elite road and gravel racers. If people who don't have to pay for their own equipment, and who are obsessed with extracting the nth degree of performance from themselves and their bike, use inserts ask yourself why you aren't using them yourself. The minimal additional weight pales into comparison with the benefits that being able to run lower pressures brings. Add in the impact protection that might just save your carbon wheelset and it becomes a no-brainer. In fact we're so confident that you'll be impressed by Tannus Armour that we offer a full 60 day satisfaction guarantee.
