robbyville

I ended up buying a second set of wheels yesterday, will be doing a Fondo with a fair bit of dirt road climbing and long descents where they don't recommend carbon rims unless you are a strong descender (which I am not). So I figured I'd give tubeless and 23mm wide rims a shot. I really wanted some November FSW's to complement my November Carbon's but was offered a fantastic deal on a brand new set of Bontrager Race Lite (mid level) 11spd compatible TLR's, R3 TLR Tires, sealant, rim strips, etc. that I simply couldn't pass up on.

Set them up today so we'll see how they feel. Even though I've seen the diagrams showing the profile of how the tire sits differently on a wider rim I was really surprised at how much wider they appear to the naked eye. Hoping to get out in an hour when the rain passes.

here's a pic of the new TLR R3 25mm tire on the right vs. the same R3 (not TLR) 25mm on the left which is on my November RFSC 38.

Pantani98

Very nice! Let us know how they are. I just brought home a new Madone 5.2 with the Bontrager Race TLR wheelset. I went with the Conti GP 4000S tires but want to give the tubeless setup a try when it comes time to replace these tires.

robbyville

Just did a quick 14 mile shakedown ride. No doubt a little heavier than my November's but I guess that just makes me faster on the downhill's! I will say the ride quality is completely different from what I expected and freaking incredible. I'm running the tires at 95psi or thereabouts, which is only about 10psi less than I was running my other R3's. I cannot believe the difference in feel, not sure if it's the different rim width, the tubeless set up or a combination of both but I felt like I was riding on air. It was also kind of nice to not have any squeal on the brakes since these are aluminum vs. my carbon's

Domane+wider rims running tubeless are a winning combo in my book. I've never had two sets of wheels before but happy that I do now. No way in heck I'll give up my November's with Chris King hubs, they're too darn cool and fun but I'm really happy that these have such a nice ride and think they will really help with my ride selection since there were a few I wasn't comfortable doing on the carbons.

NWS Alpine

What is your weight? 95 psi is still really high for your setup. I would go 80f/85R. The wider rim, volume of the 25c, and tubeless factors into a much lower needed PSI. It will ride even better.

robbyville

My weight is 155 but the tires say 90-125 psi (granted that's what the regular r3's say as well). Think I can still go less?

robbyville

Quick update, I noticed this morning that I seem to have lost a bit of air from the rear tire. Does this mean I need to add sealant or that the tire is not properly seated? It looks fine and straight...

fa63

The Bontrager R3 tubeless tires are designed to work with sealant. Without it, they will lose a significant amount of air overnight (even during a long ride). I have had good luck with Bontrager's own sealant.

Once you have some sealant in them, I think 80 psi front/85 psi rear is a good starting point for your weight. You might be able to even lower.

robbyville

Thanks! I do have about a half bottle of bontrager sealant in each wheel. I guess I should add a bit more? I will definitely play with pressure

fa63

I don't know how much you added to begin with so not sure if you need to add more. I have found that if the tires are not sealing up very well, then you might try deflating them and re-inflating using either a compressor or a C02 cartridge if you haven't already done so. Sometimes the sudden and steady jolt of air is what is needed to establish a good seal.

robbyville

I used about 1oz of sealant which is what they suggested an used a compressor but did not donut as a "jolt" more bit by bit so I will try that next.

fa63

If the compressor doesn't work, try a C02 cartridge. The Hutchinson Secteur rear tire I recently installed wouldn't seal even with a compressor, but the C02 took care of it for good.

robbyville

Will do

EventServices

I'm going to be the dissenting vote.

Here's my club's experience with Bontrager tubeless:

- be very careful with blistering: small bubbles the size of a pencil eraser crop up, pop, and seal themselves IF YOU USE SEALANT. We've experienced a lot of this already. I've been told that Hutchinson made their first batch, and they've been removed from shelves because they were substandard. Kenda is purportedly making them now.

- the sealant is a messy added step that needs to go away. And if it doesn't distribute evenly, it'll throw your wheel out of balance.
(That said, it's pretty handy stuff to save a punctured $120 tubular from the scrap heap.)

- The tires lose pressure even with the sealant. Mine lost 20psi during the course of a 2 hour ride. The LBS very casually said, "yeah, that's going to happen in the first few rides until the sealant works its way into the crevices."
The logic of that statement is completely absurd. You have to 'condition' your tires over a few days before they're ready? Is that feasible? It worries me that people are accepting this as normal.

I tried them. Noticed no appreciable improvement over standard tubes. I weight 200. I've always ridden on 95psi with no problem, so the idea of running less air isn't a new idea. They're heavier. They're a pain in the butt to install. They don't corner any better than any other tire. To me, it's not worth the hassle of dealing with the sealant.

It seems as though bike manufacturers are just trying to throw new stuff at us all the time and baffle us with "technological advances". This is an example of that. Disc brakes on road bikes are the next.These things work great off road, but they have no place in road cycling. But because there's not much else that you can DO to the bicycle, they're playing this game.

robbyville

i hear what you're saying, especially about cross pollination between types of riding that might not make sense. Still the quality of ride did make a difference to me and when I run my normal wheels at low pressure i tend to get pinch flats. Perhaps if I run a normal tire on the wider rim ill still have the quality I'm looking for but I think I'll get the tubeless working properly first!

robbyville

this morning I let the last of the air out (not much left anyway), and gave it a good jolt from the compressor, also added a bit more sealant. will see if that will do the trick but may not be able to ride today.

robbyville

I did what you said and pressure seems perfect 24 hours later thanks!

I'm going to try the 80f and 85r and see how that feels on today's short ride. Hope it doesn't feel mushy.