The Old Man and the Sea(lant)

I am pretty slow to adopt most new things in cycling. I rode with clips and straps for quite a few years. I used friction shifters long after index shifters hit the scene. I thought V-brakes worked just fine until fairly recently. And one look at all the bikes in the garage would lead you to say, "Hey, what's with all the rigid forks?"

I also resisted the tubeless tire. It just seemed like a lot of trouble to solve a minor problem. How difficult is it to change out a tube?

Eventually I come around to most new technologies (except press-fit bottom brackets). With a bumper crop of goatheads ripening on the vine, it was time to try tubeless. I bought a set of wheels utilizing Velocity Blunt 35mm rims. While these are not tubeless specific rims, people seem to have decent luck with them, and I wanted the added width for more tire volume. I bought some rim tape, valves and sealant, and got to work.

Everything went pretty smoothly. The only difficult thing was getting the beads set because my air compressor isn't very powerful. It was a little frustrating, but overall the process was much simpler than I anticipated.

My Bontrager 2.35 tires grew to almost 2.5 inches on the 35mm rims. On the road the flatter tire profile felt a little slower, but on the dirt they felt great. I ran 24/20 PSI, and even though this was 8 PSI lower than I normally run for mixed-terrain rides, the tires were still too hard.

One thing I noticed immediately was the lack of tire squirm going through corners. Solid. Wide rims are where it's at.

I was taught in my teens that the valve stem always lines up with the tire logo. Always. That's the "pro look" my mechanic mentors strived for. I have done it that way for over 30 years now without even thinking about it. The partially inflated tube goes in the tire, and the valve magically lines up with the logo. But on my first tubeless setup, I completely missed the boat. NOT pro.

On the second one I came to my senses and lined it up. VERY pro.

I am actually looking forward to the first goathead to see if my money was well spent.

Later.

The Sliming of the Tubes

As we move into the latter part of summer, it's time to prepare for the annual war against goatheads. There are bad years and horrible years, and this year is merely bad due to the dry winter. Still, the damn things are everywhere.

Every year I have to choose a bike and a strategy. Last year I bought some fancy tires for my road bike that worked pretty well until I pretty much cut one in half.

In previous years I used sealant in my tubes, which works OK for thorns. However, anything larger than a pinhole usually won't seal up and might get messy. Once I hit a piece of glass that made a small cut in the tire and tube. The sealant spurted out all over the place as I rolled to a stop. I had green goo all over my bike, my clothes and my legs. It was awful.

This year I bought a bunch of 29er tubes made by QBP that have removable valve cores. This makes it much easier to inject the sealant.

I went with Slime this year because it's cheap and mostly effective. I'm sure a latex-based sealant like Stan's is better, but it is more expensive.

Pro tip: a 12-gauge spoke wrench fits the valve core flats perfectly.

I installed the tubes on the Fargo. It's not like the extra weight will really affect that tank of a bike.

Here's to a relatively flat-free thorn season.

Later.

Rambling Man

My struggles with goathead thorns have been well chronicled. I have tried thicker tubes, tire liners and tubes filled with sealant. Nothing worked very well. Last year I simply quit riding around my local area in the late summer because I became so tired of fixing flats. This year I decided to do some research and see if I could find another alternative instead of driving somewhere to ride.

I stumbled upon the Continental tire site and looked around. I didn't see anything that looked promising in the road, cyclocross or touring tires. It wasn't until I explored "trekking tires" that I found this one:

It's described as a tire for "bramble rambling." Not knowing exactly what that meant, I read further. Taken directly from the site:

"The Country Plus is just the thing for blackberry-picking ramblers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Thorns lose their sting - at least as far as the tyres are concerned. And the tread is ideally patterned for field and forest excursions. The tough Plus Breaker effectively fends off thorns and stones."

Sweet. Sounded like just the ticket. I mean, how could they not work? There's yellow stuff inside. Yellow stuff! I don't know what it is, but it must work, right? It's yellow.

Unfortunately the yellow stuff comes with a hefty weight penalty—920 grams for the 700x42 size that I ordered. Yes, over two pounds each, which is heavier than many 29er tires.

I ordered a pair for $72 from Amazon. They showed up in two huge boxes. I thought perhaps they accidentally sent a complete bike, but no. Amazon apparently only knows how to ship books.

The tires were intended for my cyclocross bike that has sat partially built (due to laziness) for almost a year. Time went by. Bike sat unfinished. More time went by. As the thorns matured on the vine I decided I could wait no longer, so I opted to see if I could cram them onto my road bike. They fit fine even at the 42mm width.

I rode them for six weeks without a single flat. I still rode cautiously and avoided the really bad areas, but I have to say the tires were awesome. Until today.

The chewy nougat center did little to fend off the utility knife blade that I ran over today. I find myself saying "In all my years of riding, I've never" a lot lately. I've never cut a tire to this extent. I could probably ride over that paper-thin little blade another 500 times and not repeat this feat. How the damn thing flipped up on end and entered the tire at a 90 degree angle I'll never know.

I guess I'll order another tire because the last six weeks of flat-free riding have been great.

Later.

Hell On Earth

Satan is winning.

Of course, you knew that. How else could this have happened?

Another sign of prevailing evil is the existence of these little guys:



They’re called goatheads or puncture vine by most people, but when I look at them I see something more sinister. Could it be . . . Satan?



They grow on an innocent-looking weed like this one:



And turn into hateful little demons who deflower your virgin tubes:



Now isn't that special?

Created in his own image, these dedicated devil minions descend (ascend?) upon us every summer, and cyclists employ a number of different defenses in a vain attempt to deal with them. I have tried Kevlar-belted tires, plastic tire liners and inner tubes filled with sealant. Nothing can totally stop them.

They can't be stopped.

By mid-summer, flat tires become routine. And by the looks of things, this summer will be the worst in recent memory. Our weird spring, with repeated heating-cooling-raining trends, has left the weed population very green well into July.

Here's a recent picture of a road near my house:



The darker green you see going all the way up the road is puncture vine. Each plant produces hundreds of thorns. In a few weeks this road will become completely impassable.

Say a prayer to la Madonna del Ghisallo for me. It's going to be a long summer.

Later.