i've run 1x with and without a narrow-wide chainring. as topflightpro says, it is entirely possible. however, you probably want some combination of clutch RD, inner guard and outer guard. you can use the latter 2 and not run a clutch RD or run a clutch RD and skip the others, but there is always some risk.

there's even risk with a clutch RD & n-w ring, too, especially if it is muddy. most n-w rings have warnings about performance in the mud.

now i run n-w ring with clutch RD and no guards. i have one of those k-edge guards that actually go over the top of the ring; i've been planning to put it up on eBay, but it if helps you out let me know. can't recall off the top of my head it if is braze-on or a clamp. i feel like it's a clamp and they didn't have a braze-on version at the time. honestly, now that i see a braze-on version is available i might buy one of those--it's a really good thing to have IMO.

I ordered a new-to-me set of Zipp 404s to replace the set I had due to the rear rim appearing cracked.

I had noticed that the tire on the front, a Vittoria Corsa Evo, had gone flat. I assumed it was due to leaking around the valve stem, since the tire held air a couple weeks ago. (I've noticed that sometimes, the valve extender loosens allowing air out.). Anyway, I pulled the tire off last night, and put it in a tub of water to verify where it was leaking. Turns out the damn thing was leaking like a sieve. There was so much air bubbling out or it, it was ridiculous. There were bubbles coming up almost every inch along it.

The tread is still good, so I may send it off to be repaired. Or I may just say screw it. I prefer the valve set up on my Continentals anyway, and I bought about a half dozen tubulars at cost when my buddy was shutting down his shop a year or so ago. They are mostly Conti Sprinters and one set of the Vittorias one step down from the Corsa Evo - they are still Corsas though.

Might be that you have one (or two) holes but it's leaking air through the casing around the tire.

Either way it'll be hard to locate the puncture to fix it. You may need to cut open the whole tire and replace the tube.

It is hard to get the real benefit of some cycling stuff (duh).
Velotoze publishes 40sec benefit for the same power. How you get the same power with those weights on your ankle is left out. While I tend to believe the net is still better than the average shoe, is the VO2 expended for the same power and speed the same? They are taking the power measurement after the effort of moving these things. What about very aero shoes on shaved legs? I hate these kind of reports that tell me so little about what really is going on.
FWIW - we have purchased and used several pair.


https://www.velotoze.com/blogs/whos-...aero-advantage

Got new blue swissstop pads for my aluminum Open Pro wheels. The front used to be squealing with the old stock pads, now it's more chattering. I could feel it all through the front end shaking. They're both toed properly, but they were maybe a bit too toed (the right side was maybe toed in somehow, maybe it moved?). I fixed the toe some today, so I'll see if that fixes it.

I also sanded and cleaned the rim (again). If it's still squealing, anyone got any ideas? Other than cleaning, sanding, toeing, tightening, I don't know what else to do.

stop sanding and cleaning the rim? oil, whatever will wear off after a few times braking. check the brake boss and bolt to make sure that's tight, and that the wheel is true. other than that I really wouldn't worry about toeing brakes too much. if toed properly they wear flat in a week anyway.

Front-right-side-only toeing is usually bent brake arm from hitting frame. At least in the old school days.

As@ydguf said, you may want to let some stuff build up on the rim. My magical solution, never planned, is to ride in the rain. Brakes get quiet after, probably some sort of wet sanding kind of action on the pads.

Finally, have you tried Koolstops? They seem pretty happy with my rims, alum or carbon. I used black/dry but now use a combo salmon/black wet/dry.

This has worked for me too. I had a set of old 404 tubulars that no matter what I did, squealed like crazy. I ended up in a race in the rain, and after that, no more squealing.

Got a flat on one of the sworks turbos, but it was a mega slow leak. What did it was a 5-6mm length of thin metal wire in the tread. This is kinda like whatever, but the reason I'm talkin about it is THE TIRE IS SO WELL BUILT THAT IT WAS BARELY LEAKING AIR! This wasn't a tiny pinhole in the tube, it was a legit tear that you could see without having to pump up the tube and find the leak. When I switched it out I was kinda amazed at how slow the leak was relative to the hole.

Anyway props to Specialized. Sworks Turbo and Gp4000s II sit at the top of the tire pyramid inside my heart.

Still kicking myself for missing the two for one deal.

I will admit that deal is SWEET. Our shop hooks us up and we get them for a cost that is like: They are cheap enough to use on my around town beater

At the Jam fund ride I spent the first 20 miles chatting with a fast Massachusetts road racer buddy, until I realized he had dragged us all the way off the front of the ride and that wasn't really how I wanted to spend my day so I reverse-dropped him and filtered back through the multitudes to my mellower amigos. Anyway, he was riding 32 tires and making a pretty good case for comfort being a major factor on training wheels.

So I picked up a pair of 28 Turbos, which measure out to almost 30mm on Velocity A23s which are somewhat wide rims. I've been riding them for a week and OMG it's so comfy, like riding in a Town Car. I rode them on a fast team ride too and I don't feel like they slowed me down at all. Supposedly aero cost dominates rolling resistance gains when tires get wider but I suspect these tires match up well aero-wise with the wide rims. Anyway it's a big upgrade to my daily riding experience and pretty cheap too!

a while back i glued up some 27s (which measured 28.5) and described the ride as like being on a magic carpet. they simply smoothed out every little bump and seam. pure pleasure.

however, there's a pretty sizable aero hit. did you ride with power that night? obviously it's not too scientific as there are many variables, but you can look at AP/NP for that ride (or ideally a few rides with the wider tires) vs some others and see if you were working harder.

sometimes it's hard to tell that we're working harder when it's the difference between something easy, say, 180 and 195w.

to my knowledge there are no rims wide enough where there is NOT an aero hit for 28s; the rim has to be wider than the tire. there ARE rims where the aero hit is less than other (narrower) rims, but it's still a hit. IME, the aero hit for 28s is significant.

doesn't mean they are not awesome to ride, though!

i like those tires, but IME they are less durable than even the vittoria (open) corsas, which have great ride quality but are not known for longevity.

i put on a new rear turbo before a couple crits last weekend and then wound up doing some training rides on it because i was lazy -- and it's about done after a week. i'll still ride it but not sure i'd risk an important race on it as the flat potential is much higher.

still, i'd ride/race 'em again in a heartbeat -- and in fact i raced the tubular version last weekend.

if you think sworks turbos don't last.. try the cottons, really soft compound. I just ordered Corsa G+ myself to give a try.

A road tubeless update: currently pretty frustrated with this technology. I love it in theory, but I can't rely on them to keep a good seal. Front tire developed a leak after being perfect for many months; rear tire was problematic for a while before that. I had put a tube in back, but the sudden problems with my front wheel on Saturday meant doing a fast descent in a race on maybe 30 PSI and then pushing that squishy tire up the big climb. I'd be interested in ideas or thoughts on tubeless. For now, though, back to tubes.

i have ridden them.

you won't find the graphene tires to last appreciably longer than the prior non-graphene compounds.

i'm ok with this and basically ride nice tires all the time because i get pretty good deals and i feel that tires make SUCH a huge impact on my overall ride experience. life is too short to ride crappy tires.

(i'd feel differently if i rode ****ty roads routinely and had to deal with stuff that can quickly flat a tire; i'm lucky in that i basically wear out tires rather than tearing them up.)

can't say all that much but i'm currently testing a solution where the manufacturer controls both tire and wheel.

for me, road tubeless has always been a solution to a problem i don't have. tire options -- fast ones -- have been very limited, historically (hope that improves), flats for me are really infrequent (i can see this would be different fro someone who lives in an area with goat heads), and the consequence of a loss of seal on a descent is pretty huge vs a tubular.

i'm a BIG believer in tubeless for MTB, but that's a different case.

the scenario you described honestly scares me.

yeah everything I've read about them points to that too... like you, I don't want crappy tires. :thumb:

are you still a fan of them for cx? i've been toying with the idea of picking up tubeless ready ultegra wheels to train on.

Yes. You do get performance benefits over clinchers, and that's worth something. But I'm still concerned about reliability.

I'm ambivalent about road tubeless. I've got two wheelsets set up with tubeless - Ultegra 6800 wheels with IRC Roadlite tires, and Hed Ardennes Plus wheels with S-Works Turbo tubeless. I've had zero issues with the first. The presta nut came off in the pump head on the second; when I pulled the valve core to replace it, one side of the bead came unstuck and it was harder to re-seat the tire than it was to originally seat it. That may have something to do with the fact that I had Stan's in the tire and it was a lot slicker. As far as holding air, both sets are about the same as clinchers with tubes.

I'm with [MENTION=99188]tetonrider[/MENTION] in that I don't find the ride quality to be noticeably better than good clinchers with tubes and I don't get but 1-2 flats/year. The additional hassle of mounting them and the additional cost outweigh the advantages for me.

I too was really big on the idea of road tubeless, but have been somewhat underwhelmed by the reality. My experience has been that when a puncture seals, you might be able to keep riding, or you might have to put some air in. Either way, the tire will never hold air as well as it originally did unless you patch the puncture; the sealant is just a temporary fix, it simply doesn't work as well at the pressures used in road tires compared to MTB/CX.

I'm currently riding tubeless Schwalbe Pro One's in my road bike. I like these tires, they test fast, and they're very easy to get on and off the rim (easier than most clinchers I've used). So the way I look at it, they give me some puncture protection due to not being susceptible to pinch flats and the fact that minor punctures will seal well enough to keep riding. For major punctures, I know they won't be too difficult to work with if I have to put a tube in roadside (I do still carry tubes in my saddlebag).

BTW, the Open Corsa G+ seriously suck for tubeless use. They leak air through the side walls like crazy and they puncture easily. Also not as easy to get on and off the rims compared to the Schwalbe Pro One's.

The S-Works Turbo tubeless are pretty good, but just way to expensive at $100/ea when I can get the Schwalbes for under $50.

I tried tubeless for cross a couple years ago. I gave up after one race. I lost the seal about 4 times. I have not tried it since.

What set up are you using?

Pacenti SL23 and Specialized Terras. Worked great all cross season except for one time when I had to re-seat the rear tire - it was mysteriously flat on race morning. But luckily that got it fixed and I did the rest of the race with no problems. For some reason the same rims/valves haven't been as reliable at maintaining a complete seal this road season. I'll probably end up messing around to get them working again for cross - it's good to have a backup. But it's also not as necessary now that I have a second pair of tubular wheels, so we'll see. But I probably will, cause I now have two bikes for the big races and it would be good to have spare wheels for them.

Edit: right, forgot, for road it's the same rims but Schwalbe Ones. Pretty good tire but not supple. Which meant I ran them quite low which meant they were probably really costing me in rolling resistance. If I give it another shot next year, it'll be Pro Ones and higher pressures.