Maximizing Summer-End Sales

At this time of year there are a lot of tire and summer clothing sales that can save you a bundle, but how to you keep those tires and shorts fresh & new? The short answer is to keep them sealed off from unlimited free oxygen they'll be exposed to unless sealed in an airtight wrapping, bag, or container - or better yet - all of the above.

 

 

I stocked up on a bunch of tires in 2020, not wanting to run out due to COVID shortages, and usually just wrap each Conti GP5KTL in two layers of grocery bags, tape them shut with shipping tape, put them in a big plastic garbage bag, and stick them in the back of the closet where it's dark and cool. 

However, I was in the process of moving early this year and wanted a airtight box to store dog food, as it goes rancid fast if left exposed to all the free oxygen in ambient air. Not able to find what I was looking for, I found Husky airtight storage boxes at Home Depot instead, and thought the 5 lb box was going to be a lot more flexible than the RX I got from a friend. 

Turns out putting the 37 lb bag in the bottom of my refrigerator worked even better at keeping my dog's food fresh and affordable (about 60% per pound as the price of a 6lb bag), so the Husky storage box got repurposed as my tire vault, and does a GREAT job. The gasket keeps air from getting into the box all day long, everyday, and that keeps new tires pristine. Yes, I still wrap them in double plastic bags too, because those tires are tough and it may take 2-3yrs before I use the last of them.

I learned this trick by accidentally storing my SCUBA first stage regulator in a plastic bag inside a pretty airtight suitcase whose empty space was taken up by down sleeping bags packed in tight by sitting on the suitcase so I could get it to latch. 10yrs later I took the regulator to a SCUBA shop and had it rebuilt as I was taking up the sport again. The technician asked me how I had stored it, as he had never seen so little oxidation of the seals in a regulator before. By law, he was required to replace the parts anyway, but pointed out how pristine they were when I picked up my gear. 

Lesson learned, I have been packing my rubber bits in airtight containers ever since. While jerseys are pretty robust against oxidation, chamios are NOT, and neither is the latex-based Spandex that provides the compression that gives them support and keeps the chamios between you and the seat. High tech rain-gear is also sensitive to oxidation, so it should get packed in an airtight container as well.

The Husky box has lots of uses, and if you decide to get more, they stack, and stack with other Husky boxes in a way that really locks them together. Here's a nice review of the product, now go snag yourself a nice bit of rain gear and store it in one of these when summer comes around so it will be fresh and new next winter.

Cheers!

Conti GP5k TL: Dead of Natural Causes

As documented in my post on Jan 27th, I added a full wack of sealant to my front 25mm Conti GP5k TLs, which was only ~ 600 miles ago, as I now have a dog, and have spent early mornings out walking her instead of riding, but still, these tires were put on almost 18 months ago, so they have a LOT of miles on them.

 I was out riding when I noticed a bubble in my sidewall, which seriously pissed me off because I didn't realize how old the tires were. When I was taking this pic with my phone I thought to check the wear dimples. GONE! Still, it's worth mentioning here that this is the death I expect from any Conti tire, as sidewalls are Conti's perpetual weakness. Not sure why. They seem to have an institutional blind-spot about the importance, or perhaps, the performance of their sidewalls. 

That said, after all the glass and thorns and goat-heads, it was nice to FINALLY wear out a front tire. (I wore out a back 28mm in 2019. I never did a thing to it except air it up before rides. I just rode it and rode it and rode it until it had a fat chicken-strip down the middle and the wear dimples were gone. Sweet!) I did cut my ride short by 5mi just to be on the safe side, and I am surprised the sidewall seems to have a separate rubber liner that almost looks like an inner-tube here. 

This is the front wheel with a big ding in the brake-track I got from hitting a rock in the far edge of a pothole and therefore, didn't want to put a new tire on it. The thing is, I just HATE radially laced wheels now, or maybe it's just that custom, hand-built wheels are so much better, but after trying to ride the OEM wheels on my Pinarello I shrugged and went back to my Chris King R45 + Easton + DT Swiss Aerolite with 2X cross spoking as the effect on braking was minimal except at very low speeds, when it pulses a bit. 

I've put another Conti GP5k TL 25mm on the wheel and am looking forward to riding again in the mornings now that temps are not melting the asphalt mid-day anymore. Anyone want to walk my dog for me? She's a real sweetheart and fast as a blur when off-leash!

Here's a pic showing the sidewall failure

Continental GP5000 TL Sealant Refresh

This is an update to my 6 month review of the CP5kTL, and maybe an important one. 

With any, or at least, most other tires, this would not be news, but the GP5kTL will absolutely let go of the bead when the air-pressure drops below ~ 10lbs psi, so adding sealant is a bit problematic, as the old, dried sealant tends to get between the bead and rim in an irregular way, but alas, I had no choice. 

While out riding a couple of months ago I ducked behind a shuttered restaurant, rolled through the parking lot to a discrete little nook, and relieved myself of some used Gatorade, not realizing that the shrub affording me privacy was a puncture vine, which I didn't realize until rolling across the parking lot to reenter the road from the other side. 

I stopped as soon as I noticed, and was able to pull most of the needles out of the front tire before they penetrated, but they and a couple of patches of broken glass left me with a tire whose leak became something more than "slow".

 

As a remedy I decided to try adding 30 ml of Stan's Sealant to see if that would slow the leak so I could rely on a constant pressure throughout my rides. I have to say, to my surprise it worked quite well, but there are a few caveats if trying this. 

First, is the tire worth saving? Mine was ~ 1/2 worn by the wear dimples depth, so in my case, yes. Second, I did everything I could to NOT disturb the bead while releasing the little remaining air, by turning the bike upside down so the wheel wasn't bearing any weight. Third, I used a CO2 cartridge to air up the tire as quickly as possible. Fourth, I used an injector that didn't seal the valve stem with the core removed.

I did lose a small amount of sealant, but slightly less than the normal amount, and put the full 110lbs or so of pressure in the tire to press the new sealant past the old. After sitting overnight I released most of the somewhat diminished pressure to purge the CO2, and aired up the tire with my floor pump. 

I've ridden it a few times now and it's holding air much better, so I am pleasantly surprised this prodecure can, in fact, be done with the GP5kTL. The tire still has wet spots where the water from the original sealant seeps out, but it holds pressure well during my 2-3hr rides now. I really didn't think this would go well at all, so a very pleasant surprise.

Easton R90 SL + Chris King Wheels

 I was looking over my shoulder for traffic the other day coming down a lovely, long hill on a local road that is designated a truck route, and thus has some nasty pot holes. This one I've avoided for over a year now, but my timing was just a bit off and I ended up in it because I couldn't swerve out to avoid it - traffic. 

This pot hole isn't completely round, having a small peninsula jutting out from the edge, anchored by a single large stone, which put a pretty good dent in my Easton R90 SL's brake track on the front wheel. I expected the wheel to be out of true, so coasted to a stop with a little help from the back brake to open the brake calipers - the OTHER use for that little lever do-hickey (or fizal contuzer, take your pick).

To my surprise, the wheel, clearly dented, and the bead warped enough to affect the tire's bead-lock, was not out of true, AT ALL! Once home I inspected it carefully, and can't detect ANY deflection in the wheel at all. I know wider rims are supposed to be stronger, but OMG, this would have destroyed most wheels. I have to say, if you're building wheels for touring, long miles, or gravel grinding, the Easton R90 SLs are really TOUGH. 

 

I decided to remove the tubed tire off the front wheel that came with my Pinarello, and mount a ContiGP5KTL, using the Folcrum 5's stock rim strip and adding a Stan's valve. The tire went on with no tools, and a good bead-lock, but the Stan's valve really sucks. It wouldn't seal up, and the sealant probably ended up inside the cavity in the rim, so not happy with that Stan's product at all. Otherwise, their rim tape and sealant is excellent. The problem is Stan's valves are sized for tubeless rims, and flop around like a jelly fish in the oversized holes of tubed rims.

CORRECTION: The valves and inner-tubes do indeed fit my replacement Easton rim. Not sure why the holes are bigger on "Universal" or tubed rims, but they no longer need to be AFAICT. Just FYI.

The Fulcrum 5 is a standard width rim, with a straight-pull, no-flange hub and 18 bladed spokes. I have to say, while nowhere near as strong as the 24 spoke, 2X laced Easton R90 SL + Chris King wheel I had custom built at Colorado Cyclist, it did seem a tad more aero, and stood up a bit taller to roll over the 3-5" gaps in the road common around here. In fact, it's given me a whole new appreciation of straight-pull front wheels. 

The advantage to straight pull is all the spokes are in the same plane, vs being on one side of the flange or the other, creating a rather messy aerodynamic shape from the hub to the 1st cross. With radially laced spokes, and straight-pull hubs, all the spokes are all in a row, from hub to rim. Especially with bladed spokes, this eliminates one of the few remaining sources of drag due to spokes. Flanged hubs like the Chris King R45 CAN be laced radially as well, with all the spokes laced on one side, usually to the spokes are on the inside of the flange, and heads on the outside, but still not quite as clean as a no-flange, straight-pull arrangement.

The Easton wheel didn't lose any extra air overnight, my concern in riding it, but I think I'm going to ride the Folcrum 5 wheel for the rest of the month and see how that goes. There may be a straight pull front wheel in my future. Both the DT Swiss 240 and 350 (Taiwan, not Switzerland) look nice, the 240 looking nicer to me, but not sure I want to pay $125 premium to lose 5 grams of weight. The Fulcrum will do for now, and should make a good test-bed. 

BTW, Fulcrum has put some interesting tech in the rear wheel of the Fulcrum 5. The rim is deeper, the drive-side flange is HUGE, the spokes are all in-line, and the spoke-beds are offset in the rim like the DT Swiss 411s are. The non-drive side is radially laced, straight-pull, and to a no-flange hub side. All of these features work to minimize the asymmetrical spoke tension created by every-growing cassette cog counts and the attendant increased dish of the wheel.

It's over 200gr heavier than my Easton-King wheelset, but if you weigh less than 165 lbs they'd be a good choice for a bargain wheelset. 

It will be interesting to see how the front wheel performs. I'll check in with observations now and again when there's something worth remarking on. 

Cheers!

PS: 

It's mid-January, 2021 and after switching back to the custom Chris King wheel in Oct for my COVID replacement Century, I am still riding it. The Easton rims are more aero, enough so that the entire wheel is more aero, though hard to detect this until ~ 20+ mph net wind. 

What I really didn't like was the straight-pull wheels' tendency to "buzz" back and forth 1-3mm the entire time I was rolling, and I think this is just a characteristic of straight-pull wheels where any change in spoke tension from course road surface gets translated into side to side motion. It's a bit like "Dutch Roll" in flying. It's annoying to me, but more importantly, it probably wastes energy to drive all that high-speed movement of wheel mass. A lighter rider might have a different experience.

Continental GP5000 TL Longevity: Pt II

As promised, I ended up replacing the rear Conti GP5000 TL 28mm tire on June 30th as the wear dimples were barely a shadow at 1,750 miles, but the catalyst was skidding to a halt to keep from hitting an electric gate, and wearing through the 1/4 mm tread left. The black of the casing has a slightly different hue than the tread, so careful inspection convinced me I was pushing a bad position and should change the tire.

Another factor was I intended to ride a long ride on the 31st, and I didn't want to set myself up for failure by riding a bad tire, especially since the new tire had arrived more than a week earlier and was sitting on the shelf, ready to go.

I stayed with a 28mm tire, which I now run at 60-70 psi. I get a nice ride and better grip. Several times now I've rolled over a 1/2 to 3/4" stone in a turn, and the rear tire just envelopes it, giving way nicely, and staying hooked up. I used to run Michelin Pro4 Endurance 25mm in back @ 115lbs, and that was a much harsher ride, though the best I could find in a tough, tubed tire.

My Pinarello Prince also has a "D" shaped, flat-back seat-tube that pierces the wind nicely for the wider tire. There's also only about a 1/4" gap between the seat-tube and the tire, so the air-flow is probably pretty clean even with the wider tire.

As I said in the earlier post, you should expect to get about 2x my mileage on a rear tire, as for some strange reason, over the last 13 years I have consistently gotten about half the mileage others do - so expect 3,500 miles, at least from a 28mm rear tire. (probably due to unintentionally skidding the rear wheel - my bad - a bad habit I'm working on)

I guess I should also mention that I ran the entire life of the tire with NO flats. Not even one, and no slow leaks either. That's  frankly amazing to me. The high desert is so hostile to bike tires I used to flat every 3-4 rides. I use Stan's sealant and tape, and, NEVER, EVER added one drop of sealant. I put a full 2oz (60ml) of sealant in when I aired it up, and never touched it again. I just rode it and rode it and rode it.

They still go on tight, and I had to use Zip-Ties again to get this one on, but it was on, inflated, sealed and seated in 15 minutes total time, and that included cleaning the rim-tape and valve. No way I would ever go back to a tubed tire.

System of Up

Being an engineer by nature and training, I have a systematic approach to problem-solving, including those that limit my cycling goals, which lately have been range and mileage. When I bought my new tubeless wheels the goal was to reduce flats to the point I could ride without obsessing about everything on the road that might give me a flat, and get home reliabally.

It took a few tries to get the tires right, but the GP5000 TLs were a home-run. I can now ride without much caring where or when or how bad the surface because they are the toughest tires I have ever ridden, roll VERY well, and as a huge bonus, have a nice plush ride.

Starting last summer I realized the tires and wheels were reliable enough to start doing longer rides, which was very liberating, as we have some great, remote places to ride here, but nowhere you'd want to sit and wait for a friend to pick you up from if $hit happened.

Persists for 4-5 hrs

That worked so well I started hitting a new barrier to long miles - saddle sores. The solution to that problem has mostly been scrupulous hygiene. I always wash my bum now with anti-bacterial soap, and sometimes with Hibiclens, before I put on my bib tights. I've also largely abandoned the Voler brand bib shorts I've ridden for most of the last decade, searching for something that protects me better. (the subject of bib-shorts needs its own post, and I'll do that when I have more experience with my new PI Pro bib-shorts)

I've also boosted my heart support by taking CoQ-10, and spiking my Gatorade with Emergen-C. This combo also helps with cramping and adds a little fuel, so muscle support on the bike is pretty good now, but muscle recovery was becoming a problem with more miles and longer rides.

A couple of weeks ago I realized my cardio and general fatigue were no longer issues with recovery, but my legs just weren't recovering from 50 mile rides every-other day, so I scratched my head and started looking for a solution. That solution turned out to be Muscle Milk. The rice has a little protein in it too (GU does not), but I can actually feel my muscles soak this stuff up in a weaker version of how my calf muscle felt healing up from a bad tear, knitting itself together. It's also pretty great it tastes like of like ice-cream!

Ice-Cream that makes you muscles smile

After setting a new distance record since moving to SoCal 5 years ago on Monday - 73 miles, I rode 52 yesterday, so in 3 days I've ridden 125 miles. I'm in my 60s now, so I'm pretty proud of that, and hope to break my May Is Bike Month distance record from 2012, which I will do on my next ride.

I haven't tried any other protein powder, so perhaps there are even better supplements, but MM is making a huge improvement in muscle recovery for me at the moment, and I wanted to spread the word. If you're new to cycling just know, cycling requires much more protein than weight training.

I did the latter for 20 years before taking up cycling again seriously, and was shocked that cycling required 2-3X as much protein as weight training - mostly on long rides lasting more than 2 hours. A good rule of thumb is 1 gram of protein for every pound of lean body weight. Most professional cycling coaches seem to have adopted this metric now.

I don't know where the next bottle-neck will appear, but right now I am very happy with where I am, which BTW, is atop the Leader Board at my local bike club!

Continental GP5000 TL Longevity

I've got a pretty good flat spot across the crown of the tread on my rear 28mm Conti GP500 TL tires now, this after ~ 1,250 miles. The wear dimples are still visible, but by the end of May I will be replacing them (Update: done), as they should have well over 1,500 miles on them.

Note "Chicken Stripe" on cntr tread

I'm perfectly happy to get 1,500 - 1,700 miles on a rear tire, as I have always had a problem with wear on my rear tires, even when running wider tires in the back than in the front. Riding weight for me is 185-190 lbs, which is probably the biggest culprit, as I am only making ~ 120 Strava watts and 225 RWGPS watts on a typical ride.

Had to wipe the dimples with my fingers to find them back

The desert is a very hostile environment for tires, with the usual glass, but also tons of thorns and goat-heads. Heat also wears out tires a lot faster, any kind of tire. Car, truck or bicycle.

Based on historical trends over my last 12 years of riding, I get about half the tire life most people experience, so at least with the 28mm tire in back, expect to get ~ 3,000 miles out of a Conti GP5000 TL.

What I treasure most in a tire here is reliability, and these tires have performed flawlessly. No point pushing a bad bet to save a few bucks and ruin their perfect record. Speaking of bucks, with inner-tubes going for ~ $8-$9 these days, I've now saved enough on inner-tubes to pay for a new tire.

It's worth repeating, I absolutely love these tires now that I have mastered how to put them on and air them up with sealant inside. The ride quality is spectacular, they're very tough, roll better than anything anywhere near their durability, grip extremely well, and have decent wear. Probably going to jinx myself here, but knock on wood, I have yet to have a flat on this tire.

PS: This is how I expected a Conti tire would wear out, with the sidewalls failing. It wasn't until home I noticed the wear dimples were pretty much gone!

Here's a beautiful picture of me taking a break in the shade at Spring Valley Lake yesterday. It's important because it has absolutely no bearing on this post at all, but with all the COVID-19 craziness in our lives, something beautiful and soothing has become as important as social distancing.

High Desert oasis

No ice left in these uninsulated, but smaller, more aero bottles after 1hr. The small one was filled with ice, chilled water, and left in the freezer for an hour before starting. Time for insulated bottles I guess. I have a bit of an obsession with bottles, so I'm sure I can find the perfect pair somewhere in my collection of 30+ bottles. Almost time to break out the big guns - Podium Ice with Aerogel insulation. I bought a pair off-season for $16 each at Amazon.

Conti GP5000 TL - R&R

I ran over a cluster of goat-heads when rolling away from a pedestrian stop-light button and picked up 3 goat-heads. I coasted to a stop while leaning the bike so the side they punctured wouldn't contact the road. 2:3 came out without penetrating the tire, but the 3rd one went in oriented across the tread and made a small puncture. The tire would still hold air for 40-50 miles, but I'd lose about 5psi, and it continued to seep sealant, so I decided to try Stan's Race Sealant on the recommendation of a friend, and see if that would seal the leak.

I'm not a fan of just adding more and more sealant in the hopes it will eventually drown the leak, so I removed the tire and set about cleaning it. I discovered that public car washes that use pressure washers do a great job getting tire sealant out. You get a completely clean and toothy tire ready for more sealant. If you can't get it to seal under pristine conditions, you're never going to get it to seal in the wild, so this is the best way to seal a slow leak.

What was left in my tire was a clear, somewhat sticky, gelatinous liquid that keep leaking out of the small puncture, but it contained no sealing beads/bits, so it was incapable of sealing the leak. This creates a dilemma because the sealing bits that plug the hole are all stuck to the tire, but to add more sealant you need to release all the pressure, and when you do this with the Conti 5000 TL it lets go of the bead, so you have old sealant stuck in the bead, and all over the inside of the tire, and you have to reseat the bead. That tire is never going to seal up well. The old sealant creates all kinds of gaps along the bead. The only solution is to thoroughly clean the tire, wheel, valve and re-tape the rim. That Conti's TL always lets go of the bead is a design problem.

Unfortunately, this time the tire came out with a lot of damage to the bead, inner casing, and sidewall, in spite of not washing the sidewall per-sec, only the inner & outer bead. Last time, at a public car wash, no damage at all. Hummm.

I should have done this before, but after letting the tire dry in the sun and inspecting it, I Googled to find how much pressure public high-pressure car washes actually use. It looks like 1,200 to 1,500 except for trucks, which can get to 2,200psi. The washer I used was borrowed from a generous friend and is rated 1,800psi, which, combined with a very narrow nozzle turned out to be too much in this case. I think if I had used the 45 degree nozzle, instead of the 25 degree, I would have ended up with a very clean but undamaged tire.

RX the 40 degree, not the 25 degree nozzle

Pressure washing is BY FAR the best way to remove old sealant, but do it right away before it has a chance to dry on the tire, and maybe even soak overnight in detergent soap. At any rate, I decided to take this opportunity to revisit my RX for installing the GP5000 TL tires, as this one was a new, but an older production 25mm tire and was crazy hard to get on. It took every trick in my book to get it on, but it did go on without damage, and no bead seating or leakage problems. Either Conti has some serious QA problems, or they have changed their spec, and loosened the bead somewhat. As the last two I've put on - one a 25mm, and one a 28mm - have both gone on easily, I'm guessing they changed their spec.

The tire held 90psi from an initial 110 psi after 20 hrs. I assume that was mostly from the tape seating into the spoke holes, the tire expanding somewhat overnight, and a small amount of normal leakage through porous rubber and around the bead and stem.

If you're here burning daylight trying to get out the door for a ride, I'll cut to the chase. Here's were I ended up getting this incredibly tight & difficult tire mounted. Njoy!

Zip-ties are like another set of hands +1

KoolStop tire jack played no role in finally getting the tire on

Obviously a LOT of prying was done to get the tire bead up & over the rim's edge. PBS tire plastics are great because they have a groove that engages the tire's bead so you can push the bead up towards the rim's edge a bit before starting to pry. I tried using the KoolStop tire jack, but though it took yet another bite out of my rim's decals, I was unable to get the bead over the edge of the rim using it. The ZipTies on the other hand were priceless. They absolutely work, every time, all day long. I cut the ties loose from L2R from the valve and the tire settled into the center cavity like magic.

As per my prior post on mounting this tire, mounting the 1st bead starts at the valve, but the 2nd starts across from the valve, keeping both beads pushed down as deeply into the rim's center cavity as possible as you go, finishing up at the valve where the beads are forced outward around the valve's base. Sans the valve area, both beads were hard against the center cavity at all times. This was one tight tire! The Zip-ties keep the tire from crawling down the rim away from you all the time. A really great discovery!

Tire Cleaning Procedure:

I guess I should say right here that pressure washers and rims should never meet. You don't want to get water inside the rim, remove the LocTite on spoke heads, or get water under the airtight rim tape. You also don't want to risk damaging the bearings by blowing water and grit past the seals on the hub's bearings.

So what to use? Alcohol, a tire plastic, a stiff cloth and some elbow grease.

Valve Cleaning Procedure:

Always clean the valve thoroughly before installing it again. This includes the inside of the valve body, the rubber seal, and the tapered seal that is pressed against the rim-tape. My SO bought a set of stainless steel straws (a little hard on the teeth IMHO) at BigLots and they came with a cleaning brush, but I see Amazon sells these brushes stand-alone.
 

Used valve body. What a tiny passage!

I prefer to clean the seals with my finger tips. For the black one pictured above, use the stippled nut that holds the valve closed to turn the stalk counter-clockwise (the "Open" direction) while holding the seal between your index finger and thumb, (or whatever method you prefer) and just rub the sealant off as gently as possible. Those are some very delicate seals, so tread lightly.

New valve. White Teflon & black rubber seals showing

Given that all the air or CO2 you'll ever put in your tires has to go through this very small passage, it should be obvious how important it is to keep both this and the stem clean. It's also the reason I had to use all High-Flow connections and couplers on my 120psi air-compressor system to insure a quick bead-seat, which it does without fail.

SS drinking straw cleaning brush

White plastic bead on tip is go/no-go sizing device

 

Damaged Goods:

Though I'm pretty sure this tire could be mounted and it would hold air, it has a lot of damage, especially to the bead area. The threads showing through almost everywhere on the sidewalls are disturbing, as are the strings/chords/fibers showing through on the inside of the casing. There's also quite a bit of rubber missing from the ribbed area that runs from the center to the bead on the inside of the tire casing.

Those ribs are probably one reason this tire has such low rolling resistance, and give the tire such good sidewall strength even when going flat. By contrast, the inside of Schwalbe's tire looked like a golf ball, with thousands of tiny dimples.

I'm sure some of the damage you see here was done by the pressure washer, but given that Conti's TLs always let go of the bead, there's no option of injecting more sealant without having to re-seat the bead on top of old sealant, or remove the tire and clean everything thoroughly and then reinstall the tire - which I still think is the best option. 

Lots of bead damage

Sidewall and bead both pretty chewed up

Extensive damage to the bead area

This looks like puncture damage

Cracked rubber and loose threads

This could be damage, but the hole looks too clean

Note the casing ribs

Why are these casing threads exposed?

Not the bead surface that engages the rim, but still...

Sidewall chords showing around the entire tire

Note tread-wear dimples

I think you can see why I chose not to remount this tire. I am keeping it as a spare, but you can see, it is far from being used up based on the tread-wear dimples. My only consolation is that this tire did yeoman's work for almost a year and performed brilliantly.

I still think the Conti5kTL is the best thing going, but I would like to see some guidance from Conti about cleaning, mounting and caring for their TL tire, and hopefully, find a way to get the bead to hang on at zero pressure. To that end, I hope someone from Conti reads this report and the company responds in a helpful way. I'm a huge fan of the tire, but groping around for solutions to problems is getting tedious.

Cheers!

PS:
Thirty mile ride today and happy to report the new tires roll better, soak up bumps better, and do a better job of killing road-buzz. As much as I like the wear dimples, I'm going to set my own minimums for these tires based on visual inspection and road feel. I have no doubt a 25mm on my back wheel would wear out long before these became issues, but not on the front wheel. Very happy with my decision to replace the tire. Already ordered another 25mm as a spare. The old tire is getting tossed.

Also should report, it may be the Stan's Race Sealant, but the tire lost ZERO psi over the last 48hrs. That's a first for ANY tire for me.

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!
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