Two Wheel Blogs

I have been playing around again with tires (it is sort of an ongoing story of my life).

I went out for a short ride yesterday (basically a 45 minute sprint/hammer session on the MTB). I wanted to try to test the limits of my tires, and possibly destroy them.

Some of you will recall that I do this sort of thing EVERY year. I put on some semi-slicks and start playing around with tires and formulate plans for the rest of the year.

This year seems a bit different. Someone questioned my choice of tires yesterday, and I found myself explaining that semi-slicks work great in conditions like we have right now (here). They are fast on the moist hardpack (stickey), and worthless (like everything else is) in the standing water/mud holes. The advantage tips to the semi-slicks in that they hold no muck and come out of the mud quickly (and throw up less crap onto my bike).

Yesterday, I managed to turn some good lap times, but I also managed to pick up 2 thorns. So, this morning I pulled out the tubes and went back to tube-less. More on that as my season develops...

While searching for a little info on my tires, I stumbled onto this bit of news. Stans now makes a tube-less kit for road wheels! Word of mouth reviews have led me to believe that this set up will be the fast ticket (it is said to lower rolling resistance, and improve road "feel"). I am not sure, but there may be an opportunity to save a few grams in an important area (for those weight weenies out there). I may have to do some testing on this to find out for myself.