2011 New Years Resolutions

I was thinking about everyone and their "Resolutions" for the new year and I thought I would mention a few things cyclists in 2011 should try if they haven't yet.

Tubeless Road Tires: I personally have been running tubeless road tires since 2009 and have yet to flat while running them - knock on wood!. The ride is just better, and with a splash of sealant from NoTubes or CaffeLatex you have even better insurance against flats.

Regular Spoke Nipples: With the rash of carbon wheels, aero wheels, and other lightweight wheels now on the market I suggest that you pick a set of wheels with standard components - especially normal nipples. If you are hard on you components having an easily serviced wheel makes life much easier. Plus, when you convert normal clincher rim to to tubeless it is a pain to do simple repairs and truing if you don't have regular spoke nipples. I suggest a good set of custom wheels from your favorite local builder - We can help with that also.

Lower your tire pressure: Weather you are running road tires, cyclo-cross, or mountain tires, try running them at a lower pressure for a week or two to see if you see a difference. I see people running much higher pressures than they should in many cases.

Enjoy riding your bike in 2011

NoTubes Alpha 340 Rim & Wheels

After several months of waiting, we were able to get a set of the new Stans NoTubes Alpha 340 road wheels, as well as some rims to build up some custom wheelsets.

These new rims are some of the lightest 700c aluminum clincher rims available and they offer the added benefit of the patented NoTubes BST (Bead Socket Technology) in a road/cyclocross rim. The idea behind the BST is that it increases the air volume of the tire and offers an different bead lock compared with a traditional rim. This lower bead area makes the tire have a wider profile.

Take the example of the Hutchinson Atom Tubeless road tire - on a standard 19mm wide clincher rim this tire measures only 19.5mm wide, which is pretty narrow and limits the use for anything but a front tire or for fly-wieght riders. However, on the Stans rim the same tire measure 22.9mm wide, and it feels very nice when riding it.

The star of this review has to be the ZTR Alpha 340 Pro Wheelset - these wheels weigh in at an incredible 1200g - our set weighed 1238g with rim tape and valve stems installed. This is one of the lightest production clincher wheelsets available. They do have a rider weight limit of 175 pounds, and I think for anyone close to that weight, or someone with incredible amounts of raw power, these wheels might be a little flexy. The 18 hole front and 24 hole triplet laced rear makes for very smooth, fast accelerating wheels. I noticed immediately that these wheels spun up quickly and were easier to follow accelerations in a pack or race situation. They have a decent aero profile but certainly are not to be confused as aero wheels. For someone who doesn't want to spend the money on carbon wheels or tubular tires (which have additional hassles), these wheels offer a great alternative that is light, support tubeless tires easily, and offer the increased air volume to make the ride amazing thanks to BST. All in all this a great set of wheels. If you need stronger or stiffer wheels the rims are available to be custom built for your needs - 32 hole, 28 hole, 24 hole etc...

Interbike 2010

Interbike 2010 is a wrap - spent 2 days walking the Sands show floor in Las Vegas looking for new interesting items. A few things caught my eye - I will be updating this as I go through my notes.

The new KS Suspension height adjustable seatpost seems like a nice product. The best part is that it is available in a 27.2mm size which is perfect for the steel frames we build at Worthington Cycles. This will have 100mm of travel, optional remote release lever and will weigh a respectable 530g.



NoTubes showed their complete line of Alpha 340 Road Wheels - the 1200g Pro wheels are very nice and are a perfect, lightweight top of the line wheel-set. However, the star is probably the $615 retail ZTR Alpha 340 Comp wheel-set that weighs 1430g. NoTubes also showed their updated valve stems, hubs, and valve extenders.

Big news at Interbike once again is pedal based power meters - with two "new" systems marketed, but as of yet still unavailable! First is the all new Polar/Look system the seems promising, but is still pretty expensive at ~$2500.00. Second is there is last years Interbike show stopper, Metrigear, which has been bought by Garmin and is still in development...I this more Vaporware???

SRAM had new versions of their S30 AL road wheels on display. We had some trouble with the 2010 models due to faulty Sapim spokes, plus some problems with the bearing preload having to be set correctly each time a wheel was removed. Changes for 2011 look to remedy this by putting a set screw on the bearing preload setting, and hopefully better spokes (from Sapim still?) for next year. The S30 AL wheel is a great low end aero wheel-set for budget conscious buyers.

And in the completely crazy realm there was the much hyped Fairwheel Bikes 6lb road bike on display - with the worlds lightest wheelset (~500g) pretty impressive and only $45,000.00, though it wasn't for sale!

TRP was showing their updated CX-9 "mini v-brake" for cyclo-cross. We built custom V-Brakes like this for our Cyclo-Cross bikes many years ago so we think this is a good option. It is kind of nice to see a large company embrace this style of braking. Using a mini v-brake on a cross bike feels like using disc brakes on a mountain bike...very powerful, but with great modulation, and lever feedback, plus, the added advantage of no front fork shudder and no brake fade under heavy braking.

Maxxis was finally showing their road tubeless tire design.

Not really new, but still one of the best fitting tools I have seen is the SICI X/Y Fitting tool. This tool allows for easy transfer of bike fit from one bike to another and will make custom bike fitting even easier. .

Shop Moving

We are in the process of moving our frame building and machine shop - our new shop space won't be ready until next year some time, so in the meantime we are in temporary space just around the corner. I will be building out the temporary shop over the next few weeks.

Our office address and contact information is still the same - just the shop is in limbo now...

New Hutchinson Atom Tubeless Road Tires In Stock

The new Hutchinson Atom Tubeless Road Tires have arrived. They weigh in at a slightly disappointing 283 grams. This is only 13 grams more than the claimed weight, but I was looking forward to these being closer to, or even lower than, the 270 gram target weight. They do look nice in all black, and I hope they perform as well as the Fusion 2 Tubeless we have reviewed and still love to ride.

Update: The Atom tires when mounted on a 19mm wide rim only measure out at 20mm wide - while the Fusion 2 tires measure 22mm wide. This makes them very narrow, but suitable for lighter riders or even as a front tire.

During testing we had one front rim damaged by hitting a pot hole with the pressure at around 80psi. Of course if these wheels had normal tubes it probably would have caused a pinch flat!

NoTubes Alpha 340 Road Rims

NoTubes has an exciting new 700c aluminum clincher road rim that weighs only 340g. The ZTR Alpha 340 700c road rim also uses NoTubes exclusive shorter rim bead. We will build a pair up as soon as we can order some rims - it looks like 28h and 32h are the first options on the way. I hope a 24h is available for lightweight front wheels soon.

Update: Originally rumors on the interweb had these rims as wide as 22-24mm, which is wider than even the HED Ardennes or the Velocity A23 rims. However, according to final specs and report on cyclingnews.com it appears that they are 20mm wide rims, which while closer in width to the Shimano tubeless wheels, they are still slightly narrower. This means they should still be good for a lightweight build.

Interbike 2009

Updates from Interbike 2009. Arrived Wednesday night for CrossVegas which as usual was a great time. I love night time cyclo-cross.

Walked the show on Thursday and Friday.

Some of the items I saw and thought need mentioning here are:

MetriGear Vector pedal spindle based power meters - This was probably the best new product at the show and is talked about all over the internet. I hope after they release the Speedplay version they quickly come up with a new version for Look Keo and Shimano XTR SPD pedals. Their website has most of the details.

Shimano WH-6700 Ultegra Tubeless Clincher Wheels - These wheels make it much easier to get into a tubeless setup right out of the box. We like the NoTubes tape conversions, but this wheel looks like a sure winner at only $649.00 per set retail. They use the same rim extrusion as the Dura-Ace wheelset but it is a ll aluminum rim versus the Dura-Ace which is a Scandium rim. The total weight is a respectable 1652g.

A-Class Alex Rims New R350 700c Clincher Rim - This rim is a new 700C scandium clincher rim that reportedly weighs only 320g. I hope this will be available for testing soon...

Serotta & Nuvinci both had high end sizing cycles/fitting tools on display. The NuVinci model was computer controlled and also offer PowerCranks on it. The best part about both systems was you could measure power while the rider is on the bike, from each pedal, and use that data as part of the fit analysis to help determine the optimum comfort and performance fit. The NuVinci reach and saddle height was adjustable electronically by a lap top, so a fitter could be sitting and watching the rider and the power output and slowly change the fit without the rider stopping. They plan on making this also apply to the saddle fore/aft as well. The Serotta fitting system had easily changeable manual adjustments that were also recorded on a laptop but they also had their technology paired with the Dartfish video analysis software.

Cateye Strada Wireless Adventure Computer - This was a new additon the Catey Strada Wireless lineup and this new cycling computer offers in addition to the normal speed, distance and other standard funtions it has an altimeter, %grade funtion, and a thermometer. This makes it useful for getting even more data about your rides in a small space. Now they just need to add in ANT+ so you can display power when you don't need to record it....

IRC Tubeless Road Tires - IRC was displaying their lineup of Tubeless Road Tires compatible with Hutchinson - However I still haven't seen any make it over to the USA yet, and the weight was around the same as the Hutchinson Fusion2 and Atom tires.

Cateye Strada Wireless RD300W Review

After using the Cateye Strada Wireless RD300W computer I feel it may be the best basic cycling computer currently made. This computer always shows the current speed in very large numbers at the top of the LCD in either MPH or KPH. There are selectable functions on the lower part of the LCD including average speed, max speed, 2 trip distances, a programmable overall odometer, a ride timer with auto start/stop, a clock, a battery saving sleep mode, plus it has a average speed/pace arrow and it also allows for 2 settings for different wheel sizes. The clamp allows tool free and simple attachment to either the stem or to 26.0 or 31.8 handle bars. 

 I prefer a computer to be attached to the stem and won't purchase one if it doesn't attach that way. This computer offers so many features that make it stand out from the rest of the competition including:
• Very Small Size
• Light Weight - Only 48g
• Of Course it is Wireless
• Mount it to your Stem Or Handle Bar
• Super Large Easy To Read LCD
• Sleep Mode & Auto Start
• Single Button Use - Just Push The Entire Unit

The only cons I see with this computer is the mount - it has a fairly large adjustable button that some people claim sticks out too much - I don't really mind it at all, but feel like it could be the only visual drawback of this computer. I would rate this computer as 5 stars out of 5, which is very high praise.

Hutchinson Tubeless Road Tire Test

I have completed several hundred miles on a set of the Hutchinson Tubeless Road Tires setup with Stans rim tape and sealant - These tires offer a wonderful alternative to standard road tires with either butyl tubes or even latex tubes. The most interesting aspect of these tires is the sidewall stiffness. Now I am not a heavy rider by anyone's measure, but I was able to ride these tires with as little as 65psi for long road rides with little problems, and I never felt the tire come close to bottoming out or having any excessive deflection. I did notice on very steep climbs and during hill top sprints that at a lower pressure (sub 75psi) I could feel some movement of the tire. I settled on riding with around 75psi as my preferred pressure after starting in the 90's and working my way down.

Wear so far is negligible and I expect that they would last at least a few thousand miles. I have had no flats so far or any holes that I know of that the sealant may have sealed. I have also alarmingly started to get unconcerned with road debris and glass, so now I am worried about what will happen when I am riding with regular tires and tubes - I will probably forget to rub them after going through glass!

I like the comfort of the tires, the confidence that I won't flat in most situations, the cornering feel, and the idea that they have reduced rolling resistance (I can't confirm that).

My only cons on these tires are the weight (290-300g), the fact that they are bit narrow, Shimano's new Dura-Ace wheels have a wider rim to flatten out the profile of these tires, the apparent ease of cuts that destroy the tire (Two other riders I know have had 3 different cut failures during the same period I was testing these tires).

I would rate these tires, with the Stans sealant, at 4.5 stars out of 5.

Notubes Sealant with Tubeless Road Tires

Just built up a really nice set of custom built wheels and decided to use the Stan's Notubes sealant with Hutchinson tubeless Fusion 2 700x23c tires. I have to say this setup seems pretty nice. All you need to do is tape the rims with the Stans rim tape, put in a presta valve stem, install the Hutchinson Tires along with an ounce or two of sealant, brush the side walls with some soapy suds and hit it with an air compressor to seat the tires. Everything works as advertised, and on some rims it even works with a floor pump!

This is a great alternative to buying dedicated tubeless wheels, and you can always switch back to normal road tires and tubes at any time. So far the ride is great at even 85psi. Check back for updates on the long term use of the tires & wheels.