CX bike vs 29er

[toolonglegs]

Yes you can run them tubeless easily... Max pressure guidelines are not important as you run them at pretty low pressures.
It worked well for me until I started racing... Then they burped all too often. But for general riding tubeless is pretty good... But you need to set them up well and careful of rim tyre choices.
I ended up going tubed... Michelin makes a monster 700 c square tube that works really well. So far I have been running down to 28/30 psi with them at 100kgs.
Got to get out of bed... Have a race in 3 hours and the rain is pouring!

[queequeg]

Pulled the tyres off my 29er rims. Found the puncture in the tube. It was so small that I could only find it with the tube pretty well inflated.
Rim tape on the wheels was totally stuffed. Bike shop had used tape too narrow, so the tyre bead had ripped it apart. No doubt why the tube got punctured.

Lesson: running tubeless or not, probably best to use the Stans tape on the rims so that the well in the rim is not made flat by the heavy cloth tape, and use the soapy water installation method.

[DaveOZ]

Carbon flat bar, SRAM X9 shifters and Avid brake levers fitted tonight. All fairly easy and the ride position feels good. I'll see how it performs on tomorrow's commute and all going well I'll take it to the trails on the weekend.

So I now have a lightweight titanium CX/MTB with Stans ZTR rims and 35mm CX tyres.

Photos tomorrow.

[DaveOZ]

Transformation complete.

[Mulger bill]

Looks the goods Dave, but if I can be a little picky, methinks the cable outers at the front look a tad long.

Shaun

[DaveOZ]

Yeah the cables are a tad untidy but I left the lengths in case I wanted to change back to the drops. After a few rides I think this is unlikely. At some point I will trim the outers and tidy it up.

[Mugglechops]

Good job Dave. When are you heading down this way to try it out

[DaveOZ]

Was hoping to get out this weekend but I just got back from a 100k ride and I'm stuffed. See what happens tomorrow.

[sblack]

Looks good Dave. Looking forward to hearing how it goes on the trails.

[trailgumby]

Mmmm... noice

Forks is made from...

[DaveOZ]

CrMo. Might get some carbon ones one day.

[DaveOZ]

Well this is now as close as I can get to the perfect bike for what I want. 67km today with 25 of them off road and I had a ball.

http://app.strava.com/rides/3514964

The bike is fast on the road, much nicer to ride than the 29er I borrowed last time. I had the tyre pressure set at 80psi and it felt great. A couple of time I missed the drops but I managed to get comfortable and practiced bending my arms and dropping down. The flat bars are great for climbing too.

When I hit the dirt I stopped and let some air out of the tyres. This made a real difference on the loose rocks and sand yet the bike was still fast on the hard packed clay.

At no point did I wish for suspension. I grew up racing BMX 30 years ago and my only ever MTB was full rigid so I am used to using the arms and legs as suspension.

The bike is very light for an off roader and I never ran out of gears for climbing, even had one section (AT) 14% with loose rocks which I managed fine, traction was good too. The bike was very easy to control and noticeably more agile than the 29er. I suspect that less baggy tyres would help the 29er for these trails.

I stopped when I hit the road and pumped the tyre back up and headed for home.

I really love this combination of riding because I live so close to some beautiful national park trails.

So I can now hose the bike off and happily ride it to work tomorrow.



Most of the track are easy like this so no need for suspension.




Twin Falls

[Phil]

Thats a very pretty part of the world you live in Dave.

Bike looks great.