Transcontinental Race No. 7 - TCR7 - #TCRN07 - 2019

I nursed my tyres through most stuff without issue in the past but the added stress of doing it means I'm of the opinion sod Crr just gimme thicker rubber. I'd rather just blast through stuff than finesse every rough section.

Yeah those Rampart ones are quite appealing

Has anyone on here actually used the Rampart tyres?

But what if you translate Crr to climbing?

Robert Chung - Nice explanation for why Crr scales exactly like hill slope, so a Crr of .005 creates exactly as much drag as climbing up a hill with slope of 0.005 (i.e., half of one percent). If you’re comparing a tire with a Crr of .004 against a tire with Crr of .005 (for a particular surface) the second tire would be like climbing a hill that’s .001 (= 0.1%) steeper. That may not seem like a lot, but over a 200 km race that’s the equivalent of climbing an extra 200 meters compared to the lower Crr tire.

So by my probably incorrect calculations based on https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com
compared to GP5000 (tubes) over a 4000km ride:

Pro 4 Endurance V2 = 5040m extra climbing
Gatorskins = 11840m extra climbing

That is based on the Crr difference of one tyre, no idea if it doubles for two.

https://marginalgainspodcast.cc/hysteresis-in-marginal-gains/

Not heard of anyone.

Trouble is shred one in Serbia you could be walking for a over a day

They're tubeless only aren't they?

https://www.gravelbike.com/teravail-rampart-tires/

Tubeless compatible.
I'd probably run tubes, although would be open to running them tubeless with tubes as back up.

Yeah. But you weren't on CP4 riding past the guy fixing his tyre, then back past the guy fixing his tyre, then checking into the hotel down the bottom at night while the guy was still fixing his tyre... I'll take the extra Crr.

You'd be very unlucky to break a tyre so badly that you couldn't patch it up and carry on.

Otoh if you do break it that badly, the walk from the south of serbia to somewhere selling decent 700c tyres might be a couple of weeks!

I tried that chain link method once and nearly sliced my finger open. Difficult to get a good grip on a cable that is designed to be slick...

What was he doing to it, molecular level reconstruction?

Dunno, he was one of those suckers running tubeless tyres...

OK, he was probably still trying to get the tyre off then.
maybe he's still there

Given the amount of walking I did I reckon he would've been better off walking down during daylight and dealing with it at the hotel. If it was still fucked he could've got to a bike shop at least. I think (know) someone gave him a tube so presume he was trying to install that.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

Yeah, I'm between something indestructable or going light and carrying a spare.

Probably trying to take the valve core out and squeeze it through the hole...

A lot of people swear by Marathon Plus

Fat is slow. Slow and fat is still puncture.

Not sitting beside the road trying to tape a sidewall and jam in a new inner tube is all I want. I do these because I like the epic cycling, not because I'm going to be troubling the front of the race - so worrying about lowering my Crr when I'm stopping every hour to try a new local beer isn't the correct order of priority for me.

It’s mentally draining to keep dealing with punctures

I still need to watch that parcours video but Marathon Plus is what they use on the bucket wheel of these because they're tougher than the Earth

jam in a new inner tube

Mmm, Strawberry - I wondered where you kept it!

700Cx32 gel, various flavours (all with hint of butyl).

I use a wera zyklop mini, with a little plastic case to hold the necessary bits.