Quiet monday morning

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Gorilla Tape Tubeless Conversions

I recently decided to do maintenance on my surly mountain bike. I had not done major work on this since i built it 7 or 8 years ago. So came the work of new tires, hub bearings, pedal rebuild and brakes.

I decided that it was also time to see what this tubeless craze was about. I purchased the Stan’s NoTubes 29Er Xc Tubeless System along with some Stan’s 2.0×29 raven tires.

After failing at successfully converting my existing rims with the Stan’s kit I did some research. Turns out my front rim is on the computability list. As for my rear rim; their web site says there is no compatible rim tape for that rim. Hmm. Guess I’ll come back to it later.

The next day as I make it to 5 different bike shops looking for a simple hydraulic line I heard two people mention that the Stan’s conversion kit is difficult to use and it doesn’t last long. They independently recommended the “Gorilla Tape” method.

So home I went to research this method. First stopping by the hardware store to pick-up some gorilla tape. Next I found this guy on youtube. I followed his method almost exactly except the following deviations.

  • After putting each strip of tape on the rim I put a conventional tube and tire back on. I pumped this up hard in order to firmly install the tape and push the tape into all the small spots. This was less critical on a rim with recessed nipples. On my brompton with 16″ wheels the nipple heads are not recessed and without doing this I didn’t get a good seal the first time.
  • Make sure you use a valve stem with a removable core. This will make adding new sealant in the future easier.
  • You don’t need to measure the length of tape and cut it to width like he did. I cut the with using a razor blade and cut the tape on the roll without taking it off. This allowed me to hold the roll during the application process. Much easier.
  • I have done with with UST tires and without. Great success with both. The only thing I learned is make sure the tire you are using is in good shape. I had an older schwalbe kojak with alot of slits from glass. This had a difficult time sealing to the point I’m going to get a new tire.

In the end this conversion should cost you about $20 for two to three wheel sets. I also think this works better than the Stan’s conversion. That said I’m still running some Stan’s tires and Stan’s Tire Sealant. The difference is that this works on any rim, any width, and diameter, etc.

Have a flat less ride!

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2012… Not such a good year for corybantic.org

I realized today why I didn’t post much this year. I had been really focused on cycling for transportation and living car lite.

The problem is I wasn’t focused on those things this year. Late in 2011 I took a new role that had me traveling a significant bit and then when I was home I worked at home a bunch. This reduced the amount of bicycle commuting I did. My passion didn’t go away; I just wasn’t commuting.

We still only have one car. When I’m home my bicycle is still my primary form of transportation. My weight has gone up and health down since I haven’t been commuting much. I have become and expert on the New York City subway, have come to know the San Francisco bus and other transportation options well too and have am now a super Amtrak commuter; something like the equivalent of a platinum member in Frequent Flyer mile speak.

Now that I’ve come to terms why I’ve been absent this year. I’m going to keep writing and sharing. I feel the need to contribute back to the Internet with what ever I might be able to. Its not much; but its what I have.

Anyway my wife and I have always traveled a lot. In recent years we haven’t traveled much personally as we start our family; but we and now especially myself are frequent travelers with experience all over the US/Europe/Chile/New Zealand. I’m going to create a new category and probably some pages on travel tips. These will mostly center around how to pack lite. Your trips are much more enjoyable if you don’t lug a ton of crap all over the place.

Look for more in the coming weeks. And yes this time I promise there will be more.

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Welcome to the new year!

OK, so I am almost 10 months late on that one. I had great intentions of sharing my winter weather clothing system, but the winter never came. Not once did I bring out the heavy stuff.

Anyway I will try to be back. A few good things are in store in the coming days.

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Texting while driving

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