the pros and their EPIC flats

[Shebeen]

couldn't find a thread on this, no search function

 

This comes up every year and I've heard the reasoning before and never really been convinced.

 

Why do these weight weenies race with tissue paper tyres? Are they really that much faster? Napkin maths reckons the top 20 guys get a flat in about every three stages, 300km/flat..i know they change them really quickly, but come on! And then to ride with a tube, foei tog!

 

Hey what would I know, I'm sure they know what they're doing. I was quite impressed with what i saw with the blog reporting of the spesh tyre test session in stellenbosch, but Burry has already had loads of hassles. 

 

I put my carbon cranks on the fact that joe the plumber riding mid pack on his bog standard crossmarks/mountain kings/whatever UST get through 8 days with no flats hassles.

[Batmanza]

Yeah but it also comes down to how hard you ride the bike, if you watch these guys (and not on TV cos its doesnt show) they ride the bikes hard and fast, they might be light but they seriously punish the bikes and hence the probability for more punctures.

 

I rode the Epic last year without a single flat, on Crossmark's :-)

 

[Bike Mob]

I rode Crossmark/Larsens and didn't have a single problem. And I'm not easy on tires downhill!

 

Rode Monorail/Crossmark combo in Sani and again didn't flat once.

 

[Brettski]

4 of us rode the Epic 2007 on Tubeless Small block 8's, no punctures. The pro's really do ride the lightest tires available. The Bulls had 5 punctures yesterday. How much time does that add up to??

[Road Hog]

I think they do it on purpose, I mean, if they don't podium at the end of the stage, they must have some excuse !!

[Serendipity]

I can't see how saving 200g a tire will save you the time you waste fixing a flat. Rolling resistance is another matter entirely.

 

 

 

I saw the way some of these front teams abuse their tires last year. It is probably a good thing that they get their tires sponsored, or it would make up a good percentage of their budget.

[cat-i]

i loved this bit:

 

"Many of the other participants also struggled with flat tyres, caused

 

by thorns along the way. Normally riders use sealing liquids (slime)

 

to temporarily repair the damage, but the holes were too big and it

 

took time to fix."

 

[Trackz]

You gotta see these guys ride to appreciate what they put their equipment through ... something is bound to pop sooner or later. It happens when you ride on the limit, try it sometime

[PhilipV]

Bart Brentjens threw a tyre away at the LBS just before the epic.

Python air light, alot of the tread was gone, but you could see how he abused the side knobs.

 

[GoLefty!!]

those tyres are abuse because they use on road as well as off.

 

A tyre takes max abuse on descents. Most pro to experienced weekend warrior will abuse a tyre on a descent. However the pro's use the lightest they can get their hands on. Thats where the problem starts.

 

their speed has little to do with the problem, their weightweenieness does...

[cat-i]

i assume they ride tubeless? 

[MintSauce]

Apparently many of the euro pros don't....they're still on tubes

[Santa C]

4 of us rode the Epic 2007 on Tubeless Small block 8's' date=' no punctures. The pro's really do ride the lightest tires available. The Bulls had 5 punctures yesterday. How much time does that add up to??[/quote']

 

Agree...Eat one les GU bar and you have the same weight as you losing on the tyres!

[Shebeen]

Apparently many of the euro pros don't....they're still on tubes

 

i'd have to see it to believe! admittedly ripping out the rim strip takes time, but no ways. i feel naked with tubes in.

 

anyway, after seeing brandon els saying that mtn energade had gone for weenie tyres against his advice too, i went back to burry's blog.

 

They really do take this seriously. Not sure what they went for in the end, but songo have had probably 4/5 punctures already. That's not fast

 

 

 

http://burrystander.typepad.com/on_the_road_with_burry_st/2009/02/tire-testing.html<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

joined Conrad stoltz for a rocky trail ride around jonkershoek to see if I could flat the new renegade tire.now before I describe the ride I must tell you that it?s the lightest mtb tire ive ever ridden at just 340gr for a 1.90 and with my reputation for flats, I didn?t think it would last long?however 2hours later and a rims which looked like they had been driven over a few times with bobby?s x5 I had all the air in my tire intact and I was an immediate believer. the tire rolls super fast and with the soft compound grips corners with loads of confidence and with a bigger 2.1 volume casing on the way its something to get really excited about!

 

On Tuesday we all met up at the b&b after breakfast to test our tires? rolling resistance and pit them against some of our competitors? tires. i rode probably 20 sets of tires that morning and it was amazing to see how big the differences sometimes were. even more relevant to me was the fact that I learnt more about how compound ,tread layout, casing, air pressure and volume affected the rolling characteristics of each tire. after I narrowed it down to 5 tires that rolled the best and looked suitable for a race tire it was christophs turn to do the road and gravel rolling tests to see if they confirmed what we saw on the rollers. i did some more tire testing on the trail in the afternoon with the fast track slk lite compound tire that afternoon which is also a really fast rolling 430gr 2.0 tire. again Conrad and I did some serious damage to the wheels and we were now relegated to the testing on free ride rims. we were jumping straight into rock piles and aiming at the sharpest and biggest rocks in our mission to cut the tires. again we emerged from the forests 2 and a half hours later with nothing to show for our efforts. the tires had burped once or twice but were in perfect nic! after the ride I did a short run to where christoph was busy on the road and I was happy to see him confirming my tests on the rollers. it was also exciting to see how well the specialized tires were performing in a range of tread patterns.

 

Wednesday saw the whole team heading up into the forest, setting up base right at the top of the mountain at one of the trail heads. christoph, lene byberg and I were testing the narrowed down tires from the rollers on the trail to see how they handled and hooked up in the turns. conrad stoltz and dan hugo were there too testing the more durable tires in the range against similar versions from competitors and they were riding a longer more treacherous route. benno and Dylan(mechanics) did more tyre changes that day than an f1 team during a weeks racing! it was so cool to ride all the tires back to back on the same track one after another as you could accurately asses the riding properties of each model and figure out which were best suited for which part of the course. this ultimately will lead to more sensible choices next to the race track. i think I spent a total of 6hours on the bike this day and again it was an early night in for me.

 

 

[ASTANA]

So what is the opinion on tires then. If you want a average tire for let say the transbaviaans ? Flat dirt roads with lots or rolling hills and ok a few hectic climbs. nothing tecnical just flat our riding and pacing...

[Overlord]

 

So what is the opinion on tires then. If you want a average tire for let say the transbaviaans ? Flat dirt roads with lots or rolling hills and ok a few hectic climbs. nothing tecnical just flat our riding and pacing...

 

I did the TransBaviaans with the Specialized Fast Track LK 2Bliss. Tyres were pumped 2bar and I did not have a single problem.