Early this spring (March) I got some new wheels built up for me just in time to race at Ouachita. I also ordered some sweet new tires, Maxxis Ardent on the front and a Maxxis Crossmark on the rear. Well, about 3 weeks after I first raced on the tires I was out riding at Perry when I hear the familiar hissing of a puncture, keep riding waiting for it to seal, but it never seals. Stop, see that I have a abrasion and slight cut in the sidewall of the Crossmark. I pick up the bike hold it so the sidewall gets a good stans-ing, hit it with the CO2, and ride that puppy home.
However, over the next week I would occasionally hear the sputtering of the leak opening up again. So I decided that I was gonna try something experimental, cuz I am a SCIENTIST!
I used a Genuine Innovations Glue Gatch Kit on the inside of the tire sidewall to seal the cut.
That was in Early April. Its now early September, that like 5 months (50% tire wear) of wear out of a .35 cent ghetto fix. I think its money well spent. It also survived 4 races and one stupid descent of Greenslick with no problems.
Would I have tried it on a front tire? Meh? Who knows.
In other news I haver been tweaking the fit of the Mountainous Tandem. I had been using the stock grips that came with my SRAM X9 grip shifts but the length of the cockpit was putting a lot of pressure on my palms and causing some pain. As i was lamenting this I though back to the conversation that his Duckman-ness and I had in Bent Creek regarding grips. Brian raved about Ergons, owns like three sets. So I thought, what the hump have I got to loose?
I gave Big Poppi's a shout, and 3 days later I had me some brand new set of GC2's
I cut them down, so that they would play nicely with the grip shift and my crowded cockpit.
Dang! talk about comfort. They made a huge difference. I had tried Ergons once before in 07, but had not really learned how to orient and adjust them and did not find them very comfortable, so i got rid of them after a week.
If you want something to help spread out the pressure on your hands, and give you multiple hand positions for those long rides, give those ergons a spin.
Just in case you are wondering, the current maximum velocity that we have attained on the tandem is 42 mph.
6 comments:
careful with those non-ust crossmarks...mine started to separate after a while and bubbles began to form in the casing between the tread. Got a ton of miles on em before it happened, but I'd keep an eye on em if I were you.
I do the same thing with my non-tubeless tires. Makes the likes of riding Perry and Clinton much more friendly on the wallet. Too bad it took me so long to figure it out.
I raced the entire 2008 mtb season on a Tubeless tire that I cut the sidewall on and had to patch it on the inside and outside. I cut the tire riding over the Winter so I had about 7 months of riding on it.
Its good to know that the technology is serviceable.
Mark, what type of patches did you use?
Slater?
A customer at the Pathfinder had a large slit in Bonty tire on his Paragon (tubeless). He used this car tire patching kit that he picked up at a local auto parts store for like 2 dollars. Its basically just strips of latex or some similar rubbery substance and a really tiny fork. You impale the latex on the fork, shove it through the puncture, air pressure pushes it back against the slash and the stan's basically glues it into place. Problem solved. Its tiny, easily packed in a bag, doesn't required removing the tire. I, weeks later, changed his tire for him, and saw the thing from the inside, it seemed to be glued in place pretty solidly.
In 5+ years of running tubeless I think I have used actual UST tires twice (I think they were the first set I got and was scared). I have only run non-ust tires after that and have almost no issues. That being said, I have also patched lots of tires (because I'm a dirtbag) and have even sewed and superglued a few where I couldn't get a patch on both the inside and outside (the tread for example). No use throwing out a perfectly good tire when a little glue and rubber will make it nearly as good as new!
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