Oh, the irony! So today I went for a beach ride on my other 36er, with the stealth ll (Dominator) rim and NR lite at 53psi. It was a pleasure to ride, tracked perfectly with that usual “flywheel” effect on the flats, and even slight uphill grades.
By comparison, my Nextie 36er (also KH frame, and same length/brand cranks) with the TM tire, also at 53 psi, and tested at the same stretch of bike path, was very noticeably harder to control and actually felt heavier!
My guess is that because the used TM tire I have is almost totally devoid of tread, and the softer rubber that remains is “grabbing” the road surface, increasing rolling resistance.
Only way to know for sure is to buy a new TM when they’re available again. and try it. For now though, the standard setup is FAR superior in every respect. Not only is there no sensation that the wheelset is about 2 pounds heavier, it feels lighter, faster and better performing than the Nextie setup.
I have to admit that the day after my Nextie blew up, I swapped the wheelset around with my old one, did exactly the same ride and barely noticed a difference.
(The first ride was a test of the route before leading a group the day after).
The only difference between the two wheelsets was the rim. Hub, spokes, tyre, and tube were basically identical.
I know this is a slightly different situation to yours, but the carbon rim really wasn’t as much of a game changer as I expected it to be.
I didn’t ride my Nextie much on the road but off-road on challenging (for me) trails the Nextie with NR Lite was a noticeable improvement over the Stealth 2. Especially on tough climbs that rob all my momentum to leave me going in half-revs. Only difference between my wheels is the rim.
Unsurprisingly, the tube once again didn’t show up on the “expected date” - probably a half dozen times in a row now. I don’t know where they come up with the date, but it’s not real. For months they had a coming-soon expected date on the 36" tire, too - the one the factory said would actually be sometime in 2023.
Anyway, I wouldn’t put any money down on a pre-order.
Shortly after I received my Nextie rim there had been two failures and seemed like the only promising solution was the Vee Rubber T Monster. I am currently running the old heavy version of the NightRider and decided that it was time to update with the NightRider lite version for my stock KH 36 with stock rim and tube. I decided to first mount the new tire on the Nextie Rim using the electrical tape one wrap in the center. Vee Rubber 36 Presta tube, hand mounting of the tire using a little bit of water and soap for lube to make for easy mounting. The wheel for the Nextie rim has not been built thou so I can’t ride with it yet. Four days ago I mounted the tire as previously described and inflated it slowly and let it set before going up to 45psi and finally for a brief moment to 50psi and 60psi and back to 35psi for 2 days and then to 45psi for just over 2 days and 60psi today for about 2 hours 50 minutes and back to 45psi. I Measured the 60psi with a Specialized brand floor pump and a 60 psi dial gauge. Both agreed on the 60 PSI reading. Not sure this proves much except that perhaps Nextie may have inflated a nightrider light tire to 60 psi on one of their rims in this build. I suspect that until you ride the with weight bearing down on the tire and wheel you may not see any issue. Only thing is this is a new tire never mounted on the stealth 2 rim. I had been a bit considering going with an exceed hub but was concerned with the flange width at 60mm vs the KH at 75mm, which is fairly narrow already and I believe the difference in mass is 250g if you account for the weight of the bearings at about 123g (‘Weighs: 207g (ex bearings)’. Hope to get the wheel build in the next few weeks and report back if I don’t have a static blow out to report before that time. BTW I used ear protection for pumping up past 35psi.
My new Nightrider lite tire remained in place on my Nextie hooked rim for just over 100 hours at 55 PSI before I deflated it. I broke it down to measure the ERD before ordering 356mm spokes. I wanted to confirm the 740mm ERD by measurement and it did indeed .
I found the tire to be well seated in the tire bed of the rim and difficult to break loose from the tire bed area before using leavers to remove the tire. I don’t plan to try anything else until building up the wheel.
I went for a 5 mile ride with mine, between 35 and 40 and nothing happened. Same as you: putting it on the rim was absolutely a pain, and I have the experience of putting tires on with no levers, using the well in the middle of the rim. Putting the NR cost me a pair of sore thumbs for a few days. Once it was on, I just couldn’t rotate it to align the logo with the valve.
I really wonder if the building tolerances for this tire are pretty loose, and therefore some batches are close to the officiel ERD of a 36" and some are way out.
I wish you the best, but do remember that I went for a 16 mile ride with mine (modified) at 38PSI), and all was fine (I was still checking it every few miles), and then it blew up unexpectedly while sat not being ridden.
I also previously found mine seemingly very well seated and difficult to remove, but still the blow offs happened.
No I’m sure and I was not reassured during the whole ride. Which makes it unpleasant somehow. I don’t trust the uni because of all which happened to you and others.
Terry that sounds terrifying. This situation has me concerned about trying out the 36” wheel after I get it built with the Nextie Rim. Because of the results you and Mowcuis have had with blow off using this Rim. I suspect that riding the wheel adds a factor that you don’t see in a static load with the tire inflated. Have you ever put the seat on your unicycle backwards. Those pedals back right out. It doesn’t seem to matter how tight they are either. I am afraid riding the wheel may have a similar impact.
Once that kind of thing happens, it stays with you, which takes away from the overall enjoyment of riding, if you continue running the same rim. Only time will tell if the T Monster will solve the issue.
This is why my carbon rim is now back sat in the shed, where it will remain until I can get a suitable alterative tyre to install on it.
If it takes years, so be it. I’ve had too many close calls with it now that there’s no way I can trust it with this setup, even if I got myself a brand new NR Lite to test, and no matter what other people’s experiences are.
I’ll probably dismantle the wheel and use the hub for something else in the mean time. A carbon hoop is also marginally easier to store than a built wheel.
The Vee T-Monster isn’t the tyre I want either, so I suspect I may be waiting a very long time. Maybe I’ll sell it on cheap to someone when the T-Monsters become available.
Terry, you need to a shirt that says, “Been there, done that, made a video of it.”
I believe you were making a video of a century ride, or maybe riding your age when that happened, right? Didn’t it ruin the tire as well, or did the tube just explode once the tire lifted up off the rim? It didn’t look pretty.
Yeah, it was during my “ride my age” back in early Feb., 2021. The blow off actually happened at mile 22. So I decided to give it another try a week later but that time I used my standard stealth rim set up and it was successful.
