Race: Leadville Trail 100 MTB. GP's Peter Koch used this kit to best it. I believe this was the best choice without question. Then there was the endless shaking of wheels to work the sealant into the porous sidewalls, only to find them flat in the morning. Success at this Saturday’s Leadville Trail 100 MTB race high in the Colorado Rockies will require a mix of good legs and good luck. You’ll need to understand the different tubeless systems and designations available. Any advice on full-suspension versus hardtail for Leadville 100? I spent very little time on my tires and had no stress about it, other than knowing I was carrying a bit more rotational weight. It’s been a week since I completed my first Leadville Race Series Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race.I completed the whole ride (and then some) in 11:43:07 and got a cool belt buckle. UST tires don’t require sealant but I learned early on that even these beefy casings can and do get pierced out on the trail. VerticalScope Inc., 111 Peter, Suite 901, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2H1, Canada. A forum community dedicated to Mountain Bike owners and enthusiasts. I’ve ridden the gamut at Leadville: complete UST, TR and ultra lightweight tubeless. If you have the time and desire, get ready to do some studying (there are a number of options that you’ll need to consider), get ready for some messy, potentially frustrating times fiddling with sealant and air compressors, and get ready to spend a good bit of time in your garage with your wheels and tires. Put simply, tubeless requires time, and some tubeless systems require more time than others.Â. Even though there's nothing exceptionally technical that requires full suspension, the long day in the saddle is certainly more pleasant on the full suspension. Having your tire burp or completely roll off of the rim due to running low pressure is extremely dangerous and is the reason there are few lightweight options from tire manufacturers for tubeless ready tires. The 2019 edition will be the Leadville Trail 100 MTB’s 25th year, and for good reason. 303Cycling has caught up with Sasha to ask her to re-count training for the 100 … With brands like Maxxis, Schwalbe, WTB, and Teravail all making excellent tire options, it really isn't about which is best, more so about which fits your bike, riding style, and choice of terrain. And then there was riding sealed tires on 90-minute circuits, only to find that one or both had lost precious psi in less time than it takes to make the round trip between the Twin Lakes aid station via Columbine. Areas; CO ... Trails in Leadville - 32. Additionally, other than UST, there is little central agreement or information from tire and rim manufacturers on consistency of compatibility across brands. And, pinch flats are rare with tubeless systems. I get asked lots of questions about preparing for the Leadville Trail 100, but one of the most common is about tires. I'm a bit OCD, always leave the condo 90 minutes prior to race start. Primarily, you need to decide if you’ll be using inner tubes or if you’ll be running tubeless tires. Your bicycle is the machine your body will power in an effort to meet your Leadville Trail 100 MTB goal—whether that goal is simply to finish or to earn the biggest possible buckle. This plan focuses on the quality of the riding you will be doing by incorporating intervals during the week to keep weekday rides no longer than 1.5hr in length and using weekends to work in longer rides from 2.5-5hrs in length. Is a hardtail more likely to end-over on steep chunky downhills? • I agonized over tire choice for a long time. Trust me, you don’t want to roll your tire while cornering. The final option is something many of us grew up calling “ghetto tubeless” but should probably be called “ultra lightweight tubeless” instead. Just to muddy the waters a bit more, elements from these systems can be crossed with each other; for example, I could use a UST rim and a TR tire or any other combination that will hold air. Some UST tires have such thick, stiff sidewalls that you can get away with ridiculously low pressure. In the race against Floyd Landis in 2007, I rode the final 35 miles with about 18psi in my rear tire after nailing a rock and denting my rim. Leadville Trail 100 | Special to the Daily Eagle-Vail cyclist Cristhian Ravelo encountered numerous mechanical problems in this year’s Leadville 100, something he’s come to expect in a long race like that one. Thanks, Clayton. And the tires you see speed on trail bikes are huge and heavy. All Life Time, Inc (Life Time) events and activities are subject to changes, alterations, and/or elimination in Life Time’s sole discretion as it evaluates and works to provide a safe event for all participants. If you are still using tubes, curious about tubeless or someone who has dabbled in tubeless but wants to know more, here is a primer on the topic. The disadvantages with running lightweight ghetto are the time, stress and trepidation experienced during the entire process of preparing for the race. Diesel Rescue Semi & Truck Repair Towing & Tires. I get asked lots of questions about preparing for the Leadville Trail 100, but one of the most common is about tires. Even in the rain and mud, Leadville is not a very technical course. It has always worked for me. Also, with certain tires and tubes, this can be a very lightweight setup. Get the app Leadville. We will not sell or give your email address or personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. Ask my wife, Susan. Regardless, you’ll need to know how to put a tube in a tubeless system as even tubeless can go flat out on the trail (this means pulling the tubeless valve stem off of the rim so you can get a tube into the tire, and the tire with tube back onto the rim). Advantages to going with ultra lightweight tubeless are that you can end up with a silly light and silly fast bicycle. This is sometimes known as outside rolling resistance or rotational weight savings and is different and more valuable than weight savings from other parts of your bike. Leadville Trail Marathon & Heavy Half Marathon, 10 Questions with 6x Leadville Trail 100 MTB Winner Dave Wiens. Levi Leipheimer wins 2010 Leadville 100 Levi Leipheimer stomped the competition in the Leadville 100, and broke Lance Armstrong’s 2009 record by 12 minutes on his way to the win. At 7 PM on 8/11 i was 100% sure I would be in the “1 and done” group, that the … The Leadville Trail 100 champions list is dominated by mountain bikers. Lance Armstrong got his revenge at the Leadville Trail 100 today and set a new course record for the mountain bike race, finishing in a time of 6:28:50 (almost 20 minutes faster than last year). For safety, you really have to pay close attention to your air pressure at all times. Lot's of great stuff in this thread. Around 25 years ago one man saw the depressed town and created an epic 100 mile foot race as the answer to bring money in, thus was born an entire culture of extreme trail running & MTB races focused on Leadville. CB: Everyone I know who has done this race, every year they think about it and plan for it. Don't let that issue of weight get into your head. Tire Dealers Diesel Engines Trailers-Repair & … Much time and energy were spent working to get them to hold air. For those of you looking for a solid finish and enjoyable experience without too much fuss, I suggest looking into UST tire options with sealant and experimenting enough to find that optimal pressure. The problem with having someone else or a shop set up your tubeless is that, unless you have a live-in, traveling mechanic, that person won’t always be around to help you when you need it — like at the hotel the night before Leadville, when one of your tubeless tires suddenly decides not to hold air for more than five minutes. Oftentimes, the question is simply, “What tire pressure do you run at Leadville?” This is a really great question but one that brings up more questions before it can be answered. You’ll constantly hear about every possible combination of X tire working well on Y rims but not on Z rims. Cross-country mountain bike tires are super fast, but they may have trouble holding onto the lines you can hit with a bike with 120mm of suspension. Jun 27, 2019 - Explore Crystal Miller's board "Leadville, CO" on Pinterest. The quality of my sleep diminished in the days leading up to the race as thoughts of various forms of tire failure inevitably crept into my dreams. JavaScript is disabled. This fear ranged from having a tire go flat on the starting line, to ripping a fragile sidewall on the plentiful sharp and blasted rocks on the course, to wondering how the tire would hold air for six to seven hours when one or both were flat in the morning after being pumped up to full pressure the night before. I slept like a baby leading up to the race. UST (Universal Standard for Tubeless), is the original standard for tubeless systems that includes completely sealed tires and rims as well as design standards for tire beads and rim shapes. Both years I finished with low rear tires having struck rocks hard enough during the race to ding my rims and compromise the tire’s ability to hold the 35psi that I started with. She’ll tell you that in addition to the time I put in riding the bike in the weeks leading up to Leadville, there were the countless hours spent in the garage preparing tubeless tires. Maybe I'm making too much of the weight thing...would a cyclross bike work at Leadville? If you’re going to make the leap to tubeless, you’ll need one of two things: lots of time and desire to learn the details and intricacies of how tubeless systems work, or someone who’s going to do it for you. I think the fs and some semi slick tires is the combo for most people. In 2008, I must have hit something right toward the end and my rear tire quickly went down to around 10psi. Think about your goals and start experimenting with different setups that appeal to you. ; more rolling resistance on all but the smoothest surfaces due to tire deflection; and a much rougher ride all day long. There are no simple or correct answers and what you run depends on a variety of factors including your goals, your resources (including time), and what you are comfortable with. This stuff is a royal pain in the ass, and messy as all get out. The element of going tubeless that is most often the deal killer is the sealant. Benson is a competitive athlete, highly-experienced tester/reviewer, and published author. Riders prepare to embark on the 100-mile Leadville Trail 100 MTB race, produced by Life Time, on Saturday. No separate valve stems, no sealant and no air compressors are necessary. Just an effective rim strip, a tube, a tire, a pump and you’re riding.Â. This is a three day event and is the perfect tune up for the 100 mile one day mountain bike race on August 11th and also offers 100 qualifying spots to get into the Leadville 100 mountain bike race. Sorry, no easy answers here! If you’re going to go tubeless, dive in and start learning about it. The Leadville 100 MTB August 27, 2015 August 27, 2015 Leave a comment Alright, it has been a while…and the race reports will be slightly out of order, but here’s my race report rundown for the 8/15/15 Leadville 100 MTB (ala Fatty style) Overview. Leadville Race Series event locations, dates and times subject to change. But starting in 2007 with Floyd Landis, prominent roadies were making Leadville part of their summer vacation. If you have someone else do your tubeless setup for you, you will need to be ready to switch over to tubes in the event of an emergency. Any advice on full-suspension versus hardtail for Leadville 100? No fussing with sealing your rims or needing tubeless-ready rims. While I was on pins and needles on all the descents, especially Sugarloaf and St. Kevins, I had awesome traction for the loose, steep climbs. Top Rides. The event has an addictive quality that keeps people coming back for more, year after year. There’s a middle ground: the aggressive XC tire. Distance: 104 miles. I always use fresh sealant in my tires whether I’m using a UST tire or not. Here are the best mtb tires … Our mountain bike tire review is led by our Senior Mountain Bike Review Editor, Jeremy Benson. Time: 8:43:47. See more ideas about Leadville, Leadville 100, Leadville colorado. Ultra-endurance athlete and Boo Ambassador Erich Wegscheider details his second LT100 MTB race and his Leadville Leadman Series race. The skinny tire boys broke through in 2009 when Lance Armstrong denied Dave Wiens of his 7 th Leadville in a row. If it’s not an age-old question, then it should be: Should you run tubes or tubeless? I rode this in Leadville in 2007 and 2008 and felt lucky to reach the finish line each time. ... A forum community dedicated to Mountain Bike owners and enthusiasts. These are a few examples of the fun involved in getting this kind of wheelset ready for the race. If it’s such a hassle, why even consider tubeless? The benefits of using tubeless tires are significant and reverse the drawbacks to using tubes.You can run considerably less pressure in your tires (20-40psi depending on rider’s weight, system, terrain, etc.) ... Best Photos. For 2009, I said screw it, and rode Continental Race King UST tires with sealant. Luckily, this happened in the final mile of the race. Choose too light and you may never see the finish line even though you had a very fast bike. The tires are not completely sealed and require sealant, while the rims also may require sealing using a rim strip or tape. I ran Stan’s Raven tires (tubeless) in the rain and never slipped an inch. This is also why you’ll want to be certain you never dangerously underinflate your tires; and also that you are able to recognize if a slow leak has left you with dangerously low tire pressure. With much of the LT100 course being on paved road, or smooth forest road, I swapped out my usual Bontrager XR3s for a tire with better rolling resistance characteristics. Other issues certainly come into play such as tire casing size and rim width, but the biggest question non-gravity mountain bikers have regarding tires is: tubed or tubeless? Pose both the tire pressure question and the tubed or tubeless question to a hundred Leadville veterans and you’ll likely get a hundred different answers about what’s best. Video was created to give newbies a true feeling of what to expect. I just rode my first 100. There’s a ton of information out there and you can exhaust yourself reading about the options. Levi and Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski stayed close together for quite while, keeping a blistering pace, and JHK also bested Lance’s record and coming in for a […] I did it in '05 on a Blur, but was thinking it would be might be nice to go really light-weight for the long climbs. Tires: Maxxis Ikon 2.35/2.2. We have been getting a ton of requests lately to dive a bit deeper into the XC/light casing MTB tire category. Leadville is home to one of the longest-running winter mountain bike race series in existence, put on by the Cloud City Wheelers. Asking a group of mountain bike racers what's the right bike for the Leadville 100 is like asking a kitchen full of master chefs what's the best thing they ever ate. Just don’t try this with a tire that’s not up to the task. Drawbacks to running higher pressure — for tubed tires on a rocky course like Leadville, we’re talking 40-55psi, with 40psi being risky — include: less traction all around when climbing, cornering, braking, etc. Lower tire pressure is your initial layer of suspension. Elevation: ~ 12,000 feet. For 2010, I used prototype Continental X King TR tires with sealant and had perhaps my best race ever. I ended up running VERY low tread tires. Come join the discussion about bike parts, components, deals, performance, modifications, classifieds, trails, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more! I will happily ride on a reliable, more robust setup if I hardly have to think about it and am rarely, if ever, fixing a flat or trying to boot a ripped sidewall out on the trail. Dave Weins rode on these tires in his fastest Leadville races and recommends them and 2. Of the 1,643 riders that started the race, 1,332 crossed the finish. I found other videos incredibly helpful and had my efforts in mind for this. Your body needs to be fit for the challenge, but you can also optimize your bike setup to ensure the best balance of power, comfort and speed, come race day. MTB Project is built by riders like you. Like all other equipment decisions, the choice is entirely subjective — which makes it all the more baffling. It wasn't at high altitude like Leadville, but had a similar amount of climbing. To learn more about how we treat your information, please see our. Leadville 100 X 10, Leadville 50 X 5 here. Running tires with tubes used to be the only choice and it’s still the easiest and least messy (there is no mess!) I did it in '05 on a Blur, but was thinking it would be might be nice to go really light-weight for the long climbs. Too little air pressure in a tubeless setup and you risk “burping” air out of gaps that form, usually under cornering or some other pressure, at the bead. Unless you are just rolling in money and can afford a bunch of bikes, or are sponsored, I'd say get the bike which will be best for most of your riding/racing and don't worry about whether the bike is the best match for a 100 miler. Enjoy! The main problem with tubes is that you’ll need to run higher pressure to avoid pinch flats. Next Generation Mountain Bike Trail Maps. I'm a roadie, and not an expert mtbiker. 6.3 mi 10.1 km #1 Turquoise Lake Singletrack. TR (Tubeless Ready), is a newer designation which means tire beads and rim shapes are designed for tubeless but not to the same standards as UST. Wheels: ENVE XC. I will test my race wheels, with tires, enough to be confident in them but my day-to-day training on my mountain bike is done with heavier wheels and heavier UST tires with sealant. I have never flatted a Continental UST tire in nearly five years and I never ride them with more than 25psi. They are not the supplest tires available, but in my world, like in many of yours, it’s all about family, jobs, and less time available than time required, I simply don’t have it to spend working on my bike. Oftentimes, the question is simply, “What tire pressure do you run at Leadville?” This is a really great question but one that brings up more questions before it can be answered. Riders prepare to embark on the 100-mile Leadville Trail 100 MTB race, produced by Life Time, on Saturday, August 10, 2019. Generally, the lighter your tire, the more air you’ll want to run to avoid rolling a tire. Dave Wiens weighs in with his experience and talks us through the many different options. Copper VRBO is a great plan. and less pressure means better traction all around, less rolling resistance and a way cushier ride. It was once a mining town that was home to over 30,000 people. So, you’re still with me and you’re strongly considering going tubeless. Tires for Leadville 100 While waiting to be accepted into the Leadville yahoo group, I thought I would ask here as well, since there are no recent threads on the topic. I chose the Continental Race King Protection for a couple of reasons 1. You must be up for dealing with sealant if you plan to go tubeless because it’s required for all but UST tires and, as explained below, it’s actually a good idea to use sealant with them, too. I think the fs and some semi slick tires is the combo for most people. Parking is easy on a side street close to the start. Latest information on COVID-19 and updates on our event, We will send you emails containing information about our events and promotional offers. The course at Leadville is loaded with sharp, blasted rock left over from the mining days and it isn’t unheard of to pick up other artifacts with your tires. LEADVILLE – Everyone expected either two-time defending champion Howard Grotts or one of the veteran WorldTour pro road cyclists to win the 2019 Leadville Trail 100 MTB. The Leadville Trail 100 MTB is a deceptively brutal bicycle course. Benson's mountain bike roots trace back to New England in the early 1990s, and he has seen and experienced the evolution of mountain bike tires. I'd say go with what you're most comfortable riding. Ultra lightweight tubeless is taking lightweight standard rims and tires and setting them up tubeless by sealing the rims and using sealant in the tires. My race and training wheels and tires are drastically different. Leadville – You can read plenty about the town. I … Now the real fun starts. His RockShox Sid with 100mm of travel was set at 95psi, and his Maxxis Ikon tires were prototypes with 27 psi in … This winter, 2015/2016, the series officially turned 16 years old . I've considered going to a hardtail too.... however, I personally feel that although you might loose a little power to the suspension, it will save you a great deal of general fatigue from getting beat up for 100 miles. Leadville — The 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Podcast, p/b Floyd's of Leadville is the show for people racing (or just interested in) The Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race. Todd Wells adapted his Scott Scale RC for the dirt road style racing of the Leadville with not only aero bars, but also Look Road pedals and Scott road shoes. Trail Guide Best Trails & Photos. Bike: Boo RS-M. Hands down, ultra lightweight tubeless was the fastest, most competitive way I ever set up my bike. This plan is geared towards a rider looking to complete the Leadville Trail 100 MTB. way to inflate your tires. This kind of setup is sketchy and I don’t recommend it to anyone that doesn’t fully comprehend the risks and challenges associated with its use. If your body can handle being bounced around on rough terrain on the ht, that's the choice. Your blur might really already be a prime choice for leadville. Equipment. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You might die on the powerline decent on a cyclocross bike. Additionally, depending on your setup, tubeless can make for a very lightweight wheel/tire combination which equates to a faster, more efficient bicycle. Add Your Trails. Components: SRAM XX1/X0. Tubeless ) in the ass, and for good reason the XC/light casing MTB tire category end with... 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