Crosssports's Weblog

Blecch.

I’ve been experimenting with the Hutchinson/Shimano tubeless cross setup, and so far it’s been a pretty grim travail. Alex, our fine local Shimano rep, hooked me up with a set of the new DA wheels to try out while I’m waiting for mine to come in, and I mated them up with a set of the Bulldog clinchers, and a liberal doseage of sealant.

Practice at Marymoor last wednesday. The setup is rocking. I really like the tires, the wheels are fantastic (stiff, light, bomber – what more could you want, eh?) Everything is great. Except that I’m riding at about 37 psi, and I’m getting my teeth knocked out.

I drop the psi down to just above 30, and things feel better. I roll on for a couple of laps, until I begin to notice that the rear end is getting squishy. Then things go downhill fast – “squishy” becomes “flat” the next time I go around a corner, punctuated by a loud farting sound as the tire burps air. I try again with 35 psi, and things seem OK for the rest of the night.

3 Days later:

North SeaTac Park, the site of triumphs and travails of the past. Land of the thorns. Perfect place for a tubeless tire, right?

I roll warmups at 35 rear and 30 front, and front burps air on a corner or two, so I pump it up to 35. Roll another lap, and everything seems copacetic.

Race time.

1st lap, halfway through, the rear tire is feeling low. As I go by the first time I yell to the “pit” that I will need to get a change. We’re rolling in a group of 5, and the tire is OK – just a little low – so I don’t come in for a change the next time through. The pit is on a downhill section, leading onto the fastest section of the course… so a change is gonna’ mess you up bigtime. I tell the pit that I will come in on the way back; the pit is a little less awful in that direction.

Yeah. I’m an idiot.

I lead off the road into the 1st run-up (which is pretty rideable, which I take advantage of,) and attack up it. Dale Knapp and I are off with a sizeable gap.

But now my rear tire is completely gone. Dale is cool and doesn’t attack me, but eventually he needs to ride away, and I’m dropped. We opened such a big gap that I actually manage to enter the pit with the 2nd place group, but I’m totally gassed from trying to ride the flat and the pit is super-shitty – on the wrong side and downhill, on pavement – so I lose contact when I make the change.

I’m starting to work back – on the “B” bike, which has standard Bulldog Clinchers on it – when I roll in to the runup/rideup again. The guy I’m riding with blows the 2nd step-up trying to ride it, comes to an instant complete stop, and I ride directly into a rock trying to avoid giving him a Redline enema.

Flat tire, about as far from the pit as possible.

Race over, end of story. Dale won by a mile, held the gap all the way home.

Stuff:

 – I’m not done with the tubeless experiment yet, and it wasn’t all bad. I flatted the clincher at right about the same spot as the tubeless, and there was no way I was going to ride that in. The adhesion of the tubeless tire when pretty much dead flat was impressive. I’m going to fasttack the tires to the f-in rim when I get my set of wheels and see if that helps…

– I rode 1/2 lap with a flat, and nailed I don’t know how many rocks and roots, and the DA wheels are dead true, no dings. Pretty f-in amazing. Damn fine wheels, folks.

– Miller genuine draft from a can actually tastes pretty good when it’s served up with a generous helping of dissapointment.

– Dale is back, and riding damn well. It’s an honor to race against him, and the whole scene is ineffably better when he and Anne are around.

later –

~ by crosssports on October 12, 2008.

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