Tires/Rims/Tubes Q&A

[witttom]

And I am running those tires. At the time this photo was taken, I had yet to replace the front. Tubeless with no stamp on either wheel. No probs as of yet.

I've got a couple thousand miles or so on mine so far. I'm quite pleased with them. They perform well past the capabilities of the bike itself (I'm dragging bike parts long before the tires want to lose grip). I was shooting for something soft, which is what I got, but they're not TOO soft that I'm tearing them up. In fact, I ran the rear for a couple hundred miles with only 10psi of air in it (valid reason, long story) and they suffered no damage. No complaints so far. My only regrets is that the RWL was not available in the size for my rear, but was for the next size up. After mounting it, it was obvious that I had plenty of room for one size bigger. I could have ran the risk of it effecting my handling in a negative way, but I doubt it. Kinda funny... I'd never consider mounting RWL tires on any of my other bikes, but it just seems to go so well with the GS Cafe.

[duaneage]

The only reason I would tube a tire on my ride is to repair a small puncture on tire with significant tread left. Rather than patch a tire, a tube would seem to be a better idea. But it's possible to damage a tube when mounting the tire, I would probably let a shop do it.

I had a nail in the tire 2 years ago but the tread was gone so it came off anyway.

From a performance standpoint it seems the weight of the tube would not be a good thing to have. Weight of the wheels affects handling and less is more.