PedalSmart.blog

THEY COST WAY TOO MUCH TL;DR Summary: I love having no pinch flats with tubeless road tires. Lower PSI allowed with tubeless also adds to riding comfort.  But... I remain disappointed that I can't find a tubeless tire with durability that matches dozens of mid-priced clincher tires. I've had low priced tires, like the Continental Ultra-Sport, last a couple of years and get to more than 8000 km. My tubeless experience has been far less stellar. LOOKING FOR DURABILITY At the start of the season, I bought a pair of mid-priced Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless tires. I avoided top line tires since I wanted durability over better rolling resistance. I was happy to consider an even lower-tier tire, but couldn’t find any. MY EXPERIENCE IN 2023 1. My first rear Rubino Pro failed rather miserably after 3300 km in June. It had more than 20 tread-wear-through failures. Note that the centre tire ridge still has plenty of rubber. Why so many "wear-thru" locations? My bad. I wasn't...

 TUBELESS PUNCTURE (ROAD TIRE; SELF-HEALED) A few days ago I got a typical tubeless puncture: a pin-sized hole that self-repaired and allowed me to make it home with no drama (aside from sealant sprayed all over my bike). What I did next is perhaps more controversial. 1. The hole was centered in the middle of tread. I marked the hole with paint as soon as I found it. That turned out to be good. After the sealant dried I could not see the hole. In any event, my concern remained: The puncture is no longer leaking but can I really trust it? I decided to do permanent patch on the inside of the tire. 2. After draining left-over sealant, I had to wash my bike and the tire thoroughly + add some drying time. 3. I used a normal tube repair patch that was additionally clamped lightly in a bench vice for a few hours. Aside: Let's face it. This is more work than fixing a tube flat. But given how few tubeless flats I get, I am not really complaining. I also do all this extra repair work at ho...

Inconsiderate Behaviour Many people say: Cyclists must get along with pedestrians. Now I'm not so sure. I was riding my bike the other day when THIS happened . When are they going to learn? What do you think? Was this non-cyclist being reckless? I think it is a CANADIAN 🇨🇦 problem 🤣.                                                                                                                   Captured with a Cycliq Fly12 camera. Works like a car dashboard camera.  Some people say you can use these cameras to track down bad drivers. Never helped me in that respect. It has mainly recorded unexpected events like this one 🙂.

 HOOKED VERSUS HOOKLESS RIMS (ROAD BIKE) IMHO: There are two types of tubeless tire riders, those who get stranded and those who don't. Riders who get stuck the most have hookless rims that allow the tire to fall off in a blowout. They can't get the tire re-seated and need to call for help. The other tubeless camp has hooked rims (includes me). Ours tires rarely come off. We can patch with a tubeless repair kit bacon strip in 5 minutes. We don't even need to carry a spare tube. My limited sample: On club rides this year, about a half dozen people have needed to call home home after getting a tubeless flat. All were riding hookless rims. Few people seem to know the difference and vendors are pushing pretty hard to sell us hookless rims. Does this pass the smell test? DEJA VUE ALL OVER AGAIN? Hookless Rims remind me of Press Fit Bottom Brackets 15 years ago. Vendors insisted they were great. Reality for most people was different: Noisy, loose fitting and bearings that faile...

 NOISY PRESS FIT BOTTOM BRACKETS My Cannondale 2010 era BB30 has been noisy for 10 years. I have tried multiple fixes. In the end: Two complete bearing failures and a damaged frame shell. All appear to be related to poor alignment of the bearings that induces movement between at frame shell junction. For BB30, and most press fit BBs, primary interference (i.e., the place where the bearing is supposed to be firmly seated and immovable) is between the bearing and frame. FWIW: Electric motors I have worked on, have the interference between the axle and bearing - with frame friction being lower. This is generally a better design - especially when you want quiet operation. Only Campagnolo Ultra Torque has this axle interference design. Go figure.  Long story short: My BB30 bearing had too much movement where it mates with the frame. I tried using red Loctite as a permanent fix. That only lasts a few rides. Same for pumping in large amounts of grease. REPLACEMENT SLEEVE I purchased ...