Saturday, February 27, 2016

Tubeless Ready 40c tires

I don't get many flats in town, but I've been getting tired of flats caused by tiny pieces of wire or glass.  Last year I attempted to set up the Vaya tubeless, using Stan's rim tape with the stock DT Swiss rims and Clement MSO tires.  No go.  I had trouble around the valve stem where the rim tape bunched up, and couldn't get the tires anywhere near sealing.  I tried it with the Freedom Ryder tires, and had the same problem.

I've been thinking of giving it another try or spending $ and getting actual tubeless rims.  In the meantime tire companies have introduced some new 700 x 40 tubeless ready tires for the gravel crowd.  Just my size! Not quite sure about the difference in bead between tubeless ready and tubeless tires, but they look promising.

After starting with narrow tires in its GravelKing line, Panaracer introduced some wider tires and the latest is the 40-622 Gravelking SK.  It and the 32 have small knobs as opposed to the slick version of the smaller sizes.

photo from GravelBike 
One report I read said they were fairly smooth riding on pavement.

Kenda has the Flintridge:

Maxxis ReFuse:




There might be some other tubeless ready options out there but can't think of them offhand. I read that Clement has or is coming out with the X'Plor MSO tubeless ready 700 x 36.

I ride the Vaya a lot on pavement with gravel forays, so the ReFuse smooth tread looks great.  Not sure how long they would last on pavement. Going solely by looks, I'm leaning towards the Flintridge as it looks smoother than the GravelKing SK, but haven't found any in stock yet.  Might end up with a pair of GravelKings.


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