Took the ghetto tubeless tires out for a ride today. Both tires were still at full pressure. I rode up Slate Canyon, unfortunately there is still a bit of snow and mud up the canyon so I had to hike-a-bike past the worst parts, and turned around a bit early. It is going to be another week or two before we can really ride up the canyon. I think the canyon will be a good test of the tubeless system. It held up going through the dry river beds with all of the banging on rocks. When the snow melts it will make a good torture test.
My Edge 305 arrived today. I'm fighting of the urge to leave work early to go try it out.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Ghetto tubeless
I decided to try out the Ghetto Tubeless System. So last night I brought my bike home (I have been keeping it at work lately) and installed the tubeless system.
I learned a few things: It is easier to put a little air in the 20" tube and cutting it down the middle before putting it on the rim. If you do it the way the instructions say you end up having to fiddle around with the tube to keep it centered while cutting it.
The Stan's no tubes system says to enlarge the valve stem hole. I didn't want to damage my rims so I didn't do this to start with. However when I was trying to get the bead to seal it just would not do it even when using an air tank to get a large volume of air. The valve stem kept the tube from going into the rim far enough to get a good seal.
It is a lot easier to get the bead to seal if you slosh the sealant around in the tire first. I couldn't get the bead to seal just using soapy water. However when I put the sealant in and sloshed it around so that it got all around the bead it sealed up quite easily. In fact it went so well on the first tire that I decided to try and do it with a hand pump on the second tire. I couldn't get that to work but it did seal up nicely when using the air tank.
If you can find a 20" presta valve tube it would work better. I used tubes bought from Walmart. With a presta valve I could have put the little nut on the valve to hold it in place while trying to fill the tire. Of course since most high volume compressors don't work with presta valves you would need one of those adaptors. With out the presta tube I found I needed a pair of pliers I could use to hold the valve out while inflating with the air tank in order to keep from pushing the valve into the tire and messing up the bead seal.
I think new tires would have been easier. I used the old tires that were already on my bike. They don't have more than a month of riding season wear left in them. But I wanted to try it out on my old tires before messing up some new tires. Anyway my old tires are a bit stretched out and therefore a bit loose on the rim which made getting the seal a bit difficult. I think new tires would work a bit better here.
Old tires have a lot of microscopic holes in the side walls. After sealing up the bead on my front tire I sloshed the sealant around in the tire and in a few seconds everything was sealed up and it kept its pressure. However the rear tire after getting the bead sealed had latex foaming out all over the side walls. Looking at a new Smoke (the rear tire I'm using) it seems that it would work a bit better, but the used tire has a lot of miniature holes in the sidewall. I did this in the middle of the night and couldn't really go out and ride right after installing. The next morning the front tire still had the 50lbs of air in it that I had left it with the night before. The rear tire basically had no pressure. So I put more air in sloshed the sealant around, observed more bubbles coming out the side walls and left it to do my morning chores. When I got back to the bike the rear tire was flat again. I pumped it up again and this time it seems to be holding air. I took it for a ride (the numbers above) around the back yard to get it broken in. Looks like it is holding air fine now.
So far it looks like I am going to like this. After a while I will have to try bunny hopping up over a curb and see how it works. Every time I have tried this with tubes, I snake bite the tubes. I always land hard on the edge of the curb with the back tire. Even with full suspension and high pressure I still snake bite the tubes. If this ghetto tubeless system can pass that test I will figure it is a success. However there are no curbs around my house and I don't think I will push it much while riding with my buddies because I don't want to be holding everyone up while I convert back to tubes.
I learned a few things: It is easier to put a little air in the 20" tube and cutting it down the middle before putting it on the rim. If you do it the way the instructions say you end up having to fiddle around with the tube to keep it centered while cutting it.
The Stan's no tubes system says to enlarge the valve stem hole. I didn't want to damage my rims so I didn't do this to start with. However when I was trying to get the bead to seal it just would not do it even when using an air tank to get a large volume of air. The valve stem kept the tube from going into the rim far enough to get a good seal.
It is a lot easier to get the bead to seal if you slosh the sealant around in the tire first. I couldn't get the bead to seal just using soapy water. However when I put the sealant in and sloshed it around so that it got all around the bead it sealed up quite easily. In fact it went so well on the first tire that I decided to try and do it with a hand pump on the second tire. I couldn't get that to work but it did seal up nicely when using the air tank.
If you can find a 20" presta valve tube it would work better. I used tubes bought from Walmart. With a presta valve I could have put the little nut on the valve to hold it in place while trying to fill the tire. Of course since most high volume compressors don't work with presta valves you would need one of those adaptors. With out the presta tube I found I needed a pair of pliers I could use to hold the valve out while inflating with the air tank in order to keep from pushing the valve into the tire and messing up the bead seal.
I think new tires would have been easier. I used the old tires that were already on my bike. They don't have more than a month of riding season wear left in them. But I wanted to try it out on my old tires before messing up some new tires. Anyway my old tires are a bit stretched out and therefore a bit loose on the rim which made getting the seal a bit difficult. I think new tires would work a bit better here.
Old tires have a lot of microscopic holes in the side walls. After sealing up the bead on my front tire I sloshed the sealant around in the tire and in a few seconds everything was sealed up and it kept its pressure. However the rear tire after getting the bead sealed had latex foaming out all over the side walls. Looking at a new Smoke (the rear tire I'm using) it seems that it would work a bit better, but the used tire has a lot of miniature holes in the sidewall. I did this in the middle of the night and couldn't really go out and ride right after installing. The next morning the front tire still had the 50lbs of air in it that I had left it with the night before. The rear tire basically had no pressure. So I put more air in sloshed the sealant around, observed more bubbles coming out the side walls and left it to do my morning chores. When I got back to the bike the rear tire was flat again. I pumped it up again and this time it seems to be holding air. I took it for a ride (the numbers above) around the back yard to get it broken in. Looks like it is holding air fine now.
So far it looks like I am going to like this. After a while I will have to try bunny hopping up over a curb and see how it works. Every time I have tried this with tubes, I snake bite the tubes. I always land hard on the edge of the curb with the back tire. Even with full suspension and high pressure I still snake bite the tubes. If this ghetto tubeless system can pass that test I will figure it is a success. However there are no curbs around my house and I don't think I will push it much while riding with my buddies because I don't want to be holding everyone up while I convert back to tubes.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Gooseberry Mesa and Green Valley
Gooseberry mesa is always good for at least one good crash. The section called "God's Skateboard Park" is a maze of tight turns round trees and rocks and short steep climbs and drops. A lot of the trail is on large sections of red sandstone called slickrock. In these sections white dots are painted on the rock to mark the way to go. At one point I turned a corner around a rock, off to the left could be seen tracks in the dirt between a tree and rock on the right were dots headed straight up an eight foot high rock. A split second decision was required. I'm not sure what was the reason for the choice I made, it could have been that I was having a lot of fun challenging myself, or maybe I wanted my cousin, who was right behind me, to see how I could take on the best the trail had to offer. I took the trail to the right. Not knowing before hand what was coming my speed was a bit slow. I was able to get my front wheel just barely over the top edge of the rock when the momentum and traction ended. Grabbing both brakes and putting a foot down I was able to hold my position on the rock for a moment. Knowing this wouldn't last I let out a little yelp, "help"! My cousin rounded the corner just in time to see me loose the momentary gravity defying stance I was holding and fall back bike over body to the rocks below. Our first thoughts were the same only directed at different objects, he wanted to know if I was OK, I wanted to make sure my bike was OK.
Now somehow there was a lesson of life in this. The lesson was quit clear this morning, but now I can't remember what it was.
Now somehow there was a lesson of life in this. The lesson was quit clear this morning, but now I can't remember what it was.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Cold Wind
That was the worst bike ride I have ever gone on. It started out OK, cool but not too bad. I figured as the day went on it would get warmer so I didn't want to over dress. I just had two shirts and my biking shorts and long pants.
We headed at a pace in the upper teens. Until we got to Five Mile Pass we seemed to be doing fine with a bit of a cross wind. Once over the pass and out towards Faust the cross wind became quite strong. It was a bit of a pain but bearable. However we knew it was going to be bad after Faust when we would turn North, and sure enough the section from Faust to Rush Valley was terrible. We had a nice steady 20 mph head wind and we were struggling to keep a 13 mph pace.
It was a relief when we finally got to Rush Valley and could again ride with a cross wind. Then we started climbing to the pass towards Dugway. This was the best part of the ride as the canyon blocked most of the wind. After getting to the top we waited for a while for Mike to get to the top. Eventually we figured something must be wrong and started back down. We found Mike 1/4 of the way down fixing a flat. After getting back to Rush Valley we had to again turn into the wind and get to the north most part of the loop.
Finally we got to turn Southeast. I figured this would be the fun easy part, but I was wrong. Now we were closer to the Oquirrh Mountains which killed a lot of the wind. Not only that but now we were going up a nice looooong climb. It was way to early for my legs to be giving out, but they were. We continued slowly up the hill and then had a nice section of down and up hills with a tail wind.
By the time we got back to Five Mile Pass my legs were completely spent, but for some reason I lead the paceline down the hill towards Fairfield. I tried to keep a good pace going down and lead most of the way down the hill. A little before Fairfield I moved to the back of the paceline and then a little further I dropped back. The rest of the ride back home I just didn't have any strength and I was feeling quite cold. It sure was nice to get home, off the bike, and out of the cold wind.
We headed at a pace in the upper teens. Until we got to Five Mile Pass we seemed to be doing fine with a bit of a cross wind. Once over the pass and out towards Faust the cross wind became quite strong. It was a bit of a pain but bearable. However we knew it was going to be bad after Faust when we would turn North, and sure enough the section from Faust to Rush Valley was terrible. We had a nice steady 20 mph head wind and we were struggling to keep a 13 mph pace.
It was a relief when we finally got to Rush Valley and could again ride with a cross wind. Then we started climbing to the pass towards Dugway. This was the best part of the ride as the canyon blocked most of the wind. After getting to the top we waited for a while for Mike to get to the top. Eventually we figured something must be wrong and started back down. We found Mike 1/4 of the way down fixing a flat. After getting back to Rush Valley we had to again turn into the wind and get to the north most part of the loop.
Finally we got to turn Southeast. I figured this would be the fun easy part, but I was wrong. Now we were closer to the Oquirrh Mountains which killed a lot of the wind. Not only that but now we were going up a nice looooong climb. It was way to early for my legs to be giving out, but they were. We continued slowly up the hill and then had a nice section of down and up hills with a tail wind.
By the time we got back to Five Mile Pass my legs were completely spent, but for some reason I lead the paceline down the hill towards Fairfield. I tried to keep a good pace going down and lead most of the way down the hill. A little before Fairfield I moved to the back of the paceline and then a little further I dropped back. The rest of the ride back home I just didn't have any strength and I was feeling quite cold. It sure was nice to get home, off the bike, and out of the cold wind.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Over at Last
The long anticipated layoffs at Novell have finally happened. A lot of good people were let go. With all this it was a given that no work was going to get done today, so they told us to take the rest of the day off.
We decided that it would be good to go for a long bike ride and get our minds off of everything. So we started at the mouth of Provo Canyon, went up to Canyon Glen, then up the Great Western trail and down Dry Canyon and back to Canyon Glen. Then we headed back up to Bridal Vail Falls and headed South on the Shoreline trail. It was a lot of fun and ended up being a great way to get over the events of the day.
To those that got blue folders, good luck and I hope you find an even better job.
We decided that it would be good to go for a long bike ride and get our minds off of everything. So we started at the mouth of Provo Canyon, went up to Canyon Glen, then up the Great Western trail and down Dry Canyon and back to Canyon Glen. Then we headed back up to Bridal Vail Falls and headed South on the Shoreline trail. It was a lot of fun and ended up being a great way to get over the events of the day.
To those that got blue folders, good luck and I hope you find an even better job.
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