Last evening, Nicole and I experienced our first crash on our Ruegamer tandem. It was a minor incident and not much happened. Here are the details. About 1/4 mile from the start we were rounding a corner and some railroad tracks. Immediately after passing the tracks as we were traveling somewhere around 10mph we had a front tire blowout. Now a blowout or flat is not usually something that is of much consequence if it is on the rear wheel, but this was a front tire blowout. With the added weight of two riders and the sport geometry we have on our tandem suffice it to say it was a bit squirmy as well as unnerving. Instead of crashing in the road and suffering all sorts of road rash I had the idea that we would head straight for the lawn of the house next to us. Fortunately here in our riding area there are few curbs or sidewalks so I did not have any problem rolling into the yard. What we do have here are drainage ditches and we ended up going down one side of the ditch then attempting to climb the other, at least we missed the large bush as well as the mailbox. That ditch is where we finally went down.
You are currently browsing articles tagged sealant.
Most of the people I ride with know that I ride exclusively on tubular tires. It is something I am used to and something I am very familiar with. I have weighed the trade offs between using clinchers and tubulars and I am happy with the decisions I have made. This post is not to persuade anyone to choose one type of tire over another. I just want to find a tubular that I can train on that doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg.
In Part 1 I described the differences in construction of the two types of tires themselves. Building on that knowledge I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of each type of tire construction in regard to actual use. Again, we will start off the discussion with the pros and cons of clincher tires.
Clinchers:
Nothing ruins a beautiful day on the road (or trail) like a flat or two. There are a few things that you can do to minimize the amounts of flats you get while riding.
One of the easiest things is to visually inspect your tires for any embedded debris. Little slivers of glass, small rocks, nails, staples are just a few of the things you might find in your tires before you go out. If you see them and brush them away before you go it is a small measure of protection against that early in the ride flat tire.
Translator
Recent Comments