Sold the lobster.

 

I'm having too much fun with the side piece so I'm leaving my main chick. $2800 takes it.

2014 Cervelo S3, 54cm frame
MY14 Record levers/derailleurs, Chorus 11-29 cassette, Comp Ultra crankset
FLO30 wheels with Powertap rear hub
3T Ergonova Team 44cm carbon bars, 100mm stem, S5 2-position seatpost

I'm keeping the saddle, pedals, and bottle cages. Everything else goes.

Some small blemishes on the levers and rear derailleur from a crash last year. The group was carried onto this frame, so this bike as-built has never been dropped or crashed.

 

Let's talk road tubeless, I just bought a second set of wheels for the Stigmata so that I can have road tires on one set and cross on the other and switch them out as needed.

Both wheels are tubeless ready, one set of WTB ASYM i19 and one Easton ARC 24.

Should I bother trying to tubeless some road tires or just use tubes on the road wheels? Rolling resistance is my priority.

 

Reason # 437 to hate rim brakes: Thevery.

Some degenerate cuntmuffin stole the brake pads off my bike over the weekend




Front and rear:



This is what I get for valuing my life and spending Hustler-money on nice brake pads. At least they were nice enough to detach the cable cleanly rather than cutting them...

 

Always make sure to close your mouth as you roll by the photographer so everyone knows how bored and easy this is for you:

 

Very preaux

 

Oui.
I think my adornment with the cycling cap is somewhere between "Belgian" and "George Michael in a leather cap".

 

Tubeless road has fractionally less rolling drag than latex tubes, but is of course far more puncture resistant. Tubeless weighs a tad more than non TL tires and latex tubes. Tubeless is a real bitch to repair in the field, like really unpleasant.

I have a set of 28C tubeless slicks on my gravel bike and absolutely love them. For the grip they have, the rolling resistance is very low.

Butyl tubes have more rolling resistance than either TL or latex. The biggest gains however, will be simply choosing a low drag tire. The best low drag tire with a cheap butyl tube will be far superior to a cheap TL ot latex equipped tire.

My road racing and TT tires are 24/26C Specialized S Works Turbo clincher with latex tubes. Training tires are the cheaper Pro versions with butyl tubes. Wheels I'm building for TT bike are TL so they'll run the 24/26C TL version of the S-Works Turbo.

Vittoria just released graphene reinforced road tires that push their numbers up there with the Schwalbe One and GP4000S II

I think I linked this earlier in the thread and am too lazy to find the post:
Bicycle Rolling Resistance | Rolling Resistance Tests

Where the rubber meets the road: What makes cycling tires fast? - VeloNews.com

As you can see, there are some huge differences in tires/tubes.

 

I am switching from GP4K to S-Works Turbo 24mm tires when I burn up what I have later this season. I'd like to know where Gatorskins fall on that list as they are my training tire for now.

 

Ugh, gatorskins.

you riding over crushed glass roads or through construction sites? LOL.

 

Thanks for the info, Emilio!

My main take-away is that I'll be using tubes in my road tires.

 

Until road TL becomes easier to repair in the field, I'll stick to butyl tubes and keep road TL just for racing.

TL on MTB is a different animal, still tougher to dismount in the field than non TL but easy enough to be worth the enormous benefits. So virtually anyone who cares how their bike performs runs TL on their MTB

 

It's really easy to dismount a flat tubeless tire on a MTB... just ride on the flat until the tire de-beads.

 

And the blood makes an excellent lubricant

 

If you flat a tubeless tire, can you not just throw a tube in it and continue as normal? That's what I do - just carry the same spares kit as I would normally carry. If you flat (big "if" with tubeless), just take the valve out, throw a tube in the tire, and inflate as normal, then repair/replace as needed once you're home with the proper tools.

 

Of course. It's more a matter of how difficult it is to remove the bare tire from the rim. Most MTB TL on TL rims require one good tire lever and sometime just bare hands and strong fingers. Some really tight ones, two levers.

Road TL are a whole 'nother kettle. Designed to stay on at 100psi with a safety factor up to probably 130psi, they are insanely tight. Even in the shop with two steel reinforced levers, my fingers turn white getting them on. And that's the easy part.Getting them off is one of the most difficult bike maintenance tasks you'll ever do. In the shop, I have to use a steel screwdriver to push the bead off the rim. Absolutely no way on hell they are coming off with dull nosed tire levers. That's right, screwdriver on $1000 carbon rim. To avoid damaging the wheel, it's done surgically, a few mm at a time working all the way around both beads. Takes me about 15 minutes in the shop. Needless to say that would be a deal breaker out on a ride. I had to put a tube in one once after cutting a sidewall. Took me about 45 minutes with the tiny screwdriver on the folding multi tool IIRC.

So yeah, MTB tubeless ≠ road tubeless

 

Serious question: any experience with running tubeless in hybrid sizes (eg: 700 x 35-40)?

Shlammed jokingly asked Hustler if he was riding over crushed-glass roads in construction zones, but in Manhattan, that's actually a pretty good description of my daily commute. Even with Michelin Pilots and slime in the tubes, January was a Month of Flats for me; five tubes in four weeks. (Been doing ok of late, for no adequately explained reason.)

Not that I'm looking for excuses to spend money, but if a set of tubeless tires will pay for themselves in subway fare not spent, it might be worth looking into.

 

My gravel bike has 40C tubeless. They are amazing and I can just about take them off with bare hands.

caveat: Most tubeless versions of a give tire tend to be the higher end performance oriented casing. So folding bead, thinnest casing for low weight and rolling resistance. Between wire and folding, doesn't matter for your use. Folding bead just easier to mount. Specialized has a pretty much legendary tire called an Armadillo. Rides like a truck, pedals like you are in sand, has **** for grip, last forever and is all but unpuncturable. Oh yeah, they weight like two pounds (not exaggerating). There are a bunch of other good puncture resistant tires that are not quite so severe in their design compromises..

What tubeless gets you is almost instant sealing of anything under about 1mm using Stan's or other sealants. Stans just released a new "Race" sealant which will seal absolutely huge holes. The tradeoff is that it's so sticky that's it practically glues your tire to the rim. OK for racing, probably not so for commuting. Your call on that one.

Slime sucks. What was once a viable alternative is now relegated to the obsolete pile with floppy disks.

 

Aha, that makes sense. Maybe I don't want that, then.

 

Speaking of commuting on tubeless, how often are y'all reinflating your tires? Daily? I tried this morning to get away with riding after not topping up the psi in the 33s on the CX bike and the rear was way too low.

If my experience is normal, that might be something for Joe to consider.