Pushing Mammoth

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Tags

chriscross, Clement, Hetres, Hunqapillar, mso, Oregon Outback, rivendell, schwalbe, Stan's, thunder burt, Toussaint, tubeless, wtb

After a thousand miles using the Clement MSO tires, and an unfortunate rim shredding with forgotten brake pads, it was time to rebuild my wheels. I really like the Clements, so they will likely go back on after the Oregon Outback, but the bike is built for bigger tires, and I have a couple bikes that are lighter and more roadish. This is a mountain bike at heart.

I did a bit of research and decided to try out WTB ChrisCross rims. They seemed to be a good combination of strength and weight, and had the requisite black look I was wanting for this bike. They luckily happened to be the same ERD (604mm) as the outgoing Velocity Synergies, so I was able to try out the rim swap trick re-using the old, perfectly good spokes.

Rim swap – tape, loosen, and start switching rims!

As I’ve had good luck with tubeless Hetres on my Toussaint, and I definitely want to avoid flats with the bigger tires on the long trips, I built these up sans-tube. I only had the thin Stans tape that just covered the spoke holes. The tires I picked for these guys are the Schwalbe Thunder Burts. They are tubeless-ready tires, but fit the rims rather loosely. I knew I would need extra tape, but it took two additional layers. I used one round of Gorilla tape on one rim, but I had to trim it to fit in the well. I went over it with a round of vinyl tape that worked so well, I just used the vinyl twice round on the other wheel.

Finished Wheel

Once I had a few layers built up, the tires popped in with the air compressor, and I added Stans for a fully loaded tubeless wheel. I had to re-adjust the fenders back out 10mm to take into account the expanded diameter of the new wheel. Until I got the tires on, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to run with fenders over these giant tires. I’m still wary, as new knobbies tend to pick up lots of debris, but the first ride was uneventful.

Mammoth Mode

The new tires are definitely beefy. Reminds me of that big off-road mountain bike feel I fell in love with in ’91 when I re-discovered off-road riding. They appear to ride really smoothly on asphalt, and they soak up the bumps even better than the Hetres on my other bike. In the tubeless config, they likely weigh in the same neighborhood, too! Hetres: 412g + tube (150g) compared to Thunder Burts: 435g.

First ride with Burts

Now I just need a few more long dirt rides to sort this guy out. The bars feel pretty far out – this guy has a long top-tube, and drops accentuate the reach. Once I get it dialed in, the tape will go on and the mammoth will be ready for new adventure.

Image

Europe

15 Sunday Mar 2015

Tags

europe, glasgow, london, oban, scotland, stockholm

I’ve been away from the blogging lately due to a heavy work schedule. I have missed the first few rides with SIR this year, as well. I’ve been commuting a few times weekly, and plan to up that as I get my Hunqapillar set up for the Oregon Outback.

I was in Europe a few weeks back on work meetings, and managed to get to Scotland for a weekend vacation. From a flight into Glasgow, I hired a car and drove to Oban to stay at a bed and breakfast for 2 nights. I didn’t get any biking in, but did a lot of walking about. The main draw for me was the landscape and whisky distillery.

I managed to get a few bike pics in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the only place I noticed much biking. The weather was quite mild in early March – I had assumed it would be frozen and snowy, but it seems not unlike home.

I also noticed a few mail carriers using bikes.

As for London – more cars than ever it seems. I met a few friends who biked to the local pub, but I only noticed a few bikers braving the busy city streets. They seemed to be very comfortable getting close to traffic – just not as much room on the streets there. One of these days I’ll have to rent a bike and do a bit of cycling. The roads are inviting – especially the less busy rural roads of Scotland.