realskiers

Hi All....sorry....qui te late joining this chat.  Been on the road again.


BW -- good advice on tubeless.  Might just try that, as my rims and tires are "tubeless ready".  But, what happens if I'm in the middle of the woods, 20km away from my truck, and a tire goes flat? How the heck do I fix it without invoking a one-hour procedure? At least with tubes, I carry a spare and some irons, and can swap a tube in 10 to 15 minutes.  Otherwise, tubeless is certainly appealing -- if nothing else, at least for the weight savings -- 29ers are a tad heavier. 

I still carry a tube on ride that can strand me but have only used it one race out of all my rides race since I have gone tubeless. Quite simply you take the valve stem out throw the right size tube in and your off. I dont know why people dont realize you cant just put a tube into your tire. BTW you do not need anything tubeless to go tubeless. I do it with non tubeless tires, on non tubeless rims sealing it up with a schrader valved tubed cut length wise.

how to do it with out tubeless anything.
http://www.porcmtbclub.org/phpBB3/fix-f7/topic2321.html



The most appealing thing about tubeless isnt the weight saving which it can have but the ability to run lower pressure that not only roll fast, handle turns better, stop and go easy but also ride more plush.

you do need to get way back when decending step sections

A couple of further comments:

On tire width -- I agree with BW, except that before you go wider, you need to check out the weight of the new tire compared to what you're replacing.  Depending on the tire, there can be anywhere from 100g to 200g + difference (1/4 to 1/2 lb!) between, say a 2.00 tire and a 2.20 (check out the specs on the Kenda Karma to see for yourself).  If you're trying to keep the weight of the bike to a minimum, then adding a half-pound to each wheel can really make a difference to acceleration, energy input, etc.  On short, technical rides this is probably fine, and the benefits of a wider tire would far outweigh (pardon the pun) the drawbacks.  OTOH, over a long cross-country ride, that extra weight will really make itself apparent in the last hour of the ride.  Even more so if you are doing multi-day rides back-to-back.  By Day 3 you will wish you had lighter tires -- I learned this two years ago when I rode with my Father-in-law on Vancouver Island -- three days of open-trail XC riding, 3 hours per day, with all-mountain tires that weighed about 800g+ each (~1.5 lbs).  After Day 2 I was ready to go straight to the nearest shop and put on some Kenda Small Block Eights.  Bottom line -- pick the tires that suit where you ride, and for how long.  Maybe keep two sets and swap em as needed:  one for long XC rides / smoother terrain; and one for more rugged terrain / shorter rides.

believe it or not it comes down to wattage, sometime carryng slightly more weight for wider tire can mean your expending less energy because wider tires do roll fast when run at the proper pressure.

Max - FS is actually more efficient even when climbing if its done correctly. There are alot of races held that are won by FS bikes.  I currently dont own a FS bike but love them for everything from XC racing, to all mountain freeride sort of stuff.

Jim - I would run tubeless, then disregard the min pressure recommendation. The min pressure on both of my tire is 30 psi and I run them much lower. Lower pressure goes faster well at least off road, judging by your picture I would have trouble riding fast over those roots at the pressures you run.