Stan's sealant is a great thing.
Or so I thought.
As my wife likes to say of me, you always try to push things beyond what they were designed to do.
I probably should have know better than to push a product that was designed in the basement of the science building beyond what reasonable people would call enough.
I have been constantly lowering the air pressure of the big, cushy WTB's, in an effort to find the holy grail of bike handling perfection. To spare those who don't understand the physics of it all, I have softened the tire pressure to the point of making the bike feel like it has minimal suspension. It is a fine line because too much pressure lost blows the handling of the bike and makes turning sloppy, and/or slows rolling resistance.
Too much pressure and you might as well run tubes and take the weight hit.
I have narrowed the range of psi perfection down to somewhere between 18 and 22 psi based on the dynamics of the trail that I happen to be testing on.
At 18psi, a rooty trail becomes pretty smooth but I can feel the rear tire pinching on the rim. Of course, without a tube to hassle with it, snakebites are not an issue. It IS however slightly unnerving to feel it when it happens.
On a smoother layout....22 or more psi is the feel good/more efficient zone.
I should have left well enough alone.
But hell no...I decided to drop it down to 15 psi in the front. I knew right away that was toooooo low. But i kept going. Fast forward to a slight dip to compress the front enough to allow that bitch to burp, catch enough debris between tire and rim to eliminate any chance of resealing quickly, throw a slight high speed turn immediately following the burp.....and INSTANT AUGER. This all happened in about .5 of a second. I'mm talking about busted my AZZZZZZ.
To make matters worse, the first thing that hits the ground is my medically repaired elbow.
I have heard that you need to replace/redo the sealant procedure ocassionally. I am not sure how often though.
Does anyone know?
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4 comments:
dude, just rock it poon style and run 38psi. i guess that makes me a wimp since i refuse to take chances.
i usedta make fun of philip for running super low pressure on his ghetto'd on-one, until i rode 20 psi on mine.... and it was the best-feeling 'suspension' cush ride i'd ever had on a bike. the difference in control, smoothness, handling was just unbelievable.
i've been playing w/ pressure and mine on both the cx and mtb, and having trouble getting it right... mostly b/c air pressure gauges don't tend to be very reliable at low air pressures in those big fat monster tires. 20-22-25 seems about right on the Rig, whereas 32-36 git r done on the CX. the problem in CX is off-camber grass, which will burp the tire off in a hot minute.
i roll on 15.529psi, 'cept when i roll with my homies. then its only 40s
Make it 22 front and 25 rear unless you are as big as bjlee or BRENT or Terrance Cody!
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