@Chico, Thanks for your thoughts and you are right that it’s not the only reason for the change. Before consigning the wheel-on to history my plan had been to try a few more things but the timing of this most recent puncture was just the straw that broke the camels back!
Interesting that you have had similar experience. The main tyre in question is a continental trainer tyre which has been examined very carefully other things I have tried include:
- Replace tyre with a cheap road tyre, plus brand new tube and rim tape. Worked for a while then punctured
- Put the trainer tyre back on, plus new tube. Punctures after a variable time, punctures are in different locations and again careful examination of everything
- Make sure everything has talcum powder on it
- Make sure nothing has talcum powder on it(!)
- Different brands of inner tube
- Two layers of rim tape
The rim is a Mavic MA2 which has never been used outside and is in perfect condition. The last option I was going to try was a well used spare Campag Scriocco rear wheel I have - that may have cured things and perhaps there is something odd going on with the Mavic wheel. I will probably never know!
The most recent install held pressure for a couple of days unused, completed a 1 hour ride OK, sat for a couple more days holding pressure, I topped back up to 100PSI and punctured somewhere near the end of a 1 hour ride.
I have now ordered a Shimano HG400 9 Speed 11-25 cassette - I’ll report back once I’ve got it all set up on the Kickr Core (which I don’t have yet). Going from largest to smallest I think the HG400 has a single block of 5 sprockets, then two individual sprockets with spacers then two sprockets that interlock (then the lock ring). If need be there is some scope for adjusting the spacing.