Bike Nirvana
Yet another cycling blog
Going tubular: Reynolds Assault SLG & Continental Sprinter Gatorskin
November 29, 2016
While I'm happy with the 50mm CNC wheelset, it suffered from an unkown accident that led to a small crack and upon coordination with Edward he advised me to bring it to his shop. It means I will not have a wheelset for the Propel for sometime.
I attended the Phil Bike Expo at SMX hoping I would find a good deal. The wheelsets I saw include the FFWD, Superteam, DT Swiss, and from the Taiwanese company Pro-Lite. The Superteam wheelset is being offered for P40,000 but we can't find the right spec and we can't weigh the wheels. FFWD and DT Swiss are over P80,000 and no discount is being offered. The Pro-Light Bracciano looks interesting to me but the SRP is prohibitive at P75,000.
The Bracciano are UCI-tested, and weights over 1.5kg for the pair according to their website. I was able to talk to Flor of Green Planet and she offered me an exclusive discount if I pick up the pair at the closing of the expo. I had to weigh the pros and cons of such acquisition and on the morning of the follwing day, I contacted Flor via SMS and call, but there was no response. I guess it wasn't meant to be.
I found myself inside Life Cycle at Macapagal once more, loitering around looking at some wheelsets. The Reynolds Attack is still there and priced much lower than the heavily-discounted Pro-Lite Bracciano, I'm just about close to buying but... it won't look good on the Propel or rather, the Propel won't look good with it. I pestered Percy and Jeorge and with a stroke of luck, they found a Reynolds Assault SLG in their Greenhills branch. The search is over, all I need is to wait until it gets delivered to Pasay.
What a beauty! Naturally, I weighed them and the front wheel registered at 560g, the rear at 730g for an impressive sum of 1,290g.
The set came with pads made by Brakco for Reynolds. They're pliable and softer than the Mavic Swiss Stop Yellow pads they will replace.
This version of the Assault is tubular so while waiting for their arrival at Pasay, I did research on the world of tubular wheelset and tires. My photography-cycling friends who learned of my direction had a field day discussing about the negative aspects and I understand them. However, I am not deterred by it.
After reading about tubular tires and checking the availability, the final candidate was the Continental Sprinter Gatorskin which price varied widely from P2,700 to P2,200. Bike Parts PH in Antipolo gets my business this time.
Mounting the tires
Since I don't intend to "race" these tires and I'm not a racer to begin with, I'm going with the glue tape method. The challenge is where to find the Corogna (pronounced like Caronia, the nail polish) glue tape. I have to settle for the Zefal tubular tape for now as they're also available at Bike Parts PH.
I plan to abide with the ritual of giving the tires some pre-stretching and I mounted them to the Reynolds Assault without the adhesive first. To my surprise, it was very easy and nowhere near the effort I had to endure mounting the IRC Aspite onto the Shimano Ultegra wheelset. It took me seconds! They also seem to self-align and when inflated they're perfectly true. In addition, the tires wrapped themselves tightly around the rim even without adhesive. Nevertheless, I left the Sprinter Gatorskin on the Assault for a few hours.
These tires require a valve extender so I was fortunate to have a pair of Token valve extender that I used for another inner tube.
An obvious step to make adhesives stick is to clean the surface of contact and I can't believe the "contamination" the wheels have. I lightly scrubbed the rim with Scotch brite with Joy dishwashing detergent, dried the rims thouroughly and applied alcohol, this is what's picked up by the micro-fibre cloth.
At this point, it will be best to put the tire sealant into the tires. The Sprinter Gatorskin has a removable valve which makes the process easy.
Applying the tape around the two rims consumed the roll and I'm now ready for the final mount. Again, it was very easy and I checked the alignment which is spot on. I pumped the tires some 120 psi although the German instructions suggested 143 psi.
Dealing with flats
Punctures makes one's life shitty hell and tubulars may make it even worse as the inner tube is literally inner, i.e., inside the tubular tire. This is where tire sealants like Joe's or Stan's will have to weave their magic. For large punctures, the tought of discarding the expensive tire looms in one's mind, they can be fixed albeit not easy, but they can be fixed.
There is no way a small hand pump can inflate these Continental tires based on experience, therefore I equipped my self for the inevitable. The Zefal 16g C02 catridges were added to my tool kit and they're capable of producing 135 psi.
On the road
I finally hit the road with the tubulars and they're unforgiving, echoing the road imperfections directly to my fingertips. Ok, that's an exageration but on smooth roads they're superb. The tires grip well and offers confidence when cornering and for whatever reasons, they feel fast.
Brake modulation is very granular and the bite is sufficient for a sure stop from 41 km/h. I have not flat-spotted with them yet and I wish it'll stay that way.
At 41mm deep, I think this is a good compromise for an aerodynamic wheelset. There were strong winds at my usual route today and so far, my riding has not been affected at all. Either they're really good or I'm heavier now.
Aesthtically, they look good on the Giant Propel Advanced.
