Ran Pathfinder Pro 42s in 2023 at Unbound and 47s this year. No flats either year. Did have Tubolight inserts and this year ran Silca Sealant and put 5 ounces in each wheel.
I had the 47s pumped to 26 psi front and rear before the race, so as the weather got warmer I’m sure the PSI would have gone up but I wasn’t motivated to put on the TyreWiz for the race to monitor. They felt great all day. Probably could have run even bit lower but was happy with what I did run.
I’m on a Checkpoint SLR, which is rated for 45mm clearance, but still has plenty of room in the rear with me running a 1x setup. Those on 2x will have less clearance. Fork has a ton of room.
47’s for me this year as well. No inserts. 26/27ish on pressure @ ~165lbs. No flats. 42’s would have been totally fine this year with the conditions being relatively smooth/fast.
Saw 6 guys flat, 3 with wrecked rims at my last race (field of ~50), following a fast, rocky descent (Cat 4 gravel) I made it through okay but seeing 2 of my buddies flat out, one with two spots where the rim would never be tubeless again. I do like to bomb down descents but after seeing all those people flat out, I picked my lines a little more carefully on the following rough descents.
I’m <60kg so generally don’t have a lot of issues with flats and rim damage but now that I’ve upgraded to carbon wheels on my XC and gravel bike would like to add some protection in the rear, to prevent rim damage, that won’t add weight or rolling resistance.
I know Air liner is not supposed to add rolling resistance, same situation for Tubolight? I think price wise as Tubolights only come as a pair, I can buy 2 rear airliners for less than 2 pairs of Tubolights given I don’t think I need the front for protection.
Am I crazy to think that a lot of the “huge tires are always faster” is driven by Unbound? I’ve never ridden there, but it seems uncommonly hard on tires. Most of my events include lots of mild gravel and some pavement too, so the aero and RR penalties of 50mm tires at mid-20s pressures get kinda real. All to say that I’m not certain all manufacturers are going to be releasing frames with 50mm+ clearance…or maybe Unbound is really such a driver of the market and perception that I’m way off base.
I agree. Plenty of gravel races still won on 700x40-47. I mean 38 was the norm not long ago. Imo it’s more a product of these pros getting faster more so than them all finally discovering this magic secret. Unbound might be an outlier.
Very curious to see how DJ does and what tires he uses at Crusher next race. That has a lot of elevation and you can’t convince MTB tires are the move their for example.
The current Airliners are different than the Airliner Lights that have been out for XC for over a year. However, as mentioned below, the gravel Airliner Light are going to be available to purchase later this month. They had them had the expo at their booth. The big difference is the Airliner Light is made to use as a “run flat” option to try and get you to the finish or next aid station. The standard insert isn’t made as a run flat option. The Tubolight also works as a run flat.
I’ve used both the Airliner Light and Tubolight for XC and do prefer the Airliner Light a little. It seems more sealant ends up clinging to the Tubolight. I thought it might be absorbing some as well, but the manufacturer claims this doesn’t happen. The Tubolight’s also seem to get a bit more beat up over time, but maybe I’m riding into things too hard…
Wouldn’t the run flat style liners affect rolling resistance like the Tannus inserts? While run flat is good, I was more thinking Cushcore style (don’t break the rim) rim protection.
There are some selective/technical spots where bigger tires are certainly an advantage (and flats are a big risk), but most of the gravel this year was pretty tame. They had graded a lot of roads prior to the event and we didn’t have the typical loose/big rock sections that are sometimes there. I’m guessing some of that has to do with the number of people out there pre-riding in the weeks leading up. There were some really bad sections that I saw about a month ago and they had nice smooth lines ridden into them by race day.
I was surprised by Dylan’s result running Conti 2.2’s. He’s a good bike racer, but I honestly didn’t think he had the engine to hang with that kind of group. I don’t know if the tires were helping all day, but it seems pretty clear they weren’t hurting. Looking forward to his race recap. I think Payson might have also been running MTB tires and had a good finish.
The Tubolights and Airliner Lights still compress with air pressure in the tire, but they will likely still touch the sidewall, so there may be some small impact in rolling resistance. However you can run lower PSI so it may balance out.
All that being said there are clearly different camps when it comes to inserts and a lot is still getting figured out. I talked for quite a while with the Schwalbe guy at Unbound and they are very anti-insert. They feel that inserts may actually increase chance of flats by making the sidewall more exposed. I believe the Kenda tire folks are in a similar camp and that some of the Kenda athletes are avoiding inserts for that reason. They definitely aren’t a panacea and I got a nasty rim flat running a Kenda Rush 2.4 SCT with inserts last year that I couldn’t plug.
I think that was the point of DJ’s video. The Conti 2.2s didn’t have any real speed penalty compared to the smaller tires. They just had benefits of better rolling resistance, compliance, grip and puncture protection.
I am curious to see what he thinks of the Lauf Fork. Been kicking around the idea myself of either getting a Lauf Fork or Rudy Fork.
Amazing result for DJ no doubt. Curious how the tactics played out too. At the end there was an interview with Payson he mentioned feeling not that tired after the race (I’m paraphrasing) and he didn’t even look like he broke a sweat. DJ gave it everything and looked like a ghost. Point being I wonder if these races turning more tactical and cat / mouse helps DJ more now rather than it being a race on just pure power. Either way will be interesting to see how season plays out but I think these results were more of a human result not machine result if that make sense?
Agreed. I guess my point was there is a big difference between 50 and 2.2 MTB in terms of what it does to the bike build / geo. Idk if it’s worth it but I’m sure the industry will find a way to make us spend the money and find out lol
I started gravel racing on my Scott RC FS (100/100) mountain bike and had some pretty solid results on it.
I just bought a new MTB and I’m considering turning the scott into a drop bar gravel racer. I guess FS isn’t ideal, but it’s only a 2-3 pounds heavier than my checkpoint (which is a bit of a pig). It’s got full lockouts to make the bike rigid. Besides drop bars, the only thing that wasn’t great about gravel racing that bike was the 38 chainring limitation. Might be doable with a 9tooth cassette and/or maybe I can squeeze a 40 tooth ring on there.
DJ’s power numbers have been continually improving based on his race recaps, so he might not quite have the numbers of the very top guys, he’s getting closer. He’s been neck and neck with Finsty at several events so that is a pretty good measuring stick.
One thing that may have really ended up helping him is the forced rest he took after the throat abscess. This came right after he had done some mega training block.
According to the cyclingnews image the Morton’s front tyre seems to be a 54 mm (2.1) Terreno Dry. The rear tyre is a Mezcal, but it is a bit hard to see the size: could that be a 44 mm?