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Going Lightweight On The Wheels..


Carlperkins

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ok so ive decided to chop some fat off my bike. currently running a 1kg tyre on the rear with a 650g heavy duty innertube 2.25mm thick.

and on the front a 450g dh innertube and a 778g tyre.

basically im swapping to 2 x 150g innertubes 0.9mm thick. a 778g tyre on the rear. and a 750g tyre on the front.

im also toying with the idea of filing the circle holes on my front rim to square holes.

i dont run my tyre pressures that low to be honest.

but basically my question is... whats the likely hood of me having a puncture on every ride? has anyone run these thin tubes before and are they any good?

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Dropping all the weight you can from everywhere is probably going to take a bit of getting used to as it'll puncture a lot more easily, but to try and quantify it is pretty hard without knowing a little more about what parts you're going to/from and how you ride.

On the front I'd have thought you can get away with it, on the rear not so much. Chances are you'll get more pinches, so it might be worth chucking a standard rear tube in your bag and gauge it from there.

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yeah im going from a maxxis DH tube in the rear (the heaviest one on tartys) to the lightest one, the welterweight or something. and im going from a kenda blue groove compy 2.5" tyre to a holy roller 2.4".

im thinking ill get a load of pinch flats too but hopefully it will make me a smoother rider lol.

i take it the higher the tyre pressure the less chance of punctures..

cheers, carl.

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The Holy Rollers are pretty decent tyres and presumably you'll be running a decent pressure in them to make them roll well (and as you mentioned earlier). It'll stretch the tube that bit more at higher pressure, but the tyre's a tad thinner so that shouldn't make much difference. Just give it a bash and see how you get on (Y)

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Cutting away at the rims can make a huge difference in weight if you're willing to spend enough time and effort on them. I single walled and cut square holes into a DX32 to use on the front, took about 4-5 hours all in but the rim dropped from 780g stock to 511g; I use it on the front and have no issues with it, for the rear I would rather keep the double wall though if only to retain a bit of rim stiffness.

Loosing all the weight on the tyres will make a world of difference to how the bike feels, you might find that the rear may be too squirmy but as you say, reasonably high pressures will eliminate this. It might be worthwhile keeping a normal or medium weight tube in the back to give an extra bit of security for the sake of an extra 50 odd grams :)

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ok, I think ill put the lightweight tube in the back with the holy roller and run at a good pressure. Then if I get a few flats ill swap back to the DH tube.

I'm no weight weenie, but I have a light echo 24" frame, light forks, cranks etc. Pretty much everything is reasonably light besides the wheels, so I thought I might as well put it on a diet and see how it effects my riding.

I worked it out and in total I'm saving over 900g off the rear wheel, then maybe 100g on the front with a lighter tyre, tube and filing the holes square. Then about 150g off the pedals. So I should be able to save well over a kilo on the old girl.

hopefully it will make it easier to manoeuvre the bike and get up stuff.

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I found the specialized tubes that go up to 3" wide worked really well with Holy Rollers. They're no way near as heavy as DH tubes and I had very little punctures with them, but that was running 45+ psi. They're only £4 so could work well as a middle ground.

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I'd save weight where you can.i wouldn't run the risk on consistent flats for a few grams.

I've got my bike set up heaps light where I can but still run a 2.5 dual ply dh tire. It feels way better then the new try all tires. Those tires are rubbish

I know it's personal preference but I find dual ply tyres lifeless and heavy compared to a Stiky Lite, awesome grip, light, bouncy and pretty good puncture resistance. Just can't see how you can say they're rubbish?! Wish they did a 24" version.

When I was on 24" trials I ran lightweight tubes (200grams) in a Schwalbe Fat Albert (690grams) and didnt suffer with punctures, now i'm reverting back to 24" it's the set up i'll be running again.

Personally I'd run a slightly heavier tube, slightly lower pressure and ride a bit smoother? Going light and being a heavy rider/bit of basher don't tend to go together too well.

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yeah im going from a maxxis DH tube in the rear (the heaviest one on tartys) to the lightest one, the welterweight or something.

The lightest is a Flyweight and I wouldn't recommend it at all - be it for a front or rear wheel. You'll pinch it on taps.

This is my setup, I've been a weight weenie since I went over to stock in 2006 and after going through heaps of different combinations I found the perfect one last season:

Front: Continental Mountain King Supersonic 2.2" + Maxxis Ultralight tube

Rear: Continental Rubber Queen 2.4" (handmade version) + Maxxis Freeride tube

It's a light setup, around 630g front and 1150g rear inc. tubes. I rarely get punctures but then I'm a smooth rider. You need a lot of pressure in the front wheel though, the bead is loose and you might end up pushing the tyre deep into the rim on big front wheel gaps if the pressure isn't high enough. That's pretty much the only downside I've found.

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I know it's personal preference but I find dual ply tyres lifeless and heavy compared to a Stiky Lite, awesome grip, light, bouncy and pretty good puncture resistance. Just can't see how you can say they're rubbish?! Wish they did a 24" version.

When I was on 24" trials I ran lightweight tubes (200grams) in a Schwalbe Fat Albert (690grams) and didnt suffer with punctures, now i'm reverting back to 24" it's the set up i'll be running again.

Personally I'd run a slightly heavier tube, slightly lower pressure and ride a bit smoother? Going light and being a heavy rider/bit of basher don't tend to go together too well.

I understand what your saying.im going from my personal experiences.

I should mention that I weigh 110kg. I used the try all tires for less then 2 months.they are hanging in my shed.

I had to run about 45psi to keep them stable on natural terrain. Then I lost all bounce.

Grip is perfect,they just deform way to easy for me. That's why they are rubbish.ill stick to my really tires. It make my bike predictable and feel good.

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I understand what your saying.im going from my personal experiences.

I should mention that I weigh 110kg. I used the try all tires for less then 2 months.they are hanging in my shed.

I had to run about 45psi to keep them stable on natural terrain. Then I lost all bounce.

Grip is perfect,they just deform way to easy for me. That's why they are rubbish.ill stick to my really tires. It make my bike predictable and feel good.

That's fair enough, I'm only 75Kg and can run 18ish psi and they're awesome. Also probably why I find the dual ply Maxxis tyres lifeless as they're too stiff for my weight.

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From what I can understand you're riding a 24, yes??

Try a schwalbe DH tube. I just bought one for my fourplay at 45+ Psi with a Holy Roller.

It goes up to 3in, is 260g and was £6.99 and the quality seems really good.

Would suggest the one ones marked 10D at the bottom of this page in the rear

http://schwalbe.com/gbl/en/produkte/schlaeuche/

and the ones marked 9 or 9a for the front, though I've not tried this one yet, i will soon.

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