Tubeless Update

Nice wheel. Well, it was once anyway.

Road Tubeless is great.
It’s that simple. The tubeless setup I previously detailed ran straight and true for several weeks. It was fast, grippy and light.

Then the crash happened.

Briefly

I was on a very fast steep descent on a wet day with a gale howling and entering a corner. What could possibly go wrong?

Going along at 55kph I went through the first corner of the descent from Sallygap towards Rathfarnham. The wind which had been behind me was now coming from the side, and a stronger gust surprised me. Totally side-on now it pushed me, fully sideways across the road. With no other traffic around I was able to attempt all the proper corrections in safe haste – counter steering, steering into corner, braking without locking up. I threw the literal rulebook at the bike.

Nothing worked and I hit the lip of the ditch sideways on. The rear wheel dug in while the momentum carried the bike on and flipped me bodily over the ditch.

Dried up sealant filling gaps around spoke hole.

The Result

All of the equipment was fine bar one scratch on the chainstay and a catastrophically failed rear wheel. As can be seen from the photos the wheel is completely warped beyond repair.

The rim seam burst and the air-tight seals around the spoke holes burst open. But there it stopped. Sitting there in a ditch I watched the Stan’s No-Tubes sealant bubble forth through the split in the rim and the spoke holes. At first I wondered what the hell it was, then remembering, I watched as it stopped bubbling 20 seconds later. That was it. Sealed.

Burst seam on the rim, now sealed.

The accident was four weeks before these photos were taken. The tires have remained sufficiently pumped up to be used (although the wheels’ buckled state might have a say in that).

Please Note

Throughout this post the pneumatic buffers which run between a bicycle’s wheels and the road surface have been referred to as “tires”. If you prefer “tyres” then good for you, you are staying true to the roots of the English language. But language moves on, so get with the programme, and stuff.

This article was posted on Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 at 10:23.
It is archived in Bicycles, Sport and tagged accident, road cycling, tubeless.