I have a small bag under my seat (saddle if you’re really serious) where I keep a bike tool, spare tube, the aforementioned dish detergent, and a CO2 cartridge.
You only carry and change the inner tube, which you can roll up and store in a little pouch behind your seat. Road bike tubes, when rolled up, are around the size of a pack of cards. Despite this thread title, you actually don’t change the “tire” - only the tube that goes inside the tire.
Inflating the tube can be an ordeal, however. If you don’t carry compressed CO2 cartridges, you must use a compact pump, the use of which, when viewed from afar, can make you appear to be vigorously masturbating.
Can you just bring KY Jelly instead? Same lubrication effect, but more practical applications.
Ah, that makes sense. So the CO2 is to get high while you’re doing a shitty, mundane task, right?
Lots of people carry spare tires around. I see them all the time.
haha yeah and suspicious as you’re ususally on the side of a highway
The beauty of the dish detergent is that it washes away with a little water from your water bottle. Having a lubricant on your rims is not a good thing when it comes time to stop.
^That’s what she said.
It’s more convenient for me to make my own lubricant.
i usually ride with a pump. Especially on my road bike. Mountain bike - sometimes go naked.
yeah meant ‘tube’ for thread title but have seen someone on a 70.3 half iron with an extra tire packed in a half cut out water bottle stashed in a behind those two waterbottle behind the seat holder things. Saw as he passed me. He was haulin. I guess a slow swimmer cause I know he smoked me in the bike - dude passed me in first 10k on bike
thanks for the reco. got gatorskins today. hope they work out…
I’ve never gotten a flat with Gator Skins for hundreds of miles. The downside is that you can actually feel the extra weight in the wheels and will probably go 0.5 to 1 mph slower for the same effort. For training and exercise I suppose this is fine and maybe even better. However, I recommend that you swap out the wheels (or maybe just the tubes) when you go for your triathlon.
im riding soon so we will see. They are definitely noticeably heavy, but I’m 200lbs/lean so bike weight isn’t as important to me. Yeah I guess I’ll keep the old ones for races as I think they were specifically racing tires. these gatorskins are very easy to change … wow though
^ It’s rotating weight though, so it’s a bigger deal than a slightly heavier seat post or something like that.
I suspect that the Gator Skins might also have greater contact area than more race oriented tires, and this would contritbute to rolling resistance. I don’t have any tires to look at right now, but maybe you can compare them side by side and see if there is a difference.
Agree with your recommendations about running 2 sets of wheels. That’s what I do and only use the heavier tires for training rides. I don’t think the extra weight would slow me down a full mile per hour, but the ride quality and weight are noticeable.
They don’t have a greater contact area because you’re supposed to fill them to some insanely high psi. Either way, a lot of racing bikes are coming with 25s now instead of 23s so apparently there’s some debate surrounding if contact area matters much.
Anyone gone tubeless?
I rode 20mi, gatorskins are legit I didn’t really notice the extra weight
i like your physics fact - def something to consider
vittoria corsa cx are really comfortable. the 25mm is like an armchair. but they wear really quickly so work out really costly.
the worry with tubeless is rolling off on corners. if you go with tape this is possible, using glue makes things safer, but is really messy.
the extra cost & prep time is not worth it. perhaps if you are doing long competitive rides on straight roads then it is.