Just picked up my KH freeride from the LBS-they rebuilt the wheel with the new replacement rim, but they didn’t have black spokes so they had to use stainless That’s ok though!
Anyway…with the gazz on the wheel it needs WAAAAAAY more air in it (28lbs [almost the 30max!] vs. 15 in the duro) to keep from bottoming out! Is this just the nature of this tire, or could it be that the tube is not/needs to be heavy-duty? UDC said I could use the same tube that came standard on the freeride, even though it’s not heavy duty. Any thoughts?
You could try getting the Gaz tubes, I know they sell them here at a LBS for like 15 bucks Canadian plus tax. But I think you will probably just need more pressure.
I already have a 24x3 standard tube in there, but I was just wondering if I needed a heavy duty tube for the gazz. With the current standard tube it just needs TWICE as much psi as the duro did using the same tube.
The tube isn’t going to change what you are experiencing, and I think the heavy tubes are just too heavy when combined with a heavy Gazz. If you do bottom the tire against the rim a lot, the heavy tube will be less prone to “snakebite” punctures.
You can solve the problem by…Not dropping to flats. I know you are in a dropping mode right now (seen the vid, and you told me so), so when you say “bottoming out” I assume that’s when it is doing it. Do you feel it bottoming out, or is an observer telling you it is? I wonder if it is really bottoming out more than the Duro or if it just feels different. Foldover on sidehops is a different issue and you may feel more of that with the Gazz, although the stiffer sidewalls seem to make it more subtle.
The Gazz is a wider profile tire, higher volume tire, so it will repspond a little differently than the Duro did on that rim. However it would really surprise me if you had to run that much pressure. You don’t seem like a really big guy, and I only run 19-20 psi in my Gazz. Mine is on a Sun Doublewide which will make it slightly more stable.
I weigh 145 but with all gear, shoes camelback etc it’s probably closer to 155-160. Still, when I test-hopped in the LBS, they had put 18 psi on the dot, and it felt almost completely FLAT! So they uped it to 22 and that helped but we surmised that it would still likely bottom out on a drop of only three feet. So I guess I’ll have to either NOT doanymore drops,orjust keep adding psi until it won’t bottom out.
Does it actually feel hugely different? Cheap tyre pressure gauges aren’t generally very accurate so it might just be different readings rather than different pressures, especially if you used a different gauge.
you should have to pump it up to a lower tire pressure. put it to what it feels good at, not what the gauge says. pump it up, and hup on a car stopper curb thing. If you bottom out, put more air in.
At my highest psi, which was at 22, I almost never bottomed out on three foot drops. I weigh almost 170 lbs, too and that’s naked(no gear, bags or water bag) .
If I jacked my GAzz up to 28, it would feel hard as a rock, so much that I couldn’t get any prehop.
Try another LBS and put in another tube. At this point, put anything in there you can get hold of.
FYI, Scott Wallis has recomended the Specialized innertube, that I have run for several years. It’s not heavy duty like the GAzz, but lighter and as far as I know, he still swears by it. I just bought a spare at a bike shop for just under 10 bucks.
You will have to call around to find someone who carries the downhill tube, not all shops carry them.
I run the DX 32 with the GAzz. I don’t remember what rim you put on your new wheel.
But are you running a DH tube? I just looked on UDC and the gazz DOES call for a DH tube, which I thought as heavy duty,or the thicker rubber, but maybe DH tubes are NOT really heavy duty, but in a specific way are meant to use with the gazz,and other super wide, high volume tires. I just think that the tube in there now, which again is the standard KH 24x3 tube,isjust not strong enough to properly and solidly inflate this gazz.
Not quite true. Although the thick DH tubes are definately better at stopping valve hole snags and snake bites they do give a deader ride. The wheel gives a better rebound with a thinner tube so feels more bouncy at the same pressure.
There are some good 2.35 tubes out there that will expand up to fit the 3" without thinning out too much that give a reasonable compromise.
That’s ok though!
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