Tyres for 3 Peaks

cyclingsheep

Ok lads, was sure I'd seen a thread on this a few years ago but couldn't find it using a search. I run clincher wheelsets that as far as I know can't be run tubeless and there's no way I'm taking tubs so what are suggestions for a tough but grippy tyre for the 3 Peaks?

devhads

I thought I'd heard a can of worms being opened somewhere

Nice to see you got in cyclingsheep. As a fellow first timer I'm afraid I can't offer anything more than second hand advice, but a multiple 3 peak competitor from our club has advised to err on the side of toughness when choosing a tyre. The received wisdom is to use Schwalbe Landcruisers, tough as boots but according to my clubmate offering very little grip and very heavy. He has used tubs successfully on several occasions, Tufo Cubus being the tub of choice for him. He has never punctured using either of these tyres.

I'm going for tubeless. I have some tubeless ready Bontrager wheels that I took off a bike and never used so will be shodding them with Bontrager CX3 tubeless ready tyres. I'm hoping that the claimed superior sub tread reinforcement will be up for the job. Generally tubeless ready tyres have more substantial sidewalls so they are not porous and leak air. I'll not be running them at anything like CX race pressures, probably around 60 psi. I was considering the CX0 which is more of a gravel tyre and would be much faster on the road sections but opted for a bit more grip, even though I have been told that mud is rarely an issue. These can be run with tubes of course. I usually use Challenge tyres and tubs for racing but I don't think they are going to be anywhere near tough enough for 3 Peaks.

cyclingsheep

Hey mate. Yeah got a late entry after the original ballot places didn't get taken up. Have done no training but couldn't turn the chance down really.

ugo.santalucia

I find WTB tyres very robust, compared to others

trek_dan

My mate did it last on year on Schwalbe Marthathon Plus, no punctures. He also said cross tops are a must otherwise you'll ruin your hands. I didn't get in this year, although I'm somewhat relieve in reality, I'm too fat for all that running

VamP

devhads wrote:

I thought I'd heard a can of worms being opened somewhere

Nice to see you got in cyclingsheep. As a fellow first timer I'm afraid I can't offer anything more than second hand advice, but a multiple 3 peak competitor from our club has advised to err on the side of toughness when choosing a tyre. The received wisdom is to use Schwalbe Landcruisers, tough as boots but according to my clubmate offering very little grip and very heavy. He has used tubs successfully on several occasions, Tufo Cubus being the tub of choice for him. He has never punctured using either of these tyres.

I'm going for tubeless. I have some tubeless ready Bontrager wheels that I took off a bike and never used so will be shodding them with Bontrager CX3 tubeless ready tyres. I'm hoping that the claimed superior sub tread reinforcement will be up for the job. Generally tubeless ready tyres have more substantial sidewalls so they are not porous and leak air. I'll not be running them at anything like CX race pressures, probably around 60 psi. I was considering the CX0 which is more of a gravel tyre and would be much faster on the road sections but opted for a bit more grip, even though I have been told that mud is rarely an issue. These can be run with tubes of course. I usually use Challenge tyres and tubs for racing but I don't think they are going to be anywhere near tough enough for 3 Peaks.

I'd be wary of tubeless Dave. Especially if it's an untested wheelset. A clubmate ran a tubeless set up for Omloop van der dries Dorpfen, (think the CCA G ride, but at race speed - not too dissimilar to the PYG descent) fully expecting the sealant to deal with any small punctures. He burped the lot on the first sector. I was on road tyres with latex and pinch punctured in warm up at 60 psi, but was fine in race at 80 psi.

He ran tubeless ready rims and I think Vittoria Pave, had done a lot of testing and had confidence in his set up. My point is when tubeless fails, it fails catastrophically and leaves a lot of mess

The Tufo solution is a good one, as you can pre-load with sealant to deal with small punctures. A big sidewall slash will end your day though. I'd take your challenge + latex plus some spares personally. Any punctures will be quickly fixed (unlike on heavy duty tyres) and will not end your day.

Not a fan of heavy duty tyres personally, so I'd keep away from the Landcruiser/Marathons, but there's plenty who do use them.

Volume is your friend, so take the biggest tyres that will fit in your frame. And don't be afraid go with file treads, you'll have plenty of grip.

devhads

VamP wrote:

devhads wrote:

I thought I'd heard a can of worms being opened somewhere

Nice to see you got in cyclingsheep. As a fellow first timer I'm afraid I can't offer anything more than second hand advice, but a multiple 3 peak competitor from our club has advised to err on the side of toughness when choosing a tyre. The received wisdom is to use Schwalbe Landcruisers, tough as boots but according to my clubmate offering very little grip and very heavy. He has used tubs successfully on several occasions, Tufo Cubus being the tub of choice for him. He has never punctured using either of these tyres.

I'm going for tubeless. I have some tubeless ready Bontrager wheels that I took off a bike and never used so will be shodding them with Bontrager CX3 tubeless ready tyres. I'm hoping that the claimed superior sub tread reinforcement will be up for the job. Generally tubeless ready tyres have more substantial sidewalls so they are not porous and leak air. I'll not be running them at anything like CX race pressures, probably around 60 psi. I was considering the CX0 which is more of a gravel tyre and would be much faster on the road sections but opted for a bit more grip, even though I have been told that mud is rarely an issue. These can be run with tubes of course. I usually use Challenge tyres and tubs for racing but I don't think they are going to be anywhere near tough enough for 3 Peaks.

I'd be wary of tubeless Dave. Especially if it's an untested wheelset. A clubmate ran a tubeless set up for Omloop van der dries Dorpfen, (think the CCA G ride, but at race speed - not too dissimilar to the PYG descent) fully expecting the sealant to deal with any small punctures. He burped the lot on the first sector. I was on road tyres with latex and pinch punctured in warm up at 60 psi, but was fine in race at 80 psi.

He ran tubeless ready rims and I think Vittoria Pave, had done a lot of testing and had confidence in his set up. My point is when tubeless fails, it fails catastrophically and leaves a lot of mess

The Tufo solution is a good one, as you can pre-load with sealant to deal with small punctures. A big sidewall slash will end your day though. I'd take your challenge + latex plus some spares personally. Any punctures will be quickly fixed (unlike on heavy duty tyres) and will not end your day.

Not a fan of heavy duty tyres personally, so I'd keep away from the Landcruiser/Marathons, but there's plenty who do use them.

Volume is your friend, so take the biggest tyres that will fit in your frame. And don't be afraid go with file treads, you'll have plenty of grip.

The one thing that is putting me off is trying to get a tube in a tyre with sealant in it if I get a puncture. I'm going to give it a go and will be testing them out on long rides like Tour of the Cornfields which is renowned for it's punctures.

I have been happy with all my Challenge tyres and never seem to puncture with them with latex but I've been told so many times that the sidewalls will not cope with the 3 Peaks. As I said a can of worms and I'm sure I'll get lots of different advice and change my mind several times. That's all part of 3 peaks preparation though isn't it?

VamP

Definitely! I'm not even going and I'm getting in on the action

cyclingsheep

trek_dan wrote:

My mate did it last on year on Schwalbe Marthathon Plus, no punctures. He also said cross tops are a must otherwise you'll ruin your hands. I didn't get in this year, although I'm somewhat relieve in reality, I'm too fat for all that running

From what I hear Vamp it's less running and more trudging, at least I hope that's right, I'm pretty sure I can manage a trudge.

cycleclinic

Tubeless is fine. Been running tubeless on MTB's and road bikes for a while now with no issues. Tyres burp if there is a fitting issue r pressure are too low. Vittoria Paves are not tubeless tyres and therefore that was his fitting issue.
Wider tubeless tyres can be run at much lower pressure. My 2.2" tyres on one of my 29ers are fine a 18F/20R psi. A cross tyre run tubeless would be fine at 30 psi. the lower pressure means a bigger hole can seal and then there is stans race sealant. Go tubeless but do it properly if you do. Many of the issues people encounter are because of setup issues.

Is this a road of off road ride on gravel lane e.t.c. A quick google search is not bring up much apart from a sportive that seems to have happened.

Garry H

thecycleclinic wrote:

Is this a road of off road ride on gravel lane e.t.c. A quick google search is not bring up much apart from a sportive that seems to have happened.

It's like a fell race, but pushing a bike at the same time. Purely British craziness.

VamP

:roll:

thecycleclinic wrote:

Tubeless is fine. Been running tubeless on MTB's and road bikes for a while now with no issues. Tyres burp if there is a fitting issue r pressure are too low. Vittoria Paves are not tubeless tyres and therefore that was his fitting issue.
Wider tubeless tyres can be run at much lower pressure. My 2.2" tyres on one of my 29ers are fine a 18F/20R psi. A cross tyre run tubeless would be fine at 30 psi. the lower pressure means a bigger hole can seal and then there is stans race sealant. Go tubeless but do it properly if you do. Many of the issues people encounter are because of setup issues.

Is this a road of off road ride on gravel lane e.t.c. A quick google search is not bring up much apart from a sportive that seems to have happened.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

Is this a road of off road ride on gravel lane e.t.c. A quick google search is not bring up much apart from a sportive that seems to have happened.

It's the pinnacle of amateur cyclocross in the UK and it's widely recognised as a tough challenge even abroad. It's one to bag if you are into ticking boxes in British Cycling

As the name suggests, it's about summiting 3 peaks, so not much in the way of tarmac or gravel... it's a case of pedal where you can and run where you can't

tgotb

Tufo tubs for me, current thinking is 60psi.

Devhads - if you puncture or burp tubeless, it's trivially easy to pour out the sealant and fit an inner tube. That said, I don't think it's the right call for this race. I've blown a tubeless tyre clean off the rim at 50psi, and pinch flatted the same combo in a trophy race at Shrewsbury (proper tubeless tyres and rims). I think they're too finicky with the limited volume of a CX tyre vs mtb; now relegated to training only...

Barbarossa

Lots of discussion on the 3 Peaks Forum. Consensus seems to be Schwalbe Land Cruisers.

bobmcstuff

ugo.santalucia wrote:

thecycleclinic wrote:

Is this a road of off road ride on gravel lane e.t.c. A quick google search is not bring up much apart from a sportive that seems to have happened.

It's the pinnacle of amateur cyclocross in the UK and it's widely recognised as a tough challenge even abroad. It's one to bag if you are into ticking boxes in British Cycling

As the name suggests, it's about summiting 3 peaks, so not much in the way of tarmac or gravel... it's a case of pedal where you can and run where you can't

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... oss-193326

I've walked the Yorkshire 3s a couple of times and it is mental that people race it on CX bikes. As the pictures show there's a few paths which are pretty rideable but a lot of it really is not rideable!!

Would love to have a go one day