Old School Bike Gets Stan's Tubeless System

After a few weeks with the Surley (see earlier post), I began
to look towards my next upgrade. Being a hardtail with a rigid
fork, I figured a tire with more air volume would be in order.
While the 2.3" tires I'd been riding are plenty comfy and offer excellent
grip, I figured it would be even better with lower pressure and
more air volume. That meant it was time to consider a tubeless
system.

I'd used a UST system back in the days of early tubeless, but the
tires ran without sealant, were VERY heavy and were a real pain
to seat. However, tubeless tire technology has come a long way in
the last five or six years. So, I started asking around, reading reviews
and scouring websites and one brand really stood out.
Stans NoTubes.

I've built several wheelsets for customers using the Stan's Crest
tubeless rims, so I figured I'd just order the components and build
up a set for myself. After pricing the rims, hubs, spokes, tape and
valves I realized that buying a complete Stan's Crest wheelset would
be cheaper and save me the trouble of building the wheels. I pulled
the trigger and ordered the wheels.

The Surley Karate Monkey has loads of tire clearance. It's actually
rated for up to 2.55" tire widths, so I felt confident ordering 29X2.4"
Schwalbe Racing Ralph tubeless tires.

The wheels and tires arrived Tuesday with the rims pre-taped out of
the box with valves installed. I mounted the tires, dropped 2oz. of
sealant into each one and chucked up the compressor hose.The front
tire inflated on the first try, and the rear on the fourth. Amazing! You'll
understand this if you've ever tried to get other tubeless systems to seal and
inflate. It can take up to ten minutes and sealant blows out all over you.
The Stan's didn't lose a drop. After installation, the bike weighed 26 lbs
even, with pedals and water bottle cage. That's 1lb, 12oz of weight lost in
the wheels alone!

So, wheelset mounted on the bike, the afternoon was spent experimenting
with various tire pressures in our shop test field and on the test trail behind
the Old Nunnery. Clint, Zac and I all came to the conclusion that 22psi
front and 22psi rear was a good starting point.
Wednesday, I hit the trails at Paris Mountain State Park. The weight
reduction in the wheels was immediately apparent. The bike climbed great,
but the rear wheel was a little squirmy when cornered hard, so I made a
mental note to up the pressure slightly. On the other hand, the front wheel
was a little bouncy so I planned on a little less pressure. Overall, the ride
was much improved over  my previous wheelset with the tube type tires.

For Thursday morning's Thanksgiving ride, I showed up with 21psi front and
23psi rear. Dang! I couldn't believe how much of a difference one psi made
at these low pressures. No more squirm and bounce. Both tires were firmly
planted and the bike seemed to roll even better that the day before. The road
section of the climb to the top was much easier than Wednesday's ride and
I had way too much confidence on the downhills for an old guy.

About the wheels: The Stans NoTubes 29" ZTR Crest wheelset is $530 and
1570 grams (Compare to Mavic's C29SS Max UST wheelset at $775 and
1755 grams). Stan's recommends this wheelset for riders up to 190lbs. I'm
around 180lbs dressed to ride, and after a couple of two hour rides on Paris
Mountain's root and rock strewn trails, my wheels and tires are perfect.

These wheels are a no brainer. Needless to say, we're now a Stan's NoTubes
Dealer.

http://www.notubes.com/


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Serfas TSL1000 Light Review

My first night ride after the time change was last night at Paris Mtn. State Park. We've been selling these new light sets from Serfas pretty steadily for the last few weeks, so I took our Demo Unit along to see how it performed. I'd always used halogen and HID systems, and occasionally a small LED light, but this was my first ride with a serious high power LED system.

First, the specs: This kit comes complete with light head, dual adjustable helmet and bar mounts, lightweight lithium ion battery pack, extension cable for helmet use, wall charger and a durable padded multi-pocket storage bag. At $289.95, the TSL1000 offers significantly more lumens per dollar than comparable high end lighting kits from the L&M and NR brands, as well as a better warranty: Lifetime on all components except the battery (1 year).  Equipped with cutting edge Cree LEDs, burn times are also significantly longer-

 

Although there was a full moon last night, the remaining leaves in the park kept things pretty dark. I started with a long climb and set the light on low (175 lumens). This proved to be plenty of light at climbing speed. The light pattern was nice and wide, allowing lots of light to cover upcoming turns without having to turn the handlebar. The stretch from the bike to the brightest spot of the light pattern was consistent, with no dark spots. When I got to the top and powered up to 1000 lumens, the whole trail opened up in front of me. This  is by far the brightest, most consistently patterned bicycle light I've used.



This picture was taken with an iPhone without flash, so it's not the best clarity, but you can get a pretty  good idea of the nice spread of the light pattern. The blue halo surrounding the mode button was a little distracting at first, but I didn't notice it after a couple of minutes, and it makes the button really easy to locate. Another thing that impressed me about the TSL1000 was that it was not at all effected by being mounted to the handlebar of a full rigid bike (see previous post). The steel fork transmits a good amount of shock to the bar, which would have caused my L&M HID light to turn itself off on just about any of the descents.

This is an exceptional light! Serfas has always offered top notch products and customer service and they've outdone themselves on this one. Click here for more details and reviews on the Serfas TSL1000, (Demo available at Sunshine).

http://www.serfas.com/product_details.asp?ID=898