Italian Road Bike Mirror

Between clueless installation instructions, and inept fan videos, I'm surprised this company is still in business. The reason it IS in business, is it's a really GREAT product. Somehow, road vibration is just GONE!

The 4 fingers go UNDER your bar tape

Sometimes something is so improbable you know you must be missing something or it'd be long gone. In this case, the size of the mirror seems ludicrous, but this is one of those VERY rare items that's the result of endless trial & error refinements, and it shows immediately when you start to actually use it. If not for the Conti GP5kTLs, this would easily be my Product of the Year Pick.

Like most right-handed riders, when I stop I only unclip my left foot, leaning the bike slightly against my left thigh. Every bar-end mirror I've ever ridden before gets knocked out of alignment when doing this, but not the IRBM. Don't get mirrors with ball-joints. They're never in alignment, and tightening down the ball joint just leads to failure. It's an idea that seems like a good one, but ends up being as welcome as a stone in your shoe.

After breaking 3 of the Hafney handlebar end mirrors (constantly getting bumped, and readjusted for aerobars) I was fed up enough to look at mirrors again. This in spite of having an eyeglass mirror that I used for a few rides, and AGAIN, rejecting it. 

For me eyeglass mirrors require too much time to get into position to see something somewhere behind me. They also cause a lot of neck strain, as holding your head in THAT position can be painful as the miles wear on.  I also don't like getting an eye-full of my Hi-Viz shoulder and adding a blind-spot. Bottom line, by the time you've gotten a good look at what's behind you, you've ridden far enough to get in trouble.

That's dangerous, but it does bring up an important point. There's more to mirrors than size, in particular, the following are the most important features of a bike mirror...

1. Clarity, which is really two things, the quality of the mirror's optics, and
2. Vibration-free operation
3. Time to acquire a useful sight pic
4. Bump resistance - maintaining its adjustment ride after ride
5. Riding position tolerance (like riding in aerobars and it still works!)  
6. Durability (essential on event rides in strange areas)

Those were the biggies, but there are some other considerations too...

1. Aerodynamics
2. Ease of mounting
3. Price

The clarity, according to the mfg's statement, is due to a "front-silvered (also known as a “first-surface" mirror.) The glass has a vacuum deposited hard aluminum coating on the front, it is not “silvered” on the back like a common mirror. This front-silvering eliminates ghost images which are seen in common rear surface silvered mirrors. A front-silvered mirror displays the most accurate reflected image." It's really remarkably brilliant and clear.

I wish I knew how this mirror manages to be so vibration-free. It's just amazing, and incredibly valuable. It also makes getting a good sight-pic much, much faster. Getting a sight-pic is the time it takes to see what you want to see. The Hafney were very fast, but then you couldn't see anything clearly. The eyeglass mirror is the slowest. The IRBM is very close to the Hafney, but you CAN see what you're looking at, not some perpetual blur of something.

I've known about this mirror for over a year  now, but passed on it because, come'on, it's tiny, and you can't even adjust it (not quite true, btw). It was the repeated urging of a friend that finally forced my hand. Mounting this mirror was my biggest turn-off. WTF?  A mirror you can't adjust? (but also can't knock out of adjustment!)

Mounting the Mirror:

1st, the included instructions are idiotic, and an insult to my intelligence, as they show how to mount the mirror with handlebar tape taped from the center of the bars down to the ends. Stupid! NOBODY wraps tape that way. You wrap from the bar-ends to the center, AND, that's actually very helpful as it turns out. Before I forget, when ordering new bar tape, which you'll need, buy an extra set so you get 3 tries to get the mirror taped before you run out.

You're going to need some trial & error to get the mirror mounted correctly - mostly in the up-down direction. So, to do that, as the tape goes OVER the mirror's "fingers", you need to strip the tape off the end of a bar. Guess what, when you pull the plug out of the end the tape doesn't unfurl like toilet paper in a hurricane, it CAN'T. To remove it you have to tear it off one wrap at a time. Do that until 4-5" of bar-end are exposed and leave the rest of the tape alone!

Put a rounded bar-end cap on the bar. No, NOW, before you forget and have to start all over from scratch! You don't want the sharp end of the bar gouging the back of the mirror mount (as per included instructions) Without any bar tape to push against, you're going to need to tape it in place with electrical tape. A 6" piece folded over the plug leaves plenty of stick for the bar. The more rounded the plug's shape, the easier it is to get the correct adjustment. Something domed, plain and unadorned is perfect. Nothing to dig into the back of the mirror.

Domed & unadorned, too flat, adorned. #1 for the Win!

I'm assuming your bars are just how you want them, so this procedure is NOT going to rely on you moving your bars. Put the 4 fingers over the bar, wrap your hand around the bar end, and pull on the fingers until the mirror is looking directly behind you with the horizon going right through the middle of the mirror.  A long hallway where you can mount the bike is very helpful. Now wrap some tape (Cinelli's finishing tape is perfect for this - easy to R&R) around the fingers to tack it in place. Wrap as much or as little tape on top of that as you like - enough so you can go for a test ride. I had to pull my fingers a LOT to get the sight-pic I wanted, but the IRBM easily pivoted over the domed bar-end cap and held nicely when taped.

Remember how I said you CAN adjust this mirror just a bit? By twisting the mirror you can move the sight-pic inboard or outboard, and that's very helpful. It won't stay there forever, but it will for a few minutes. This works better if you don't wrap electrical tape all the way to the bar ends (you're going to wrap everything with bar tape eventually anyway, so completely unnecessary). Just tack it well enough it will survive replacing bar tape in the future. That's enough. 

Go for a ride! Take some mental notes. Tweak for perfection riding on the hoods. Twist on the mirror, tug, pull, spindle, mutilate like it's your Birthday!

If you used the finishing tape that comes with bar tape (which I NEVER use as intended, preferring electrical tape) it's easy to make adjustments as you ride, stop, ride, stop, rinse & repeat. Got it where you want it? GREAT! Whip that 3M tape out of your jersey and wrap the ends of the fingers until they are in full contact with the bar, but leave the last 3/4" to 1" at the end of the bar loose to facilitate twisting for sight-pic. 

Once you're home again, remove all the old bar tape and retape your bars. Start by cutting a long, shallow taper about 3" long from the center to the edge of the tape. You'll end up with a 3" long wedge of scrap. That tapered edge is the part you can't stick inside the bar where the plug normally seals it in place. 

Note end of wedged-shaped section at 2 O'Clock position

Place the tapered tape end to start at the 2 O-Clock position (looking forward from the back of the bike) with the flat, uncut edge against the base of the mirror. Hold it there while starting the tape by pulling it under the bar-end toward you until you've overlapped it with the next layer of tape when coming over the top, the tape edge held hard against the base of the mirror. 

Factory edge held flush against mirror base all the way around

You'll need a little bit of a loose wrap to spare tape usage all the way along, as the extra diameter will leave you short otherwise, but other than that, just wrap the bar like you always do, and finish it off with whatever finishing tape you like. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. 

Another view from the bottom

Full-width of tape seen here, partially exposed,  9 O'Clock position

Zoom-out from 9 O'Clock position

The mirror can now be twisted clock-wise or counter-clockwise to move the sight-pic in or out, but otherwise it's rock solid. Absolutely bump-proof, and you get a fast sight-pic with no vibration whether on the hoods, tops or in aerobars. I'm afraid in the drops all I can see is my arm, but YMMV. (making the "OK" sign with your thumb and forefinger and twisting your arm outwards uncovers the mirror nicely though). 

The optical quality of this mirror is spectacular, enough so that it's worth cleaning the mirror before you start a ride. It's a small thing, but it helps. Use a cleaning cloth from an old pair of sunglasses. You don't want to scratch the reflective surface, which is on the face, not the back, of the mirror.

BTW, in spite of appearances, this mirror actually sticks out LESS than the Hafney mirrors with their ball & bracket system. It's also, OF COURSE, much more aerodynamic. I don't think this is going to create any Strava Heros, but every little bit helps. Look at the stuff Wahoo is doing with their GPS mount. 

Normally, in the US, the mirror goes on the left side, BUT, there are times when having one on the right side would be nice. For instance, if on a street where you have to move out of the bike lane, cross 2 lanes of traffic, and get into a L-Hand turn lane. You really can't see what's going on behind you as you move across those 2 lanes of traffic. I know it's a small thing, but it could save your life. 

I almost got run over coming upon a major intersection with no bike lane, 2 lanes going forward, and a dedicated L-Hand turn lane morphing out of nothing (no turn lane on the road anywhere else). There's also a shallow climb the last 300 yards or so before the intersection. It was near the end of the ride, I was tired, and the road had some gravel in it. When I took my hand off the bars to signal I started to wobble, so a very short and late hand-signal. A pickup decided at some point (too much vibration on the Hafney to see clearly) to pass me on the left. I took a good guess, straightened out my line, abandoned my turn, and he went all the way around me, crossing the center line, and then back into the lane I was still in ahead of me. 

If I had realized in the moment what an asshole thing he'd done I guess I'd have swore a blue streak at him, but as it was I was just happy that somehow, someway, everything had worked out sorta OK. The look on the faces of the other 20 or so drivers at the intersection was one of pure wonder and horror. It's like watching a train wreck - that somehow miraculously never happens. Long story short, a R-Side mirror would have allowed me to track the traffic behind me as I moved across 2 lanes into a dedicated L-Hand turn lane.

I have to say, I had no idea how many times I was checking my mirror until my Hafney mirror broke 10 miles from home. I'm guessing every 30-45 seconds. That's a BIG void when missing. Also, if you ride with a partner it's great to have mirrors AND headlights with Day-Flash mode. We both use CygoLite 1100 lumen lights, and you can see those in the IRBM for up to a mile. It keeps you from leaving your partner by the side of the road with a mechanical - or worse. 

Air-Compressor for Tubeless Tires

The Options:

On some tubeless tires, sometimes, you can get by with just a track pump. The (old-style) Schwalbe Pro One tires were pretty good this way. A reliable system though, it's not.

It's pretty common knowledge by now that to seat the bead on many tubeless tires you need a big shot of high-pressure air, and a track pump just can't  do that. Lezyne (Pressure Overdrive) and now Topeak (Joe Blow Booster) both make a hybrid track pump that incorporates a ~ 1 liter canister you can pump up to ~ 150 psi and then release all in one shot.

Both are decent systems, but a lot of work if you have difficulty getting the bead to seat on a tire. That 1 liter volume means you get 1 shot to get it right and then back to 50 pump strokes. You also have to guess how much pressure you're going to end up with, as over-pressurizing the canister in anticipation of the volume drop is required. They're also expensive, at $139 and $159 respectively and not general-purpose air-compressors for pumping up car tires or operating small pneumatic tools.

I air up my car tires on a seasonal basis, and might want to run a small pneumatic nailer some day, but airing up my Conti GP5kTLs was my primary use for an air-compressor, and I didn't need much. I did want a large enough tank though that I could produce several good shots of air to get a difficult tire to hold the bead, and that excluded the small pump-to-hose systems where there is no tank, or virtually none.

Compressor Setup:

I found a $60 Briggs and Stratton 3ga (11.3 liter) compressor (made in China and sold under 3-4 other names as well) at WalMart with 125 psi max pressure, pressure regulator, and all the hoses and fittings included. It's oil-less (you don't want oil in your tires), easy to carry and doesn't take up much space. Unfortunately, as I found out, the hoses and fittings are pretty much useless. You could inflate a football or beach ball with them, but for tires, useless.

 A Presta valve internally is pretty darned small, so presents a lot of restriction to any air source. A CO2 cart can easily overcome this with 850 psi (yeah, really) at 70F (3,170 psi @ 140F!), but working with pump pressures you need to eliminate every possible restriction from the tank to the Presta valve.

Turns out, I'm not the 1st guy to figure this out, which is why Milton Industries created their HV (high volume) line of couplers and fittings. Many other mfgs now make comparable systems, like the Husky labeled system I got from Home Depot. Still, I like to give credit where due.

The best way to see for yourself how much of a difference it makes is to simply blow through a standard fitting and an HV one. Likewise, the 3/8" ID hose vs the 1/4" ID hose. I cut a 6", 12" and 18" piece of the blue 1/4" ID hose that came with the compressor, and blew through them each. WOW, I had no idea length had such a HUGE impact on volume. Try blowing through the rest of the ~ 15ft hose that's left. What an eye-opener.

Resolved to go HV all the way, I wanted to by-pass the pressure regulator as well, but there's no way to do that without putting in a "T" on the unregulated side of the gauge panel that the EMERGENCY pressure release is attached to. That should NEVER be taken out of the system, and as you can see, I did not - thus the "T".

 After installing the "T", screw the HV coupler in one side, and the EPR in the other, and TEST IT by pressurizing the tank and then pulling on the lanyard ring. You should hear air escaping. If not, there may not be enough clearance between the tank and the EPR. If this ever fails the tank will EXPLODE. (the pump has its own pressure shut-off, so this is a fail-safe, but be smart and leave the safety measures intact)

I don't know if it's really necessary, but I drilled out the back of the air-chuck with a "large" drill bit to taper the air into the valve stalk. It helps, but don't get too crazy. By removing material you are weakening the chuck. Once done (or not) put some tape on the end of the Tektron hose's 1/4" fitting and tighten it up. Ditto for all the other fittings. Tape and tighten, assuming there's no pipe dope on the threads already.

Like with all compressors (vs canister systems) you now have a Schrader, not a Presta system (this system ROCKS for filling up car, motorcycle or Fatty bike tires equipped with Schrader systems) so you'll need a $1 part - an adapter. After you pour your sealant into the tire through the valve, install the Presta valve body and screw on the adapter. Once you've seated the bead and aired up the tire, remove the adapter and turn the valve closed. No hurry. You can leave the valve open overnight if you want, as the pressure keeps the valve from leaking.

If you follow the instructions given on my GP5kTL review, the 25mm tire drops tank pressure from 125 psi to an almost perfect 110 psi. Be a little careful with the 28mm not to go past 90 psi as the pressure limit is 94 but tank pressure will still be at ~ 105 psi. As soon as you get an initial bead seat, check the pressure on the gauge and then air up in small spurts to get to full pressure. If it's a new tire, expect a little stretch.

This little AC takes 4-5 minutes to come up to full pressure from an empty tank, so I usually plug it in and let it run in the garage while I put the tire on, put the sealant in through the valve, and roll the tire around to spread the sealant around. It turns itself off at 125 psi, so just let it run. Oh, and it's noisy, so I don't head for the garage until I'm ready to air the tire up.

There's a small valve on the bottom of the tank. It's there to drain water out of the tank. When you compress air you squeeze water out of it. That's a steel tank, so to avoid rust and pitting it's important to use this valve to depressurize the tank until the next time you need it. Tilt the tank to one side so the valve is at the very bottom of the tank.

For a total of $97 bucks this beats any canister pump system like a rented mule. Now if those drop in price to $50 I might have to rethink my position, but .... nahhhh.

HV Parts List:

You'll need some Teflon pipe tape/sealant as well, and a couple of good Crescent wrenches, one for the jaw and one for the hole in the end of the handle needed to turn the fixtures tight so the tape (or often-included pipe dope) seals up tight.

If you want to put in a HV coupler on the pressure-regulator side you'll need to order 2 Milton S-765 1/4" MNPT V Style couplers. 

Merry Christmas!

Continental GP5000 TL tubeless tire, 6 month Review

Overview:

The 1st thing you notice about the Conti GP 5000 TL is the smell of rubber - that smell you get when you walk into a tire store to put new tires on your car or truck. It makes an immediate impression that these are SERIOUS tires that can take a licking and keep on ticking. Turns out, that's a great impression, because they are very, very TOUGH. The only downside is they let go of the bead below 10-15psi, so the sealant has to go in before inflating the tire.

In a nutshell, here's what I love about the tire...

1. It's tough, no, really, really tough
2. It rolls better than any other general purpose tire (8.3 watts)
3. It soaks up road vibration via some kind of German magic @ ~ 85psi
4. It grips really well, even in corners with sand and debris
5. It goes on with just bare hands (yup, read on)
6. It's close to its advertised width on the wheel

You read over and over again that the point of tubeless tires is the 100 grams of weight wasted on an inner-tube is instead used to make a much tougher tire. Unlike the warm butter toughness (cough, cough) of Schwalbe Pro One tires, this tire lives up to that promise. Everything about the GP 5kTL is made tougher - tougher than the Michelin Pro 4 Endurance and Conti inner-tube setup I was riding before, and that tire was at the end of a long evolution of progressively tougher tires that still had acceptable ride qualities. Tougher than the Gatorskins my riding partner on the Victor Valley Bike Tour was riding. She flatted. I didn't, and Gatorskins ride like a a lumber wagon on frozen ground while devouring 19.3 watts.

Conti GP 5000 TL come in a beautiful black box almost identical to Schwalbe's - probably sourced from the same company. The box has specs for all three 700c sizes, 25mm, 28mm and 32mm. I especially like the inclusion here of the circumference as some bike computers still need that info to get proper speed and distance.

Mounting the Conti GP5000 TL Bare-handed:

If you're reading this post, there's a good chance you're  here to call me a liar when I tell you I can get both the 25mm front (easy) and the 28mm rear (harder) tires on my Easton R90SL rims with my bare hands. Seriously, cross my heart and hope to die.

1st, I'd recommend, as with ALL tires, that you unbox and unwrap them and lay them flat on the floor overnight to allow the bead time to return to a round state. Bring them in from the garage to warm up in the winter as well.

2nd, clean the bead-socket on the rim until it's spotless. I mean NO little rubber balls of dried sealant, and valves that have been removed and cleaned spotless. Use a hard cloth and old plastic tire-iron (tire-plastic?) with some alcohol to get the bead-socket bone dry and spotless.

3rd, use Stan's yellow rim tape that is wider than the rim, as per Stan's recommendation. Clean the rim/tape interface spotless. I always replace the tape if installing a tire. It makes it easier to get the bead-socket clean, and removes the tape as a failure node if the system leaks air after. Also, water and soap degrade the glue, putting the tape seal at risk.

My custom wheels arrived from Colorado Cyclist with 4 layers of Stan's rim tape. That's too much. It doesn't help seal, degrades the seal at the valve, and takes up a lot of the rim cavity at the center of the rim needed to allow the very tough beads to seat deeply so the opposite side of the tire can clear the rim. I've settled on one layer of tape overlapping 4 1/2 spokes on each side of the valve hole to get a good seal at the ends of the tape. This leaves almost all the cavity on the opposite side of the wheel unfilled, which you'll need. Pull the tape as taunt as you possibly can, and cut it off with a sharp scissors.

4th, install the spotless and dry valve by shining an AAA pen-light through the back side of the valve hole in the rim and use an ice-pick (leave the X-slits to idiots who flunked physics class) to slowly push through the tape at the middle of the hole. Use a leather awl or nail-set to widen it until it's slightly smaller than the valve. Push the valve through the hole gently, expanding the hole as you go before seating the rubber seal. Use thumb pressure on the back of the valve to press the seal against the rim tape, while snugging up the nut on the valve on the other side of the rim,

Use thumb-pressure to provide ALL of the pressure. Don't use the nut to apply pressure, as this subtlety twists the seal, which will break the pneumatic seal later when it twists itself back due to road vibration. The rubber seal should squat just slightly, and be pressed against the plastic material of the rim tape, not against the metal of the rim. This creates a simpler seal for the sealant to work with vs rim, tape, and valve.

5th, check that the tire is going to be mounted in the right direction. Conti GP5000 tires are directional. You do NOT want to mount a tire twice because you got this wrong. Trust me (I would never do a thing like that, gulp). BTW, since you can always reverse the skewer on the symmetrical, caliper brake front wheel, there's no directional requirement for the front wheel. Yes, there is the esthetic of having the hub label the wrong way around, but 0.00001% of the World knows there is such a thing, so don't risk screwing up a perfectly good seal by starting over, just flip the skewer (if you have disk brakes, you're SOL).

6th, put on the 1st bead starting at the valve and working your way to the opposite side. If it's hard getting the bead over the rim, herd the bead into the center cavity all the way around. Putting the first bead on valve-first assures you get the bead down past the valve, and into the bead-socket, where the valve will tend to hold it until you get the first bead over the rim.

7th, starting on the opposite side from the valve, work the bead around until it's up against the valve, making sure to herd the 1st & 2nd bead as deeply into the center cavity as possible. You can press the wheel against a rubber-backed rug or carpeted floor to help hold the beads down into the center cavity - whatever works best for you. Again, use the fat-pads at the base of your fingers to push the bead over the rim. This time up against the valve.

If the beads are going rouge on you, you can use 1 or 2 Zip-Ties as a 2nd set of hands. Just be sure to place them so the spokes will keep them from sliding along the wheel. This is 100% effective at preventing bead-slide. I used this technique when putting a Conti GP5000TL on an old DT Swiss RR-465 rim (which leaked like a sieve, so not a viable system) and it worked marvelously.

8th, assuming you have the tires mounted, the valve in place, and the tires are going in the right direction, it's time for some sealant. Conti GP5000TLs will NOT, NOT, NOT hold onto the bead-socket when tire pressure falls below 10-15psi, SO, you need to put the sealant in BEFORE airing them up. I would RX putting in the sealant before inflating the tire even if you can get the bead to stay seated. The sealant loss is almost zero, and it makes for a much simpler procedure to only inflate the tire once.

I know, I know, it sounds scary, but the Stan's sealant stays put inside the tire very nicely provided you spread it around by spinning the tire while moving side to side. I find hanging onto the hub skewer while seated with my right hand works best. You want to spread it as evenly as possible.Take your time and get a good spread (2-3 minutes). Sealant makes better lube than soapy water to assist getting the bead seated properly, and guess what, sealant seals the bead. Soapy water doesn't.

To get the sealant inside the tire, put the wheel on a hard surface like a garage floor (something that you're OK getting some sealant on) and use your forearm to press air out of the tire, so that when you put the 2oz bottle of Stan's (save the little bottles for this task) up against the valve, with the core removed, and release the pressure of your forearm on the wheel, the vacuum that is formed sucks the sealant right into the tire. I do this with the valve at the 7-O'clock position.

9th, air up the tire. I bought a little Briggs + Stratton 3ga air-compressor ($60) for this task, but you will need to throw out all the included couplers and replace them with Milton High Volume (Home Depot's Husky HV connectors work fine) connections. (details here). You'll also need a Schrader air chuck and Schrader to Presta adapter for your valve until you get your tire aired up, at which point you can remove the adapter, screw the valve closed, and put the cap on.

6' Tekton 3/8" ID lead-in hose with 1/4" male connectors

Assuming you have 125PSI and HV coupler and hoses, a 3ga tank is enough, in fact, it's perfect, as the pressure drops just enough when seating the bead that you don't have to worry about over-pressure. Position the wheel so the valve is at the highest point when inflating. You don't want to blow air or CO2 into a big puddle of sealant pooled at the bottom of the tire.

Pressurize for the "POPs", and then again in 30 seconds for a full seal. If done right, you will lose almost NO sealant at all. I use the full 2oz bottle of Stan's, which IIRC, is 60ml. Especially for the 28mm, that's needed to get full coverage inside the tire, rim (tape) and valve and have some left over for punctures.

Briggs & Stratton compressor with Milton HV couplers and fittings

CO2 carts will also work (RX a 20g cart) but their very high pressure will blow the sealant away from the tire across from the valve, so take care to spin the tire again and re-cover that area with sealant.

10th, and last, from a seated position spin the tire SLOWLY on its side at a shallow incline (~20 degrees) so the sealant gets distributed all over the bead and bead-socket seal. After 5-10 minutes of this put the wheel on the bike, turned upside-down, and spin the wheel hard stood upright. Air up the tire/s to full pressure before retiring for the night, and check the pressure in the morning. You should have a full seal, but if not, repeat the sealant spreading process.

Black plastic spacer from Giant hugs the rim perfectly

 

Closing Remarks:

I should mention that I used to use soapy water on the rim, wheel, tire, etc, and I own a Kool-Stop tire jack (great device, but you shouldn't need it) and a dozen pairs of tire-irons, but none of that is necessary if you work on your technique. I assume soap and sealant hate each other with a passion, so avoid any risk of them mixing. For bike mechanics, being able to build good wheels is what separates the men from the boys. For us amateurs, being able to put tires on dry with bare hands is the litmus test. Be patient and observant, and don't force things. Wheels and tires are expensive and you don't want to ruin either.

I have to say, at this point, for me, mounting tubeless tires is easier than mounting tubes and tires, especially since I don't have to worry about pinching a tube during installation and ruining it or having it stuck between the bead and the bead-socket, blowing the tire off the rim and ruining the tube.

In general, tubeless systems are more work because of all the cleaning (Get a pressure washer or find a high-pressure car wash to remove old sealant from tires. Works like magic!), and a bit more complex overall, but you save a lot of weight and bother on the road not having to carry tubes, tire-irons, patch kits, etc. The weight of the tire system itself is the same, but it's inside your tires, not strapped to your bike, and the smaller lighter saddle bag is a HUGE win. For that, with the Conti GP5kTL, you have a nearly flat-proof system that rolls and feels like a dream. Yeah, they weigh 50gm more than the Schwalbe, but who cares? You can actually ride where you want, anytime you want, and know you're going to get home before dark (or 110 degree heat) reliably.

PS:

After not riding for ~ 4 weeks, the front tire, having a slow leak, leaked down to what turned out to be less than 5 psi, but did NOT let go of the bead. The tire is 8 months old now, and has ~ 1,000 miles on it, but contrary to what I've reported here and elsewhere, the tire did hold the bead at sub-10 psi. YMMV. I've also done an update of sorts of this post regarding cleaning and mounting a very tight 25mm Conti GP5kTL here. 

PPS:

I was able to successfully add sealant to the front 25mm tire without removing and cleaning the tire, rim, wheel - quite to my surprise. Details here. It seems the more experience I gain with these tires the better work-arounds I find. Hope this helps!
.

Schawalbe Pro One: Smooth, Fast & Worthless

The Schwalbe Pro One come in a beautiful black box. Enjoy the show. It's the best thing about these tires. They also ...

• go on easily
• hold the bead nicely, even when pressing flat to create a vacuum
• roll pretty well
• save a bit of weight (not a weight-weenie)
• are UTTERLY USELESS

I was lucky that these were my 1st tubeless tire, as these MicroSkin tires were pretty easy to put on (Schwalbe, has now abandoned the MicroSkin technology for lack of puncture protection), and fill with sealant as the bead stays stuck even when fully deflated and pressed down to get enough air out of the tire so it will suck in the sealant. All nice, friendly things.

UNFORTUNATELY, they're made of warm butter, and unless you ride in pristine conditions they puncture if you look at them cross-eyed. They also sit VERY wide on my Easton rims, the 25mm measuring 30mm and the 23mm opened my digital caliper to 28mm. I don't know what "polymer" that utterly useless V-Guard is, but it's beyond pathetic for puncture protection.

(Conti uses Vectran, ~ 2.5x as strong as Kevlar by weight, and thus the choice for bullet-proof vests around the World.  They use Vectran, and they TELL YOU they use Vectran, because it's the best stuff there is!)

A little extra width I'm OK with, but this is just sloppy and makes buying tires a nightmare. There's only so much clearance between the fork and frame for a tire to occupy. I got my rear wheel 1st, so after mounting a 25mm and putting a caliper on it I changed my mind and put a 23mm on the front wheel when it arrived. It was sitting so flat the entire tread-cap sat flat on the road, leaving no wrap-around side protection - not that there's any protection under the tread-cap anyway, but the rubber is thicker.

After running over a small amount of glass in a bike lane the 1st rear 25mm was ruined beyond repair. I had a 2nd 25mm to put on and did so. I got 4.3 miles into my very next ride before a cactus thorn when right through the molding bead right down the center of the tread. I don't care what BikeRadar.com says, this tire is complete crap!

They also cost $50 a pop, even mail-order.  That's $150 I wasted on a total POS tire.

If I HAD to ride Schwalbe road tires I'd try the One tire, except now that tire is the old Pro One tire, so Schwalbe is just hopeless, AND, the Conti 5000TL blows this tire away in every important way, including especially, toughness + rolling resistance, so why bother?

JUST SAY NO!


PS: There's a new version of the Pro tire, the Pro One TLE Addix. Wanna roll the dice again when Conti is still kicking its ass? I'll pass...