Poor guys gets the worst mechanicals (I'm remembering his exploding Mavic wheelset from last year's Tour TT).

PS. Giro stages are on Demonoid.

Are there any plans for a remote mtb ride tomorrow? Mike check yar email.

any of you fellas / ladies planning on heading out to the island for that CWMC test ride today?

Albion ride on Monday... last I checked the weather was gonna be ok.

I have a quick CX question as well....a typical cross rim will allow me to run 23c road tires on it? Is that correct?

Also, I think a couple of you guys run rims with tied and soldered spokes....is it a pain in the ass on the street? Or is there no big diff? Is it something you can do yourself or would it be better left to a pro?

No man. I am stuck on 13th floor Robarts toiling away. Neoliberalism anyone? I'd be up for a good ride later this eve.

Fuzz: ooops mixed the darn day!

Well, a typical cross rim is either a Mavic Open Pro (ubiquitous due to availability/price/quality), Mavic Reflex tubular rim (similar reasons) or Mavic Aksium wheelset (most common "name brand" factory wheelset that comes on decent bikes) so ya ... 23s aren't normally an issue. If you end up running some wide-ass 29er/cross rim (I'm thinking some of the offerings from Salsa/WTB) you might want to ease off on those 23s and give 25s a try.

As for tied/soldered spokes ... I'd leave it to someone who knows what they're doing unless you're really good at soldering (otherwise it'll be a globby mess). A properly tension balanced and trued wheelset isn't going to break spokes anyway unless it's involved in a crash. I don't see a tied+soldered wheelset being an issue on the street specifically because any strong (hand-made by Keith at C.S. or John at C.T.) wheelset won't be an issue on the street.

As for whether or not tied + soldered is worth the effort ... read what Brandt has to say (and his test results), then think about what Cam has to say about his testing methods.

No more than a couple hours drive I guess.

Could you fit 23 tires on a 35 Aksium rim?

Ran into Pyze-Guy at the mall this afternoon...

I don't know where you're getting "35" from, and Aksiums aren't available as just rims - only complete wheels (and/or wheelsets), but ya, fitting 23s on them is perfectly normal. They're normally billed as an entry-level road wheelset. I've run 20mm road tires to 35mm cyclocross tires on them w/out issue.

http://www.mavic.com/road/products/A....aspx#moreinfo

Woah.. blast from the past! They're back! http://www.beboppedals.com/

I've got a 08 Kona JTS and it came with 700x35 tires on a set of Aksium wheels. I want to put some road slicks on it, but don't know what size tires I can fit on the rims (I assumed the rims were 35 because the stock tires were, but I can't actually find a rim measurement anywhere...)


EDIT: here's the JTS http://www.konaworld.com/08_jakethesnake_c.htm

As Mike said, you'd be fine with anything from a 20c to a 35c with no problems at all. Road wheels and cross wheels typically use the same width rims as they're typically the exact same thing. :P

Veteran Youth used his Open Pro rims (which probably have a similar inside width as the Aksiums) on his 29er as well with 2.1" (ie. ~53mm) tires.

I just put a set of 22's (Veloflex Black) on my cross wheelset (Open Pro's).

Why do I have the funny sense that I need to buy a cross bike all of the sudden....hrmmm??? :-@

You can find "optimal" tire width to rim width combinations here http://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire_sizing.html#width

For more reading, visit the wikipedia entry for ISO 5775 which covers tires and rims. Crocheted rims is the French description for hooked rims. I'm not sure why they are distinguishing between hooked and crocheted rims here unless it's a translation error. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_5775

The source for Sheldon's page is a German site that you can translate with babelfish if you're interested in more reading.
http://tandem-fahren.de/Technik/Reifentips/index.html

The rim width is measured from the inside hook to inside hook not the external width. This translates as "muzzle" on the German site.

The Aksiums have 15mm internal rims (according to Mavic.com) yet the stock JTS comes with 35mm tires--a size that SB says isn't safe...

EDIT: even Mavic.com says the max tire size should be 32mm

Seaton hiking trail in Pickering, or a bit further is Kolapore near Collingwood. Both are awesome for spring nature hikes. Also: Elora gorge.

who then ran into the the dirt in the don. off to get xrays on what i really, really hope isn't a broken collerbone.

many.many thanks to the rider who walked me out and dropped by my house to make sure i got home okay. above and betond the call of duty.

...which is the same width as the Open Pro which, as I mentioned, Andrew was running ~53mm wide tires on.. dude, don't worry about it! :) I run 35c tires on my Open Pro's and they ride like an absolute dream. Most mountain bike tire + rim combos would be considered "unsafely wide" using the ratio's listed on that site as well, and I don't hear of too many people exploding wheels or rolling their tires off.

*wince*

hope you're okay, dude!

And that's in keeping with the ETRTO recommendations. Note that Sheldon says offroad machines tend to push the limits of rim width to minimize weight by using narrow rims with wider tires. Saying the combos aren't safe is likely pushing it a bit. Worst case is likely you damage the sidewall. I'd be more concerned going with a too narrow tire on the rim as it may not adequately protect the rim. In any case, running a 25mm slick will be no problem as it meets the rim spec.

Waagh!!! Be well amigo. If you need anything just call.

For more "industry-wide conspiracy" fun, the Mavic fine print explicitly states that Aksiums aren't to be used for Cyclocross.

Collar bone update when you get home, please. Don't be broken!