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.
Showing posts with label Stans NoTubes rim tape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stans NoTubes rim tape. Show all posts
Thursday, June 4, 2020
Saturday, February 22, 2020
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.
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!
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!
So what to use? Alcohol, a tire plastic, a stiff cloth and some elbow grease.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
New Colorado Cyclist Custom Wheels
As I eluded to months ago, I did indeed purchase new wheels, and after 6 months with them, I am very happy. I had to wait 4 weeks for the front wheel and 6 for the rear wheel though, because CK was back-ordered on the R45 Matte Mango hubs, so Colorado Cyclist was slow getting them. My top priority in buying new wheels was to move to a tubeless tire system, which I hoped would be more robust against all the thorns, goat-heads and glass here in the Victorville area.
That expectation has been met and exceeded. I have also reduced rolling resistance to about 60% of what it was ( ~18 vs 30 watts) while vastly reducing hand-numbing and saddle soreness, dramatically increasing road contact surface and therefore grip, as well as saving some $$$ in not having to buy 12-15 $8 tubes per year. More on the tire journey in another post.
I ended up choosing Easton R90SL rims, DT Swiss silver Aerolite spokes, silver nipples and Matte Mango Chris King hubs. Here's a bit on my decision process...
It may seem that I saved a little weight (300 vs 245+100 for 25mm tires), as I don't have to waste 100gm on a tube, but by the time I put 60ml of Stan's sealant in the tires it works out to be the same weight. BUT, the GP5000TL has proven to be more flat resistant, AND, I no longer carry a tube, patch kit, tire irons, etc, so my saddle bag is half the size and weight it used to be, so in that sense I am saving quite a lot of weight and drag. Basically, everything you need is on the bike, but it's rolling around inside the tire, not in your saddle bag, and no rides ruined due to flats, nor phone calls home for a rescue.
I have to admit, I got lucky in regard to the raw stainless steel spoke color choice, because when you get a puncture with a tubeless tire, sealant often leaks onto the spokes, and it's VERY hard to get off. With uncolored spokes though, you can use a ScotchBrite pad to scrub those spokes clean, and because stainless is so hard (~ 300k PSI), unless you're obsessive about it, you don't have to worry about damaging the spokes.
Happily, bladed spokes make good reflectors. I just shone a small desk lamp onto my front wheel here. By way of comparison, the saddlebag has a reflective coating. A small thing that might save your life on an evening ride when you get delayed due to a mechanical or a flat.
Just a caveat about bladed spokes, you need a good spoke holder to hold the spoke so it doesn't twist when you turn the nipple to true the wheel. It's important, because once the spoke is twisted it will never twist back into the correct flat shape, and that can cause weird turbulence on fast downhill runs.
I also got lucky in my rim choice, because not only do I get a very strong, stable wheel which increases the tire's road patch, it makes the tires easier to put on because the beads, at least with the R90SL Easton, have plenty of room to seat in the bottom of the channel in the center of the rim. Once I got the hang of it I no longer need any tools to put on any tires I've tried. NICE!
The wheels came in the mail with Stan's rim tape on them, and I've stuck with that because I like Stan's tape. It's very strong, tough and lightweight. From the factory they had 4 layers of tape, which is excessive. I now use a single layer, except that I start 4 1/2 spoke holes to one side of the valve hole and overlap the same on the other side. This because I've found, in contrast to tubed tires, tubeless tires go on better when you push the last of the bead over using the valve as a stop to keep the bead from crawling past the valve.
Let me explain. I've noticed that with tubeless tires, in contrast to tubed tires, it's best to end up pushing the bead of the tire over the edge of the rim up against the valve. With a tube you want to keep the bead down against the rim at the valve, and the valve pushed up into the tire, so working the bead over at the OPPOSITE side of the rim is best.
By contrast, with tubeless you want the two beads to slide down into the deep cavity in the center of the rim (that's what makes a rim "tubless ready") to allow the bead to move as far to the opposite side as possible when going over the rim. The rub is the beads can't GET into that cavity at the valve because that space is occupied by the valve, so use the valve to stop the bead from crawling away, and let the 2 beads seat as deeply as possible on the opposite side of the rim. The priority should always be getting the 2 beads as far into the center channel as possible. Arresting bead crawl is just a nice side-effect of that.
If you need a 2nd set of hands to hold the bead (assuming you have some weird kind of rim that is very hard to get tires on, or whatever) you can use a set of Zip-Ties instead to cinch the bead down tight against the rim. Then work against that "hard point" to get the bead over the rim.
I really like the color and quality of the CK hubs. They RX you tighten up the bearing pre-load after 10 miles or so, and that is definitely needed. It's so easy though, as you don't need to remove the wheel, or even release tension on the quick-release lever. All you need is a short hex wrench to loosen the threaded bearing pre-load collar, then using that wrench as a lever, turn the collar clockwise until the bearing is snug again. Mine was VERY loose after 15 miles, the 1st chance I had to stop and futz with it. Silly simple. I love KISS engineering! As always, with bearings, loose is fast and long-lasting and tight is slow and ruinous. There are places where tighter is better, but this is NOT one of them.
The "angry bees" sound of the Chris King (same ratchet mechanism that DT Swiss uses) took a bit of getting used to, as I sometimes thought I had a vehicle behind me instead of a CK hub! My Ultegra hubs were nearly silent by contrast.
My only complaint about the CK hub is it's alloy freehub body had some tear-out from the cassette after only a few rides. I wish they offered a titanium freehub body like Shimano uses on their Dura Ace (hubs we can no longer buy for some odd reason, anyone know why?) which do NOT tear out.
I had a hell of a time trying to find handlebar tape I liked whose color went well with Matte Mango. Fizik sells some in orange that matches the color pretty well after a bit of road grim accumulates, but it's crappy tape if you care about killing road buzz. My favorite tape, Cinelli gel cork had several colors I tried. Blue (too dark), Blue Prince (not a good color match), orange (not even close), and white (gets stained by my gloves too fast).
I finally settled on Serfas light blue. It kills road buzz nicely, has just a little teal in it, and is a perfect contrast IMHO that is highly visible to mortorists. It turns out it's the same tape I put on my old CroMo steel Nishiki Competition single-speed conversion to match the lettering. I'd forgotten I bought it. Nice surprise! A little spray of Formula 409 cleaner with a hand towel keeps it nice and clean.
I have to say, these wheels have changed my life. I now feel confident riding where I want to ride, instead of where I have to guess I'll be least likely to flat. When riding next to the many, many 18-wheelers going to & from all the warehouses around here I feel pretty confident I'm not going to have a catastrophic blow-out and end up pancake-flat road-kill.
As you can see from the number on the front of the top pic, I rode the 70mi Victor Valley Bike Tour, with ~ 2,800ft of climbing. Seventy @ 63 (I'll be 64 in a few months) was only possible because the last 3 months I traded in most of my 25-35mi rides for 50-65mi rides to train for the event. I guess the word I'm looking for is LIBERATION.
.
That expectation has been met and exceeded. I have also reduced rolling resistance to about 60% of what it was ( ~18 vs 30 watts) while vastly reducing hand-numbing and saddle soreness, dramatically increasing road contact surface and therefore grip, as well as saving some $$$ in not having to buy 12-15 $8 tubes per year. More on the tire journey in another post.
I ended up choosing Easton R90SL rims, DT Swiss silver Aerolite spokes, silver nipples and Matte Mango Chris King hubs. Here's a bit on my decision process...
- I wanted faster, lighter wheels
- I wanted bomb-proof hubs and wheels that were so distinct they would discourage theft. Orange hubs are pretty unique. Where you gonna pawn them Wanna-B thief?
- I wanted wheels that made me more visible to enhance my safety. The hubs show up MUCH better than I expected, in part because I used "naked" stainless spokes, which amplifies the hub's effect rather than mutes it.
- I wanted nipples that wouldn't fade in the sunlight, so "naked" alloy.
- I wanted a little wider rim for strength and stability.
It may seem that I saved a little weight (300 vs 245+100 for 25mm tires), as I don't have to waste 100gm on a tube, but by the time I put 60ml of Stan's sealant in the tires it works out to be the same weight. BUT, the GP5000TL has proven to be more flat resistant, AND, I no longer carry a tube, patch kit, tire irons, etc, so my saddle bag is half the size and weight it used to be, so in that sense I am saving quite a lot of weight and drag. Basically, everything you need is on the bike, but it's rolling around inside the tire, not in your saddle bag, and no rides ruined due to flats, nor phone calls home for a rescue.
I have to admit, I got lucky in regard to the raw stainless steel spoke color choice, because when you get a puncture with a tubeless tire, sealant often leaks onto the spokes, and it's VERY hard to get off. With uncolored spokes though, you can use a ScotchBrite pad to scrub those spokes clean, and because stainless is so hard (~ 300k PSI), unless you're obsessive about it, you don't have to worry about damaging the spokes.
Happily, bladed spokes make good reflectors. I just shone a small desk lamp onto my front wheel here. By way of comparison, the saddlebag has a reflective coating. A small thing that might save your life on an evening ride when you get delayed due to a mechanical or a flat.
Just a caveat about bladed spokes, you need a good spoke holder to hold the spoke so it doesn't twist when you turn the nipple to true the wheel. It's important, because once the spoke is twisted it will never twist back into the correct flat shape, and that can cause weird turbulence on fast downhill runs.
I also got lucky in my rim choice, because not only do I get a very strong, stable wheel which increases the tire's road patch, it makes the tires easier to put on because the beads, at least with the R90SL Easton, have plenty of room to seat in the bottom of the channel in the center of the rim. Once I got the hang of it I no longer need any tools to put on any tires I've tried. NICE!
The wheels came in the mail with Stan's rim tape on them, and I've stuck with that because I like Stan's tape. It's very strong, tough and lightweight. From the factory they had 4 layers of tape, which is excessive. I now use a single layer, except that I start 4 1/2 spoke holes to one side of the valve hole and overlap the same on the other side. This because I've found, in contrast to tubed tires, tubeless tires go on better when you push the last of the bead over using the valve as a stop to keep the bead from crawling past the valve.
Let me explain. I've noticed that with tubeless tires, in contrast to tubed tires, it's best to end up pushing the bead of the tire over the edge of the rim up against the valve. With a tube you want to keep the bead down against the rim at the valve, and the valve pushed up into the tire, so working the bead over at the OPPOSITE side of the rim is best.
By contrast, with tubeless you want the two beads to slide down into the deep cavity in the center of the rim (that's what makes a rim "tubless ready") to allow the bead to move as far to the opposite side as possible when going over the rim. The rub is the beads can't GET into that cavity at the valve because that space is occupied by the valve, so use the valve to stop the bead from crawling away, and let the 2 beads seat as deeply as possible on the opposite side of the rim. The priority should always be getting the 2 beads as far into the center channel as possible. Arresting bead crawl is just a nice side-effect of that.
If you need a 2nd set of hands to hold the bead (assuming you have some weird kind of rim that is very hard to get tires on, or whatever) you can use a set of Zip-Ties instead to cinch the bead down tight against the rim. Then work against that "hard point" to get the bead over the rim.
I really like the color and quality of the CK hubs. They RX you tighten up the bearing pre-load after 10 miles or so, and that is definitely needed. It's so easy though, as you don't need to remove the wheel, or even release tension on the quick-release lever. All you need is a short hex wrench to loosen the threaded bearing pre-load collar, then using that wrench as a lever, turn the collar clockwise until the bearing is snug again. Mine was VERY loose after 15 miles, the 1st chance I had to stop and futz with it. Silly simple. I love KISS engineering! As always, with bearings, loose is fast and long-lasting and tight is slow and ruinous. There are places where tighter is better, but this is NOT one of them.
The "angry bees" sound of the Chris King (same ratchet mechanism that DT Swiss uses) took a bit of getting used to, as I sometimes thought I had a vehicle behind me instead of a CK hub! My Ultegra hubs were nearly silent by contrast.
My only complaint about the CK hub is it's alloy freehub body had some tear-out from the cassette after only a few rides. I wish they offered a titanium freehub body like Shimano uses on their Dura Ace (hubs we can no longer buy for some odd reason, anyone know why?) which do NOT tear out.
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| Giant black plastic spacer between rim and valve |
I had a hell of a time trying to find handlebar tape I liked whose color went well with Matte Mango. Fizik sells some in orange that matches the color pretty well after a bit of road grim accumulates, but it's crappy tape if you care about killing road buzz. My favorite tape, Cinelli gel cork had several colors I tried. Blue (too dark), Blue Prince (not a good color match), orange (not even close), and white (gets stained by my gloves too fast).
I finally settled on Serfas light blue. It kills road buzz nicely, has just a little teal in it, and is a perfect contrast IMHO that is highly visible to mortorists. It turns out it's the same tape I put on my old CroMo steel Nishiki Competition single-speed conversion to match the lettering. I'd forgotten I bought it. Nice surprise! A little spray of Formula 409 cleaner with a hand towel keeps it nice and clean.
I have to say, these wheels have changed my life. I now feel confident riding where I want to ride, instead of where I have to guess I'll be least likely to flat. When riding next to the many, many 18-wheelers going to & from all the warehouses around here I feel pretty confident I'm not going to have a catastrophic blow-out and end up pancake-flat road-kill.
As you can see from the number on the front of the top pic, I rode the 70mi Victor Valley Bike Tour, with ~ 2,800ft of climbing. Seventy @ 63 (I'll be 64 in a few months) was only possible because the last 3 months I traded in most of my 25-35mi rides for 50-65mi rides to train for the event. I guess the word I'm looking for is LIBERATION.
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