Bicycling

Picked up the new 'whip today and took it for a proper ride in the rain, mud and wet leaves. Thing is AWESOME. 28lbs with pedals, but should be able to shave a few off of that after going tubeless, 1x10, etc.

Roughly how much weight does tubeless shave off? Been thinking of doing it, but haven't pulled the trigger. Almost all of my friends are riding tubeless.

Disp_sl said:

Roughly how much weight does tubeless shave off? Been thinking of doing it, but haven't pulled the trigger. Almost all of my friends are riding tubeless.

Click to expand...

Just a pound or two. I'm going to give it one more shot with this thing, just for shits. I did it on my Scalpel when I first got the wheelset that's on it now and it's (IMO) a fuckin' pain in the balls. Once it's setup I guess it's just a tad more maintenance, but I ran 22-25psi all season with Ardent EXOs (with tubes) and never once had a pinch flat. By comparison, I'd say one out of every 5 rides I was waiting for a buddy to pump his shit up on the trail because his tires burped.

I know the devotees of tubeless love it, so it's quite possible that I'm overthinking it. It took me an age to get the bead to seal when I tried it, and after a couple of rides fucking with sealant I just said fuck it and threw in some slime tubes.

Its not a pain at all. I get mine to seat with floor pumps easily. I pull the valve core and use a Stan's injector to put in new sealant every four months or so as it dries up. No need to ever re-break the bead with that method. Once in a great while I might pull the whole tire to clean out the gunk but for the most part I find that unnecessary.

Even if you find the initial set up annoying, once its on there its pretty hassle free. What IS a hassle is getting a fucking flat on the trail. Between thorns and rock gardens I don't see how anyone can stand mountain biking with tubes anymore. I'll never go back.

Doing it to save weight is one of the least attractive reasons though. For me personally I use a ton of sealant because three out of four of my rims and tires aren't "tubeless ready" much less UST. With four ounces of sealant in each tire, plus rim strips since I'm not running a true tubless system, I don't imagine I'm saving a ton of weight over tubes.

I've only ever had one burp over the years and that was hitting a real twisted up mess of rock badly with the front tire. I've ridden over plenty of gnarly ass rock gardens and only the one burp. I think people who chronically get burping are trying to push their pressures too low for their weight and the trail conditions. Just because youcanrun super low pressure doesn't mean its worth risking your rims over.

Having the right tools for the job is at least half the battle. There's nothing you can't learn to do from Park Tool/Sheldon Brown websites and You Tube is even better to me. Plus manufacturer manuals for your components are online and can come in handy. Some stuff may be slightly confusing at first. Worst case scenario is you fuck something up and have to buy a new part, but you learn from those mistakes too. Most likely you'll be fine. Having multiple bikes helps too, always something to ride if one is taken apart for a moment.

Fuck being on bike shops' time and dime. Untenable situation for anyone who rides a lot. Plus maintenance and upgrades are part of the hobby part.

Doing your own mechanical work is the only way to go, I only use the lbs for shit like wheel building and pressing headsets. I want to get a truing stand but have more important stuff I need like a set of track tubulars.

A video of me riding a local trail here in Bavaria. its a bit long and quite a bit of fire-road at the end. That being said I was super stoked on it. 1290 meters decent and a max speed of 55k somewhere in there. oh yeah I stopped because I thought I may have left my phone sitting on a bench before i started the descent.

You guys knew I'd add some fruity touches to the Trance, right? 30T Race Face up front, 42T Wolftooth in the rear. This pic's up at my LBS, still waiting on the bash to show up, but I should have it back tomorrow.

Why isn't it green?

Kalaar Kururuc_sl said:

Why isn't it green?

Click to expand...

Red for the Scalpel, green for the Fatty, blue for the Trance. (It matched the fork adjustment knobs, hah.) I got the bashguard on, thing looks badass.



Better pic of the cassette:



I also got some new bits for the Fatboy.


Fatbike weight w/pedals, one stock tube (heavy) and one Surly tube, with a Race Face seat post (I have a crank brothers carbon on the way). Seat post should shed a little, but I think getting it under 30 without going tubeless is going to be pretty challenging.

Screw all you dirty hookers, I'll keep the thread alive by talking to myself!

Took this pic this morning on an overpass connecting two state parks. It was also cold as balls.

It was really nice in the Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now its winter.

I came up real nicely this weekend on bike gear. Showers pass had a sale pay weekend that netted me a waterproof jacket for fifty bucks then castelli had a sale Thursday on sample stuff. Grabbed two pairs of tights, a long sleeve insulated jersey, two pairs of bib shorts, couple caps and a couple pair of socks for 160ish.

I gotta take my bikes in for a complete tune up. I want to ride again during my semester break. Ughhh miss it. Haha.

fifey_sl said:

I came up real nicely this weekend on bike gear. Showers pass had a sale pay weekend that netted me a waterproof jacket for fifty bucks then castelli had a sale Thursday on sample stuff. Grabbed two pairs of tights, a long sleeve insulated jersey, two pairs of bib shorts, couple caps and a couple pair of socks for 160ish.

Click to expand...

I've never heard of Showers Pass - did some Googling and it looks like their stuff is a bit cheaper than the usual iZumi stuff I buy. That's a pretty solid haul for $160. I'm still hunting for the right set of Fatbike pants for the winter, and will probably end up with CX ski tights if I can find the right fit.

Related: I'm not sure if there are Dicks (haha) near you guys, but if there are, they're having a buy one get one sale on Yaktrax wool socks. They end up about $6 a pair, and are warm as hell.

Yaktrax MenS Sporting Goods

I hate the way pearl izumi shit fits, every time I've bought something of theirs I give it away. It's got that "American" fit if you know what I mean.