Originally Posted by
bennybenny
Thank you; I met with a veteran biker and he went over basic repairs a few weeks back, practiced over the winter but need more practice. Many bike shops offer classes but usually in the off season. I think I just have to practice every night on basic repairs and not be intimidated by basic repair (just looking to learn enough to get home/finish race).
On a longer gravel race, say 100 miles, out of 100 people, how many flat out in your observations? How many need chain repair? And how many cant finish because their bike is beyond repair? Just curious about your estimates, thanks.
Benny
Looking at these results from a recent race I entered
Results ? 2015 | Amish Country Roubaix
It seems like about 30% of the racers DNFed.
I know many of them had flats but not sure how many.
At the start of the race it appeared than many of the bikes had 32mm or narrower tires. I think a number had pinch flats hitting the large 2" squared gravel at the bottom of a couple of the hills.
I'm 200# but ran 41mm tires with tubes and had no problems. However I was slower than most and may just have been lucky. I was running about 40psi front/45psi rear.
I would think a setup with WTB 40mm Nano's tubeless would be pretty reliable unless you had a major tire slash. With the wider tires you can run lower pressures without getting pinch flats.
If you are not confident in you repair ability I would not attempt to run ghetto tubeless unless both tire and rim supported it, and keep within the pressures recommended by the manufacturers for tubeless.
Craig