First race...Tyre conondrum

Whytepeak

I've entered my first race at lee quarry next weekend, with a 'how hard can it be?' attitude.

If its wet, I'll throw some maxxis tyres on, if it's dry, I'll put some semi-slick bonties on, no problems there. Trouble is, as of late, I seem to be getting punctures left right and centre.

The race will be on rock surfaced trail, which = punctures :roll:

Other than converting to tubeless, which I won't do, are there any tips you have...

For example, could I put tubless sealent into innertubes, and run them like normal?

Any other racing tips would also be appreciated. thanks.

ride_whenever

tubeless i'm afraid... I've just gone ghetto, seems to be working fine so far!

Sealant in tubes is too much extra rotating weight

Whytepeak

Hhmmm, don't have enough money for tubeless really. And there isn't much of a problem with tubes (except they puncture, all the time).

See what you mean though, and light wheels are the way forward.

bails87

I've got sealant in lightweight tubes and I've never thought the weight was noticable. Use one of the liquid sealants though, not slime, that is heavy, and tends to form a lump inside the tube....and isn't actaully that good at sealing.

BTW, conti lightweight tubes with presta valves have removable cores, I only found this out 3 months after I'd cut the tube open to get the sealant in! :oops:

ride_whenever

all schwalbe tubes have removeable cores.

for the record though, my tube less setup cost me a tenner.

2 inner tubes 20" presta (free from lbs cos they needed a hand serving customers 8) )
bottle of stans £9.99 from CRC

and then a couple of days for the tyre to seal

joshtp

this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRM7gq1fcoQ
then this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwON2VxZ ... re=related
im gonna do this soon, as soon as i get some sealent, or find it cheap.

Whytepeak

bails87 wrote:

I've got sealant in lightweight tubes and I've never thought the weight was noticable. Use one of the liquid sealants though, not slime, that is heavy, and tends to form a lump inside the tube....and isn't actaully that good at sealing.

BTW, conti lightweight tubes with presta valves have removable cores, I only found this out 3 months after I'd cut the tube open to get the sealant in! :oops:

Think i'll give that a go bails

Thanks for the tip about the removable cores, I was about to take a stanley knife to em' .

bails87

After having dozens of punctures on the stock Conti Explorers i switched to Racing Ralphs when I did the tube sealant thing too. I dont think I've actually had a puncture since May* (when I changed the tyres + tubes) so I can't say for certain how well it works. I can still hear the sealant sloshing about, so I presume if it's needed it'll do the job.

For me, I got the benefits of tubeless for less money and a tiny bit more weight. (I've never had a pinch flat, and my tyres are supple enough, so it was purely down to thorn puncture resistance)

*I may have had loads of punctures, but they sealed very quickly, but I've never noticed any thorns in the tyre or pressure loss, even when I took the back tube and tyre off a few weeks ago.

Mccraque

+1 for tubeless.

I went Tubeless back in July. Before hand I was getting about 2 or 3 flats a ride. Usually if I got a flat from a thorn, I couldn't get euuogh air in with the minipump to prevent further pinchflats on the same ride.

Since I went tubeless. zero flats in 3.5 months., And I have noticed that the wheels seem a lot zippier...in terms of getting them shifting. Nice little snap of acceleration. Is that due to lower rolling weight or different tyres? I don't know. But I do know that I am very happy.