Monday, January 27, 2014

How To NOT Be Challenged By Challenge Tires

Now with pictures (I hope)!

Challenged by Challenge by cyclotourist

I am incredibly happy with the Challenge Eroicas I purchased last year. Great rolling tires and no punctures or defects to date. That's high praise for any such top shelf tire which often seem to skate the thin line between performance and durability.

I did have a HUGE problem mounting them. It ended up taking me several days, using successively larger tubes to form the tires.

Apparently there is a much better procedure, that was sent to me from Chris from Challenge. It follows below:

Due to the construction of our handmade open tubulars, they tend to lay flat and tight on the rim. Once installed and a tube inflated, they take their shape and stretch a little making future removal and installation easier. It’s that first installation that can be a real pain depending on the rim.

Working with the folks in our factory we found another method for installing these tires. Rather than pushing everything on from one side, as is traditional, follow these steps:


1)      Place the rim in the center of the tire



2)      Center the rest of the tire over the rim



3)      Install one side of the tire




4)      Install the tube from the other side
5)      Install the remaining side of the tire

We’ve found this to help immensely with tighter fitting tires like our handmade open tubular tires.



Doing it that way should help you hurry up and get out the door in order to start doing some of this:

7 comments:

lynnef said...

picture links are broken

cyclotourist said...

You're the second person to tell me that... I'm not sure why, it's showing when I look at it. Maybe because I'm the editor of it? I'll have to play around with it a bit... Thanks for the heads up!

cyclotourist said...

Fixed???

lynnef said...

pictures 1-3 are there. Maybe there aren't pictures for 4 and 5. Does this tire use a tube? I am so confused.

cyclotourist said...

I've confused my audience, it's like an Andy Kaufman performance!

Only the three pics. So that's a success. Step four (putting tube in) and five don't have pics. It's just the first ones that are different from usual tire installation.

REALLY do like these tires though. They're fast and feel like nothing else. Really unique.

Rob said...

Hello Cylotourist,

if you could weigh in more on your experience with the Vee Rubber, that would be great. Currently running Kenda Karma 650bx2.0 on a converted CX, but looking for faster options. Pity is, clearance is maxed out with the 2.0, so the Speedsters looked very tempting. Shame to hear they are slow.

Thanks

cyclotourist said...

Hi Rob, the Speedsters are only slow on asphalt. They were fine & good on dirt. But on dirt I needed more side-lugs for singletrack rather than for dirt roads. If you can fit an actual 2.00" tire, I highly recommend the Thunder Burts. Those are fast on asphalt, grab in the dirt, and do great off-camber on singletrack. Just fantastic tires!