Sort of. It doesn’t take much to make the local paper

Jared

I have always swung my right foot behind my left foot and dismounted my bike like that. Last week P-money was trying to get me switch and bring my right foot between the bike and my left leg. I been working on it, but I’m just way faster the other way. Just wondering how you guys do it and what ya’ll think.

Way to start the season of dudes!! The blood on Wahs elbow is nice.

cj

A shop just blew up my brand new Dugasts – literally. They called cyclocrossworld and they told the shop that max PSI was 40.  40 PSI is not mentioned anywhere on the tires or cyclocrossworld or the Dugast website.  No refunds credits, etc… So, the shop is buying me new tires. After all the nonsense, I’m not getting Dugasts – they have left a bad feeling in me. I will be getting a set of Tufo Flexus and a set of Tufo Clincher Tubulars in their replacement. 4 for 2 isn’t a bad deal.

This guys sounds like he knows what he is talking about

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It’s important to get a good seal at the edge, more important than on a road application. I like to get the large jug of conti glue, you need a fair bit to get the job done. Do a couple coats on both the rim and the tire, make sure to get all the way out to the edges. Mount like normal. It’s imprtant to check them a lot when racing in the mud, they seem to come loose pretty easy, take it easy with the pressure washer at the glue joint.

I’d steer clear of the tufo tape plus glue method, it makes a godawful mess if you have to remove it .

I got this from Greg Reain’s blog last year (which is pretty interesting to read), it was really good advice–the blog is at:

http://crazyfast.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_c…st_archive.html

here’s what he wrote:

Sticky Fingers

So, as promised I guess that I will give you the low-down on how I glue my cyclocross tubulars.

I should probably first point out that there is a pretty big difference between road tubulars and ‘cross tubulars in terms of how they stay on the rim. A road tubular at 8 bar of pressure will stay on the rim almost by itself, sans-glue. The glue is essentially there to prevent any movement between the tire and rim from starting in the first place. You can try this if you have a new tire and new rim at home; just throw the tire on the rim, pump it up and try to push it off. Hard, yeah? Now release the pressure to 1.8 bar (about 25psi, a standard CX racing pressure) and the tire will slide right off. Scary. That is why standard tub-glueing knowledge does not necessarily apply for ‘cross use – the only thing holding the tire on the rim is the glue, there is no help from air pressure.

Next up is the issue of tubular tape. Great for road applications, especially the Tufo variety, horrible for ‘cross. Here’s why. As has been repeated ad-nauseum in other tubular installation instructions, the bond between tire and rim at the very edge is über-important if you want to keep your rubber on. This is even more critical in ‘cross because there is so much water flying around on the course and from the ubiquitous pressure-washers. If there is any gap in this area, water and dirt will penetrate into the bond and weaken it to the point where it may fail in cornering. Tubular tape is bad because it never completely fills the interface between tire and rim. It also causes the center section of the tire to sit a little higher than the edges, making it easier for a gap to form. This is true even of the so-called “Belgian Method”, where glue is applied to both tire and rim and tape used to complete the joint. Another bone of contention here- if you are using glue and tubular tape, why not just use glue?

My solution to this problem is Vittoria Mastik´one – and lots of it. Next best is Continental. If you can get your hands on a big can of the stuff, so much the better. If not, be prepared to use about 3 (maybe even 4) litle tubes per wheel, if you are starting with new fresh rims and tires. My team-mate Jiri told me he uses 1 can for 4 wheels. That’s a crapload of glue. Some people will say that’s too much, but Jiri has also never had a rolled tub in 14 years of high level racing. You decide.

You should probably start by cleaning your rims, just a really quick polish with some light sand paper and then acetone should do the trick. Now you need to apply a relatively thin layer of glue to the rim, making sure that you get it all the way out to the edges of the rim. I don’t really care how you spread it, just get it on there. Take your tires, put a little air in them to make them easier to handle and put a thin layer onto the base tape, making sure the entire surface of the tape is saturated (but not dripping) with glue. Now you wait. General rule of thumb is 8 hours of drying time between coats on the rim, but basically as long as it is dry to the touch and not too rubbery you can apply the next coat. Ideally you should do 3 thin-ish coats to the rim this way. For most people who aren’t sitting around all day waiting for glue to dry this means three days. Somewhere in these 3 days you need to pull out the tires (remember them?) and put another coat of glue on the base tape. This layer should be über-thick – as thick as you can make it and not have it running off the tape as you apply it. This is when a brush of some type is required. Let that dry overnight too. Finally, on the fourth day you can put the tire to the rim. Put a medium-thick layer of glue on the rim, give the tire a quick stretchy-stretchy and fire it on the rim, starting at the valve. For God’s sake make sure you put the tire on in the right direction first, otherwise you will make an atrocious mess peeling it off while the glue is wet (assuming you didn’t make an atrocious mess putting it on. Sorry, can’t help you there!). Make sure the tire is centered, put it up to 4 bar and leave overnight. Next day, deflate the tire and check the edge bonding by going around the entire circumference of the tire (on both sides), trying to peel it off the rim with your thumbs. If any gaps form, you need to poke some glue in there and inflate the tire again. Leave overnight again. Check the edges again. Now nothing short of a herculean effort should separate the tire from the rim – this a good thing. The glue generally requires 24 hours from the time the tire goes on the rim to reach full strength.

Like anything related to bicycle mechanics, there is a certain amount of feel involved with all this. With tires and/or rims that already have glue on them, less glue will need to be applied. The end result should be somewhere around 0.5mm of glue thickness (even up to 1mm is OK). Sounds like a lot, but it works. With Tufos you can get away with less because there is no seam on the underside.

That’s the extent of my knowledge. Argue all you want, but I have never rolled a tub since I started doing it this way.

Please don’t sue me
GReain

http://ccforums.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6181

Brecktobercross 35+ open race

I’ve been dead tired all week with lack of sleep, stress and on top of that my right knee has been killing me – the last 2 days I’ve been limping. I don’t know what I did to it. Maybe the stupid triathlon and the 10K that left my knees in the worst pain of my life or the change in seasons and the cyclocross specific training and transitions.

But, most of the pain goes away when the official says GO. I lined up front next to my bros Tim and Greg. Greg has the fastest holeshot in town and Tim knows how to win, so if you get in a group with these guys things will come together. Greg got the holeshot and I grabbed 2nd wheel with Tim on 3rd. I knew the start would be critical because the first hairpin turn was crucial to be in the top 5. After the 1st lap we had about 10 within range and we wittled and the course wittled them down lap after lap. Flats, crashes and rolled tubulars were all over the place. I couldn’t keep my front tire from washing out and mid-way through I took the lead and rolled around a corner and went down and took out the 3 guys behind me. We hopped back up and I hit the gas. Mid-way through the race I took the lead and rolled around a corner and went down and took out the 3 guys behind me, my front tire was sliding out all day. 1 lap later we saw the guy that went around us and he rolled a tubular. So, it was down to Tim and me. All I wanted to do was hang on for 2nd. When you are in a break with the best 35+ cyclocross rider in the country, you count your lucky stars and ask yourself “what the hell am I doing here?”. 2 laps to go and we both did our share of the work to ensure that nobody was going to close the gap. The last lap Tim turned up the gas and his better handling skills opened it up. He attacked hard on the last run-up. I tried to respond, felt a sharp pain in the knee and sat up and rolled in 2nd out of about 50 guys.

I think Tim and I had the advantage of 10,000ft lungs and good tire choices. I’m nervous to pull out the tubulars after seeing so many roll today.

It was good to see and meet the CO crossniacs as well.

The neighborhood represented today. Tim and me 1/2 in the 35+ and Jeff took the W in the 3s.

Jared

WEAK! I got an email today saying that they didn’t have enough people signed up. I’ve planned my whole cross season on this week, selling a ton of stuff and having to buy a new travel case and having to beg, borrow and steal airline miles to make this happen as well as save vacation time for it. I’ve requested a full refund on my deposit as well as the $50 cancellation fee on my airline ticket. I’m sure they will do the right thing and refund both.

Registration Opens Saturday, Sept. 15 at 12:01 a.m. CDT. for Cyclocross Nationals

www.kccrossnationals.com