Tubes All Around!

    60 degrees, you can't beat that for a day in late November. The few days prior gave us a lot of rain, so no matter where we went to ride it was going to be muddy. We all met at Mercer, 6 people came out in total, Keith, Kerry, Phil, Jen, Sam and me.

    The trails were squishy in the turns, as my rear wheel slid around the turns but I think my ever, slow leak in the rear wheel contributed to most of the sliding. I got torn up with the most stickiest thorns, my legs are covered in scratches from my ankle to upper thigh and i think i took the worst beating because everyone was smart enough to cover there legs up.

    Mercer trails can be tight in spots like handlebar forest section and most of the tree trunks have marks of people's handlebars scraping them. When the leaves drop on the trails making it more impossible to follow the twisting trail, I have watched others, make their own temporary trail by trail blazing thru the leaves and vines which just leads to a flat.

    One time Barry and I were out at Mercer, he blazed thru some thorns and quickly learned that going off the trail isn't a good idea. Instant flat. No tube for either of us. I know, i know, not wise to ride without a tube or a patch kit nor a pump. But instead, i took the bad tube out and stuffed the tire with leaves, it worked just enough to ride the bike back to the parking lot. When we took the tire off the rim, the leaves completely shredded to practically nothing, it was like instant mulch!

    Well 3 out of 6 got a flat, I was spared. Then again I put them big, bulky Slime tire liners in there and i got that crappy, Slime tube as well. I'm hoping Santa brings me Stan's, No Tube's system.

    So what's the advantages of going tubeless you ask, here are some benefits...

• Yer wheel set can be converted to a tubeless without having to purchase a new wheel set and no modifications to your existing wheel set


• No more pinched flat


• Maybe NEVER having another puncture flat again


• The sealant can also be used to seal punctures and slow leaks


• The sealant will usually last from 3 weeks to up to 3 months. Add more, when needed.


• this is not a commercial for Stan's No Tubes, nor am I paid by them

    Well I hear from some friends and people on the MTBR forum, that it works well althought some tires work better than others, so check the forum out.

happy flat-free trails
dirty bert