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Tag Archives: Hetre

Tubeless vs. Staple

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

flat tire, Hetre, hetre EL, Stan's, Toussaint, tubeless, Velo Routier


BH-1.jpg

After about 6 months of riding my Velo Routier on tubeless Hetre ELs, it was time to “change the fluid”. I wasn’t sure how long before the first batch would be dried up and gone. After riding to the beach and back, I noticed a slow leak in the front tire. I brought it back home, got out the Stan’s, and gave it a refill without having to remove the whole tire. I noticed that there was a uniform white residue along the inside of the tire including the sidewalls. There were a few chunks of latex that pooled up around what I took for small holes, and I wiped out the inside of the tire before putting in a fresh couple ounces and refilling the tire. I was able to remount the tire and use my floor pump to pop the bead back into place with little effort.

After a few rides, I started to wonder if I was running on borrowed time with the rear – since that is always the tire that goes flat for me. There had been no noticeable puddle of Stan’s in the front tire when I popped it open. To put my mind at ease, tonight I put the bike up in the stand and popped one side off the rim of the rear wheel. While wiping out the remaining Stan’s (about a teaspoon left – mostly viscous yellow – no sign of the white latex still in the suspension), I noticed the twin prongs of a perfect staple that had pierced the tire mid-tread.

BH-2.jpg

I tried to find it on the outside of the tire to remove it the way it had gone in, but the connecting bar had broken off the tines. I removed them from the inside. I have no idea how long that staple was in there. It could have happened shortly after I started riding these tires tubeless, or it could have happened last week. One thing is certain – I would have had a flat had I been using tubes. As it stands, I didn’t notice the puncture until I went to perform maintenance on the tire.

Pretty cool! I think a few more of my tires will be losing their tubes in the future.

Image

Tubeless Road Experience

07 Tuesday Oct 2014

Tags

Hetre, Pacenti, PL23, Stan's, Toussaint, tubeless, tubeless road bike


I’ve been riding a tubeless conversion on my main road/rando bike for most of the summer season.  At this point, I can comment on a few aspects that I really like about this setup.  BH-6.jpg

First, let’s talk about the wheel build.  I have Pacenti PL23 rims with Stan’s tape (wrapped double) and used a Stan’s conversion kit to get a valve stem and goo.  The tires are Gran Bois Hetre Extra Leger.  The PL23s are not normally a tubeless rim, but they are compatible without much work.  The big thing is to have a sealing valve stem (don’t need the conversion kit, just get some replacement tubeless stems) and make sure the spoke holes are taped tight.  You may also need to put an extra layer of tape if your tire fit is too loose.

I used the Stan’s general instructions to set these up, but found that my floor pump wouldn’t push enough air to get the tires to seat/seal, so I set up my compressor with a presta valve so I could pop these guys on.  I’ve heard that some are able to do this with a floor pump, but not I.

Once I got the feel for what needed to happen, I put a scoop of the goop in the tire while it was partly off the wheel – just dumped it in the side, and then carefully pushed the wheel onto the rim.  At this point, you just do a quick inflate, and spin/bounce the wheel a couple times to get the sealant dispersed around the wheel, and leave it.  I was able to ride these immediately.

A myth that I found to be untrue was that the Hetre ELs needed to be run at higher pressures than normal.  Not so.  I actually run them at 25 front and 35 rear which is about 5 psi lower than normal.  Anything more and they don’t feel quite as compliant, but at this pressure, they feel just right.

Now on to the good stuff.  I don’t worry about flats much anymore.  Lower pressure, fat tire, and sealant take care of that worry.  I still try not to willfully ride over glass, but I’ve had zero issues/flats since this conversion, and these tires are thin and super compliant.  I also love the lower pressures – wow are these tires comfortable!

There are a few minor downsides.  I have to add air about once a week now, whereas before it was every other week or so.  I also still carry a spare tube, in case of a bad flat requiring a boot.  The requirement to have a compressor to initially seat the tires is the last bother.  Pretty small potatoes, however.

BH-8.jpg

I plan to do more road tubeless builds going forward.  I’d love to have all the bikes tubeless, and just need to gradually replace my rims with tubeless friendly guys.

Posted by Stonehog | Filed under Cycling

≈ 2 Comments

Initial Velo Routier Notes

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

4130, a. homer hilsen, B&M Luxos, bar-end shifters, Berthoud, bike commute, Boxy Rando, Cycles Toussaint, cypres, double butted, Gran Bois, Hetre, low-trail, nitto, noodles, planing, randonneur, Rawland, rene herse, rivendell, rSogn, shimmy, SPD, Velo Routier


BH-1.jpg

I’ve been riding the Cycles Toussaint Velo Routier for a few days – have about 50 miles on it so far.  I wanted to collect my thoughts as this is a new geometry and tire size for me.  As for the rest of it, it’s very similar in size, weight, and materials (steel) to my A. Homer Hilsen.  I’ve used a nearly identical build for the bikes, as well.  Both have Nitto Noodle 41cm bars wrapped in cotton tape, both have the Rene Herse cranks, and both are within a few millimeters of dimension for fit.  the main difference is the wheel size, tires, and geometry with the Velo Routier being a “low trail” and the Hilsen a “mid-trail” ride.  OK – getting to the gut reaction first.

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The Hetres really smooth out the ride on my rather bumpy commute.  Although I’m on bike trails most of the time, my commute has a number of rough spots with roots pushing up the pavement on the trail, as well as general poor road maintenance in other spots.  The Hetres feel smoother as you would expect.  They have more air volume, and I have them pumped to 40psi rear, 30psi front.  Comparing this to the Cypres tires on the Hilsen at 65psi rear and 45psi front, it should be more forgiving.

BH-3.jpg

The bike feels just as fast.  This is gut, so I will watch my commute stats over a longer timeframe.  The first few rides are inconclusive as I’ve been more tired than usual. The ride times between bikes are within a few minutes out of an hour commute home.

BH-2.jpg

I can really feel the handling differences in the low-trail – and it is not as disruptive as some of the lit I’ve read.  The closest analogy I’ve heard is that “you steer with your bars” on the low-trail bike, whereas  on the Rivendells, you “steer with your hips”.  This seems accurate to me.  I can ride this bike no-handed.  It’s not easier to do this than the Rivendell – if anything it is just slightly more apt to wander around, but this may just be my lack of experience on this type of geometry.  The interesting part is the feel with a front load.  It is much more planted with a bag and a few pounds up front.  It also wanders less when going slow, and of course there is much less issue with wheel flop when the bike is stationary.  The ride feel is subjectively better with this setup for me.  I really like having a front rando bag for longer rides.  I can do nearly everything I need to do with all the gear within easy reach.  This all said, I was doing fine with the Hilsen and the front rando.  I just feel that the Toussaint “feels” more planted with this setup while riding.

BH-5.jpg

As I said earlier, the Hilsen and Velo Routier are set up proportionally identical for my fit.  Both bikes feel like a good steel bike should.  Solid, compliant, light enough.  Both are also beautiful in their own way.  The Hilsen will win this battle, but the Toussaint is very nice looking in white with stainless Berthoud fenders and subtle red/yellow decals.

BH-3.jpg

I haven’t had any shimmy issues with either bike.  The Velo Routier tracked like a steam engine on a 30+ mph descent, and I rode shimmy-free no-handed from 15-25 mph.  This seems to be the sweet spot for shimmy.  I know the tubing on the Toussaint is double-butted 4130, with  .9/.6/.9 top, seat, and down tubes on my size “large” frame.  The smaller sizes are .8/.5/.8.  This is not the “ultra-light” planing grade tubing that Jan Heine tends to like, and some of the Rawland bikes are built to, but I’ve ridden an rSogn, and it felt as stiff as this frame.  Perhaps I need more sensitivity training.  In any case, it rides really well, and I feel totally comfortable on this bike.  A longer test ride is due, and luckily this is all set and ready for the upcoming brevet season starting next week!

BH-7.jpg

Other comments on the build?  I had no problems getting the build done – there were no flukey gonzo issues like misalignments, or gummed up threads.  The hanger was straight, the fenders were already mounted, as were the brakes.  I ended up tightening up the fender alignment to match up the Hetres as it originally had 38mm Somas on it, but that was the biggest time suck.  I honestly had the thing built in a few hours, and I was taking my time.  It helped that I had a cockpit set up from a previous build – nice not to have to wrap the bars.  One note – I originally had SPD pedals, but put VP flats on it for the beginning of the season.  I want to try these on longer rides to see if I have a knee issue that bothered me last year with the clipless pedals.  I also migrated the 9-speed cassette and downtube shifters back to an 8-speed setup with bar-end shifters.  Oh, I also put the B&M Luxos dyno light on this bike for the season.

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One more item I forgot to add – I was very worried about what kind of front rack to use.  The center-pull Dia Compe 750 brakes leave very little room and the normal rando-standard Nitto Mini rack wouldn’t work.  Luckily, Cycles Toussaint has this figured out.  They have a special rack made just for this bike.  I exchanged emails (actually, blog comments) with Evan at Cycles Toussaint, and ordered it after I got the frame.   It arrived a few days later just in time for my build.  It fit perfectly with rear mounts that fit to the fork crown mounting screws.  The rack holds my Tall Boxy Rando bag from Acorn at just the right height – the top even with my bars.  Super happy with this.  It is also possible to saw the rear arms off, bend the lower support arms, and mount the rack to the fender at two points if you want a lower platform and a more “constructeur” touch as Evan did with his personal bike.

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Now it’s time to put some miles on this guy (and try not to forget my other bikes in the process).

Introducing the Full Line of Compass Tires

22 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Stonehog in Cycling

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a. homer hilsen, Babyshoe Pass, Barlow Pass, compass, cycles, extra lever, Gran Bois, Hetre, jan heine, light tires, randonneur, rivendell, supple, tires


Bigger, lighter 700C tires! Just what we’ve been waiting for, Jan! Can’t wait to try the Barlow Pass – looks like a great alternative on my country bike. Big thumbs-up on the names for the new tire range. Love the NW mountain pass theme. I have some Hetre Extra Legers going on a new bike, but I’m going to have to get a pair of the Babyshoe Pass tires for the next set.

More info from Jan – all new tires – not re-branded Gran Bois.  They have been created based on all the tire testing Jan and crew have done over the years.  I’m very interested in the 700c x 32mm, 38mm, and the 650b x 42s.  I will have to get new fenders for the Hilsen so I can put the big guys on!

Off The Beaten Path

cayuse_pass

Compass Bicycles Ltd. introduces a full line of high-performance tires in both 700C and 650B sizes. The narrower 700C tires are a great way to transform the performance and comfort of a racing bike. The wider 700C tires, especially the 38 mm-wide “Barlow Pass”, will allow riders of 700C bikes to enjoy the benefits of supple, fast and wide tires. The wide 650B models provide more performance and better cornering grip than existing models, thanks to their optimized tread pattern and thickness.

Eight years ago we started the first systematic real-world tests of tire performance in recent memory. We conducted both roll-down tests and track tests with a power meter. What was revolutionary about these tests was that they were performed with a rider on board. As it turns out, the rider is an integral system of the bike, and suspension losses in the rider’s body are one of…

View original post 395 more words

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