Tubeless road wheels review

It’s fair to say I was a bit sceptical on the road tubeless concept before I tried it. The benefits that tubeless offers to MTB riders, the ability to run tyres at low pressure without the risk of pinch flats, didn’t seem to be particularly applicable on the road. Even NZ’s roads aren’t rough enough to cause pinch flats on road tyres! Once I found out the tubeless tyre comes at a weight premium to a standard clincher (330g for the Hutchinson training tyres on the road tubeless versus apx. 280g for a light clincher/tube combo), thus mitigating any rotating weight advantage that removing a tube offered, I was even less convinced.

All of this changed pretty quickly though.

Even on my first ride on them, a 20 minute roll home, I could tell there was something about these wheels. Further riding confirmed my initial instincts.

First off, the wheels are super comfortable. Running the 25mm tyres at 90psi makes for an unbelievably comfortable riding experience. On the newly surfaced but unbelievably rough Miramar peninsular road I glided over the bumps smoothly. When using a more traditional wheel set I would find myself bumping and bouncing over the surface. When you’re doing a long ride this additional comfort is a big plus.

More impressively though, in addition to being comfortable, the lower pressure paradoxically makes the wheels easier to spin on rough surfaces. Rather than having to use energy to propel the bike forward after it lost momentum bouncing around, the bike smoothly rolls over any bumps. This energy saving was really noticeable on rough surfaces. At times I found myself deliberately riding on rough surfaces just because I could. I especially enjoyed this when riding with others who were on traditional wheels. Even on smooth tarmac the wheels rolled well, perhaps not as well as 120psi tyres but not dramatically worse. Regardless, in Wellington most of the time the road isn’t tarmac so the benefit heavily outweighs this.

The rims (and total weight) of the tubeless wheels are very light which helps these wheels spin and accelerate quickly. I was very impressed here, especially given the weight of the tyre being used. Running a softer and wider tyre also helps with grip. Something much appreciated during Wellington’s cold and wet winter. These tyres certainly felt stable in corners. Something that I can’t always say about others I use.

In addition to training, I used the wheels for a race down to the Wainui coast and back. This stretch of road is pretty rough so was a good opportunity to test the wheels. I raced with the tyres at 90psi, significantly lower than I would normally. I was a bit worried that the (lack of) pressure might be more noticeable in a race but the wheels performed admirably, rolling well and (as you would expect) smoothly on the rough surfaces. The wheels were plenty stiff enough for my 70(ish) kg frame under the accelerations, attacks and sprints that the race demanded.

Overall, despite my initial reservations I was well impressed by the wheels. So much so that I am reluctant to give them back. I would love to try them out with Hutchinson’s racing tubeless tyre which would shave another 60 grams per wheel of rotating weight off the package. Without doubt this would make them spin and accelerate better without compromising comfort.

You really should try these for yourself.

We traveled up to Whangaui in the Falcon.  The traffic at this time of the morning was non-existent and Friday’s rain and wind had given way to clear blue skies and views of the snow-capped Tauruas.

A few hours later we passed through Whanganui and arrived at the race course to find a very technical descent (with a railway crossing in the middle) followed by a punchy 1km climb about 2km before the finish line.  The technical descent added to my apprehension but I liked the idea of a half-descent climb within a stones throw of the finish and I made a mental note to get to the front of the bunch for the descent.

We registered and were issued the most amazing race numbers: they were thick, heavy material with hand-written numbers and were so wide that they wrapped around to the front of the jersey!  No digital timing tags here.

We had plenty of time so we jumped back in the car and drove the course: A flat start, fast downhill, then a bit lumpy before heading back on State Highway 3 with two decent climbs before turning off the main road into the technical descent, 1km climb, and flat to the finishline.  In B grade I’d have to do 4 laps of this course for a total of 90km, Mike and Andy in A grade would have to do 5 laps for a total of 112km.

I was riding the wide Velocity A23 wheels with DT Swiss hubs – these aren’t as fast as carbon race wheels but the road-holding and amazing feel of these wheels has made them my favorites to ride.

I found the pace from the start to be comfortable so I stayed near the front and lapped out in the thought that a break would form.  One guy made repeated attacks off the front but wasn’t able to make anything stick and no one wanted to go with him.

I had no problems on the two climbs on SH3 and each lap I made sure to be near the front of the group for the descents.  The descent over the train tracks was a lot of fun with great traction in the corners and I found myself really looking forward to this descent on each lap, plus it put me in a good position for the 1km climb which followed.  The climb was steep enough to suit my strengths and was too long for the powerful riders to take advantage.

Any New Zealand race isn’t complete without interference from the local livestock and on lap 3 we were stopped by the cows crossing the road on their way to milking.  A couple of lucky guys who had been dropped on the climb managed to get back on and no one seems to complain about having a rest for a couple of minutes.

On the final lap Kerry jumped clear on the first climb.  I let him go and expected the bunch to work together to bring him back, but this wasn’t the case and he quickly left us behind.  On the second climb I upped the pace hoping to split the bunch or have someone go with me, but near the top I glanced back to see I was 50 meters off the front of the bunch and alone.  Figuring I’d get caught on the flat section I sat up and went back to the bunch.

The pace was reasonably quick along the flat section into the descent and I entered it in first wheel.  This put me in a good position at the base of the final climb and a group of three of us broke clear of the group.  We worked well together over the top of the climb and managed to catch Kerry with about 600m to go.  Going into the final straight I was in last wheel which was the perfect position.  It was a head wind combined with a slightly uphill finishline and I knew I had to wait and go late.  Two of the guys infront bumped together quite hard and I didn’t want to crash so when they bumped together for a second time I jumped to the right side of the road and went early for the sprint.  I went too early though and could only muster 3rd.

In the A grade Joe Cooper solo’d off the front and finished with about 1 min over the remnants of the bunch.

Andy had a stunning sprint through the bunch which was reminiscent of Robbie McEwen’s darting and diving and managed to finish 4th for the sprint and 5th overall – an awesome job considering the quality of the field. Mike rolled in a minute behind the front bunch for 11th place of the 25 strong field.

We loaded up the car and after prize giving headed for a kebab at Jabies in Bulls to spend the prize money.  We talked trash the whole drive home and by the time I’d dropped the boys off, unloaded the car and jumped in the shower it was 9:45pm – certainly a long day!

This was the first time any of us had done the Whanganui GP and it was a really well organized event with great marshals – many thanks to Wanganui Cycling for putting on such a great day!

I also serviced the rear hub with a new set of 5 bearings and a good clean of the freehub body.

The Stan’s hubs with a QR15 front axle are nice and light and great value.

The spokes for this wheelset are black DT Swiss Competition. I used brass nipples on the rear driveside and aluminium everywhere else. Nipple colour alternates between red and black.

An amazing photo – best of luck at Eurobike, Tim!

The spokes on this wheel are double-butted Sapim Race’s and I use DT Swiss nipples because they allow a greater rotation angle inside the rim.

This pair of wheels uses a custom blue pair of DT Swiss 240s hubs with two blue spokes at each valve. The wheels will be used for general training and a bit of club racing, but Ian has a similar pair with lighter hubs and fewer spokes which I built a few years ago for racing.

Front and rear non-driveside spokes are DT Swiss Revolutions, and stiffer Competitions are used on the rear driveside.  The driveside spoke nipples are brass, and I used aluminium for the non-drive and front.

At 1485 grams these wheels are still lighter than most out-of-the-box race wheels.

The Salsa rims work really well with the large flanges of the Rohloff hub. Some rims, like DT Swiss, don’t let the nipple exit at the right angle, and some spoke nipples, like Sapim, have a similar problem. I’ve got a lot of experience with these hubs so I know what combinations work well.

This wheel is being fitted to a Salsa La Cruz cyclocross / commuter / touring bike.

I treat damages and rebuilds as a great way to learn about the original build of the wheel, especially when it’s one of my own. It’s a great chance to see what condition the spoke nipples are in – especially whether they have seized to the spokes. With alloy nipples this is one of the primary concerns yet it can be quite easily prevented with correct building.

For a rebuilt I start by taping the new rim next to the old one. Since the spokes are happy in their position on the hub they can be re-used and don’t need to be disturbed too much.  Spokes are stretchy steel and it takes a lot to damage them.  I won’t re-use spoke nipples, especially aluminium ones so these will be replaced.

I then loosen each spoke nipple. I do this in small amounts by going around the wheel a few times and loosening only one turn at a time while the wheel is at tension. This prevents the tension from one spoke being transferred to others if it was completely loosened.

The new spoke nipples are prepared by shooting grease into each one of them. The blue tray is something I made as a prototype 4 years ago but it works so well I’ve never had to modify it.

Once the spokes are loose I go around the wheel and move each spoke from the old rim to the new one. The old nipple is discarded and the spoke thread is wiped clean. The new nipple has grease inside the thread and I roll the head in grease before it goes into the rim so that it rotates easily inside the rim.

Once each spoke is moved to the new rim the tape can be cut. From here it’s business as usual to finish building the wheel.

Some pics of the damaged rim. Cameron isn’t sure what he hit – they were riding single-file at pace and it wasn’t pointed out. The tube was pinch-flatted and the tyre slightly damaged so it was a reasonable hit!

And a few pics of the finished rebuild: