Wednesday 20 July 2011

WTF With The Flats?

Final W@W this evening. I was psyched to try and go under 50:00 for the race and to generally do well. The start of that race just sucks for me, and I suck for it. Entered the single track nearly last. Passed two or three, and then a couple more on the real short fire road section. My single track riding is much improved. Then passed all save one of the group I was in the caboose of through the creekside part. Went into the next single track all psyched up, and the tire burped all the air out. JHC!! The whole race passed me back. Then Women's sport passed me. Then the Clydes. And I was last of everyone. Couldn't even see anyone. Could see that my front wheel was crazy taco'd. Great. Good thing disc brakes don't care if your wheel is true, but it is slightly unnerving in turns.

Blogs are an historically poor venue for behavior commentary, so I will make two somewhat oblique comments: courteous requests to pass are generally treated with returned courtesy as well as urgency, and when you are the guy wondering why everyone who you wanted to pass was being a jerk about it, the problem is likely not "them". Don't be a whiney twat, it generally works poorly.

I passed a lot of people but I'm sure I was last in my field. Spending 7:00 plus changing a tire'll do that. The remainder of my first lap was quite fast, my second lap was very good too. My third lap wasn't spectacular but I did spend quite a bit of time waiting to pass people, and it wasn't awful. It was almost 17:00, though, and that's not fast enough.

So I have to figure this wheel/tire issue out. The front wheel needs to be totally redone a la how I did the rear. Then get the tubeless running right. The tire's a loose fit on the rim, so I'll try a Stan's liner in it. Burping es no bueno.

Man do I hate the start of that course. Jesus. And the people racing there this weekend at Cranky Monkey get to do it every lap? Blech, no thanks.

4 comments:

Stephen said...

I know you're not a person to spend money without necessity, but you should really consider getting some tubeless Continental X King or Race King 2.2 tires. At the risk to cursing myself, I have moved to a new area and am riding some of the most gnarly terrain I've ever pedaled a bike over and haven't had a single problem. I'm using a different tubeless seal brand, but I'm sure it works the same as Stan's. I find that the Continental tires fit extremely tight on my dt/specialized rim, but in turn haven't had any burping at low pressures, high speed cornering or jumping. I won't be back in DC for a while, but you can bet that when I am I will be using a mixture of the race and X king tires.

Dave K said...

Thanks for the suggestion. The Geax tires fit like a, well, not at all tight on them rims. I actually had a set of Mountain Kings in my hand and chose the Geax instead. Had read so many good things about Saguaros.

Unfortunately, the rim is terminally warped. It looks like a gorilla drove over it on a moped. I don't even understand it. So I'm taking suggestions on replacement rims (with Velocity Blunt and Stan's Arch as the current leaders.

Thanks

Stephen said...

There is a Mavic tubeless rim (either 819 or 823 depending on your tire preference) that the mechanic around here swears by for tubeless. He did say they they are somewhat expensive but they are almost indestructible. I'm personally fond of DT rims, but don't know how they fare in their line off road.

Stephen

Dave K said...

Thanks Stephen