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.

Tubeless vs. Staple

25 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

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.

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.

Backup Bike

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by Brian Hanson in Cycling

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

bicycle, bike, bike commute, Miyata, Sealant, Stan's, Stumpjumper Pro, tubeless, Whidbey Island

Sometimes life throws you a lemon. Don’t get me wrong – first world problem hit me today. I’m chilling on Whidbey Island for the week, and my wife and daughter went back to the mainland for a cat feeding, and shopping expedition (the cat stays home in Seattle). I wanted to ride to the local Ace Hardware to get a steelhead jig for shore fishing. I planned on doing the ride with my Toussaint, but when I went to get it from the garage, I found the front tire nearly empty. It appears that one of my rides to the beach brought it in contact with a shell shard that caused a slow leak.

Not Lemons…

These tires are in a tubeless config, but I haven’t added any sealant in about 8 months, and that seems to be too long (a friend refills every 6 months or so). I pulled the shard and spun the wheel a bit after pumping them back up, so we’ll see if it holds, but I’m doubtful. Lemons.

Needs more sealant

Did this stop my jaunt to Ace? Hell no. I just jumped on my backup bike! I have my old Stumpjumper Pro from 1991, and the tires had air. No fenders, but it is cold and clear with no water on the roads, so no worries. I was out and back in less than an hour, and even felt that old early ’90’s rigid mountain bike feeling sensing even some of the same smells I remember from riding my first real MTB. The brain is a weird organ.

I read a lot of folks talking about getting an “extra set of wheels” or a “different cockpit” for different kind of rides. In my experience, you can often pick up a whole bike to do what you want for the same price as the parts to rebuilt your existing frame into something else.

More time to see the barns!

Having another bike gives you more time to ride. There are less excuses needed. I read a great statistical analysis of Seattle commuters using the Fremont Bridge route. One of the points was a look at how rain affects commuting (spoiler – it does). If you had a backup bike, say like a “beater” that had fenders and tough tires, you would have less reason not to bike in the rain, right?

In my case, most all my bikes have fenders, but I find myself pulling my Miyata out for rain duty more often than my other, nicer bikes. It still rides like a dream, and looks great with the hammered Honjo fenders, but I don’t mind if it gets soaked, muddy, put away wet, etc…

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.

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.

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 Brian Hanson | Filed under Cycling

≈ 2 Comments