Crappy day/Crappy Result/Fun Thanksgiving... Burp!

It's the big fat truth to you "Pay To Play"... Can I take a step back...
Well, a day before I was in the Party boy mode and having a good time until race day where a mixture of DOH, and UGG took it's toll! I had a bad start, I had a bike Mechanical due to someone un-clipping on the start sprint and having a pedal in my spokes and a Stop on the course to clear out my derailure from a Log that jumped in for a ride... GOOD TIMES>.. All and all, I finished 15th on a day that cleared my head letting me know that I have to be 100% if you want the results.. this is not like the Men's B's where it was ok to show up hung over off my A** and just ran of the calories from the night before... these are the big boys.. :)

CCCX#4...

DOH!!! Well aint it murphy's law... when one posts how to glue, that's when they roll..

(but it was, not the ones that I just glued and my fault in going into a corner to hot)

Long story short... CCCX#4 was a day that I didn't warm up to well and didn't feel it... I was going for an inside pass and rolled a tire... it was a move that was too sharp and... well would and should have rolled a tire... my bad... anyway, it was enough to take my mind out of the race at hand. I just rolled with what I felt I had that day.. not much.. ended up 17th. I put about 50% into my effort and felt guilty afterwards... Lesson learned..

Pilarcitos #3 McClaren Park

This is a cool shot that Nick took on his phone :)

...and one by Steven Woo.

Gluing Tires.

Because some times courses are a little bumpy for carbon deep dish rims (you know right tool for the right job, you don't want to crack a rim), I decided to build up a nice new wheel set, Yes!!!… A Ritchey Protocol Ltd, tubular wheel set that is… And because I have to glue tubies I thought I’d share with you my learning on the subject over the years of racing cross..

Below you’ll find my Tools of the trade.
1) One can of Mastik’ One 2) One Package of the Tufo Gluing tape (not-extreme, just regular) 3) One Acid Brush (keeps things less messy)

So Before you begin, it's great idea to stretch your Tubular tires out prior to you muscling them onto a rim. By doing so I will mount the tire on a dry rim with out glue and pump them up and let them sit over night. It just makes things a lot easier before you are involved with glue. As well as I've seen people really pulling on their tires (tube in one hand while stepping on the tire) watch out, you don't want to ruin your tube before you ride it now do we?

Step 1: Take your rim and make sure it’s clean…. A can of Acetone and a rag will do the trick. I then usually put my wheel in a truing stand to keep things nice and neat and easy to work on/with.

Step 2: Take your Tufo Rim tape and a sharp razor blade. Cut the Tape in ½ leaving on the backing., you can see what I mean from the image below: After you cut it, start sticking one side to the center of the rim as shown in the image. Now this is a great trick for keeping cross tubulars on because the rim diameter is relatively small and these days with people running 34mm tires it gives a little grip in the center of the tube. I've pulled off too many tires in my day and have seen only the sides of the rim were making the glue contact... Yikes! This fills in the gaps, as well as the tape, well it's really sticks! I'm really using the best of both worlds if you will...

Step 3: After you have gone all the way around the wheel with the tape, go over it with a Sharpe or something similar in shape that allows you to press the tape to the rim to make sure it has a good grip on the rim, you don’t want it tearing off…

Step 4: Start your painting your glue.. Make sure you get a good thin coat on the sides of the rim that is exposed.

Step 5: Put a good thin coat of glue on the base tape of the tire, go all the way around. Make sure you get every part, not too thick or it might make the base buckle, and could lead to your base tearing off the tire. This process is easiest when you have a good amount of air in the tire, it’ll almost flip the tire inside out

(The next 2 steps have a 15min waiting time between…)
Step 6: Repeat Step 4
Step 7: Repeat Step 5
Step 8: Wait 15mins then again Repeat Step 5

Step 9: Take off the back of the Tufo Tape, Can be messy

Step 10: Let the air out of your tire MAKE SURE YOUR TIRE TREAD IS POINTING THE RIGHT WAY!!!!!!
and put on your tire, starting of course at the Valve and pulling at the tire tight along the rim at the same time keeping the base tape lined up with the center of the rim. This can be hard and tedious, but at the end you’ll get it on BUT AGAIN…MAKE SURE YOUR TIRE TREAD IS POINTING THE RIGHT WAY!!!!!! I’ve made this mistake in the past… DOH! (photo shows wrong way on the front wheel, I just noticed that, but it's not glued on yet.. wheeeew as well if you make the mistake, do it on the front, you can always flip the QR)

Step 11: After you have the tire on, go around and line up the tread, you do this by pulling and manipulating the tire to get it right… it’s work, but it’s important! IT some times helps if you have a light amount of air in the tire to make it easier to eyeball the straightness.

Step 12: Next I deflate the tire and get out a broom… WTF, you might be thinkin’ well someone told me this part once and it seems to work nicely.. What you do is take the wheel and roll the rim on the broom handle pressing with a good amount of force. What this does is presses the tire onto the tape and glue.

Step 13: Pump up the tire, "Mr. Challenge" the owner of Challenge tires said this to me personally… Pump the thing up to 140lbs and let the tire mold itself to the rim… Let it sit for 24hrs and check it.. you should be good…

I give a tire at least 24hrs to set up… I try to give it more if I can.. it’s always better to give yourself more set up time.

Now this is how I do things, It’s not the way to do it, nor a guide on how to glue, so if you are reading this and decide to follow my steps, do so at your own risk.

...Wait! I almost forgot! If you ever need to take of your tire, be patient, small baby pulls... don't go pulling super hard, you can destroy a once repairable tire and maybe even a rim!

That's it, enjoy!!!

Pilarcitos #3 McClaren Park

Ok, I take it back... I thought the last race was hard, in comparison. #2 was easy.. I wasn't feeling it on the day so I pushed for a good start and put it in pace mode until the line.. I managed to keep the 7th spot! Good times!!! Learned one thing though, really bumpy descents and carbon wheels don't mix.. the wheels took the beating, the body... Wow! Was I sore and I pretty much watched the guys in front of me roll away on the downhill... I'm not that bad at descending :(

The course itself was a run up hill, then a climb up hill then a grind up hill... bumpy down, then up again until you were tired of climbing... at the top, heck throw in a log to run over... why not! Then ride the bumpiest down hill ever, almost not fun, ... Ok, just not fun... to the bottom then repeat... JOY!