Conversion of vintage Airborne Lancaster HT as touring bike for GDMBR
09-13-21, 07:04 PM
#26
cyclotourist
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: calgary, canada
Posts: 1,470
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 443 Post(s)
Liked 205 Times
in
130 Posts
I used a bike with tubeless tires on the last third of the GDMBR, my buddy used regular tubes. He had half a dozen flats in that section, he eventually startted using slime tubes. I had no problems, tubeless and sealant worked the way they are supposed to. I have never tried adding sealant to regular tubes.
09-13-21, 09:27 PM
#27
Senior Member
When installing quick release wheels with disc brakes, it’s best to set the wheel on the ground and set the fork on the axle ends. This ensures that the fork tips are properly seated on the axles. This is also the best way to install the wheel on any brake system with quick release.
---I've always set wheels like this, but I still find I sometimes need to just nudge my wheel a fraction over when I look at the rotor to make all is centered well, but I'm talking a teeny tiny amount. I just mention this as newcomers used to eyeballing a rim brake wheel are often surprised by the small amount of space that can end up with a little bit of rotor rub. But yes, ones calipers should be set up with the wheel in its natural position to avoid any real rubbing.
BB7 are fine brakes. As to pad life, I have yet to adjust a disc brake pad for wear, even through I’ve been using mechanical discs since around 2005. Some of that is my constant changing of calipers due to upgradeitis, but a lot of it is how I use my brakes. I don’t change pads on rim brakes all that often either.
--like you, I hardly ever change brake pads also, but you and I ride similarly, but a lot of people don't. Riding the Divide should mean that a rider is confident to be able to adjust pads and or replace them, my opinion anyway, but I'm someone who likes to understand all parts of my bike and be able to do things on my own.
Even in very mountainy trips, I think I've only had to make pad adjustments for wear a handful of times. A few years ago I put up a topic showing my BB7 pads at I think 6000km, beside brand new ones, and they still had good life left in them. But again, this is me with my braking habits, so probably very unlike a lot of riders, even though I was fairly heavily loaded.
Tubeless on bicycles is one of those items that has a lot of misconceptions associated with them. Tubeless tires aren’t any more or less prone to flats than regular tires (or, more correctly, tubes). Mount a tubeless tire dry on a bike and go for a ride, and you’ll experience as many flats as tubed tires with the added joy of harder flat changes and repairs. The sealant is what makes tubeless tires seeming impervious to flats. You can put sealant in tubes as well and enjoy nearly the same imperviousness.
It’s probably not something to worry about until Cuba, NM as most of the route is in the mountains where goat heads don’t grow (too cold).
On the other hand, if your bike is tubeless ready, there probably isn’t a downside to running tubeless on this route. I don’t personally run tubeless because of the care and feeding necessary for tubeless…regular refreshing of sealant, the messing mounting procedure, the need of a compressor, the extra weight, the need to repeat all that for the 11 bicycles in my garage, etc…but when using a single bike over a long period of time, those are smaller problems.
---I've always set wheels like this, but I still find I sometimes need to just nudge my wheel a fraction over when I look at the rotor to make all is centered well, but I'm talking a teeny tiny amount. I just mention this as newcomers used to eyeballing a rim brake wheel are often surprised by the small amount of space that can end up with a little bit of rotor rub. But yes, ones calipers should be set up with the wheel in its natural position to avoid any real rubbing.
BB7 are fine brakes. As to pad life, I have yet to adjust a disc brake pad for wear, even through I’ve been using mechanical discs since around 2005. Some of that is my constant changing of calipers due to upgradeitis, but a lot of it is how I use my brakes. I don’t change pads on rim brakes all that often either.
--like you, I hardly ever change brake pads also, but you and I ride similarly, but a lot of people don't. Riding the Divide should mean that a rider is confident to be able to adjust pads and or replace them, my opinion anyway, but I'm someone who likes to understand all parts of my bike and be able to do things on my own.
Even in very mountainy trips, I think I've only had to make pad adjustments for wear a handful of times. A few years ago I put up a topic showing my BB7 pads at I think 6000km, beside brand new ones, and they still had good life left in them. But again, this is me with my braking habits, so probably very unlike a lot of riders, even though I was fairly heavily loaded.
Tubeless on bicycles is one of those items that has a lot of misconceptions associated with them. Tubeless tires aren’t any more or less prone to flats than regular tires (or, more correctly, tubes). Mount a tubeless tire dry on a bike and go for a ride, and you’ll experience as many flats as tubed tires with the added joy of harder flat changes and repairs. The sealant is what makes tubeless tires seeming impervious to flats. You can put sealant in tubes as well and enjoy nearly the same imperviousness.
It’s probably not something to worry about until Cuba, NM as most of the route is in the mountains where goat heads don’t grow (too cold).
On the other hand, if your bike is tubeless ready, there probably isn’t a downside to running tubeless on this route. I don’t personally run tubeless because of the care and feeding necessary for tubeless…regular refreshing of sealant, the messing mounting procedure, the need of a compressor, the extra weight, the need to repeat all that for the 11 bicycles in my garage, etc…but when using a single bike over a long period of time, those are smaller problems.
Last edited by djb; 09-13-21 at 09:30 PM.
