What pressures do you guys run? Anything below 45 and I pinch, anything above 30 and the thing becomes unrideable!

Maxxis Mud Wrestlers, 33c Tubeless. I’m 78kg kitted up

Is it just that I’m expecting my crosser to ride like a big bike and need to man up?

depends what you’re riding over, how you ride and to some extent what tyres you’re running

45 sounds about right but if you’re pinching all the time either add more air or refine your technique, it’s not a mountainbike

Cyclocross bikes require a finer touch and smoothing through things, you can’t just pelt at things and let the fork do the work. You have to embrace your inner float to help the bike smooth over the top.

I race on 25-30 psi, but would go more for 40-45psi for bridleway playing.

Is it for general riding or cross racing? If it’s the former then what you are doing is correct. Not more than 50psi for Maxxis tubeless tyres or they fly off the rim and not less than 30 or they burp when being pushed hard into corners. Just play around unitl you find your sweet spot but just don’t expect them to be as comfy as MTB tyres. If you are racing them you really need tubs as you can run ridiculously low pressures (someone said on here once that they have run their tyres at 17psi!) without the worry of pinch flats.

Great, cheers. For the moment I’m just riding bridleways and singletrack but will be racing the local series when it starts in a few weeks.

I’ll stick with 45 where I just about don’t pinch and start working on technique, which was part of the idea of the crosser in the first place!

I do thoroughly enjoy it though, just need to get the Spyres working a bit better and it’ll be perfect

What they all said really. I run tubeless Clements at around 30/35psi for general riding around & mid twenties for racing.

Tubs are ace though – 17psi on the front at the last London League round in the mud.

Apologies for slight hijack whilst all the CX tyre pressure people are assembled….

At certain races / swamp-fests like the CX Nationals, running extremely soft tubs looked to be a distinct advantage. Can those that ride them confirm this to be true?

And if converting to tubs from scratch, which way would you go? Build my own around old school aluminium Mavic rims, or something like these Planet X carbon jobs that appear(?) to be a lightweight bargain?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WPPXCX38DISC/planet-x-cyclocross-disc-and-canti-pro-carbon-38-38-700c-tubular-wheelset

Got tubs for next season and I have seen guys with the tub version of my tyre come away with cleaner tread, due to the suppleness and low pressure the tyre moves enough to release the mud, they are cloggable but they are the last thing to clog.

As for wheels I bought two pairs of wheels from use in their black Friday sale, one set for muds and the other set for inters, and once you have stuck it’s not easy to change around, so if having one set would personally go for just muds depending where you are as that’s the one that gets used most well it was this wet muddy winter.

Mick.r not a bad price on those wheels. Weight is reasonable. I run a set of limus tubs on cole 38 carbon rims and a set of Grifo xs on ambrosio excelight alloy rims they I bought used from someone on here. Both are nice to ride.
Tubs are the way forward for cross although riding race pressures on the road feels somewhat alarming.

I was running WTB Crosswolfs (tubeless) in the 25 – 35 range (depending on conditions) in the couple of races I did last year with no burping or dinging. I’m 79kg. Surprising amount of cush and grip, even tho they came up a bit skinny (definitely not 32c!)

Gonna try the new Schwalbe ones next season.

I was looking at those Planet X ones too. It says you can’t use glue, only tape – is this normal? I thought gluing them on properly was vital?

Also re. Tubs, do you put sealant in them? How do you fix if they do puncture?

Low 20’s on tubs for me.
Astroturf content….
I’ve a pair of PX 50mm tubs built onto 11 speed Halo 6d hubs (non disc £150 a pair).Shod with Vittoria XM tubs (half a dozen races).One ding in the rear but cosmetic only.
£150 the pair

Also re. Tubs, do you put sealant in them? How do you fix if they do puncture?

You can put sealant in them at least the Challenge ones you can. If you puncture them there are kits but generally they are landfill.

Apparently Dugast have developed a tubeless tubular tyre which sounds very interesting. The advantage being you can run higher pressures but keep the suppleness of a regular tubular.

Edit: Oh and tape is much less faff than gluing and works just as well IMO. It is also much quicker to change a tyre.

Ferrals, I’ve had tt tubs repaired after puncturing. The chap does cx tubs too. Cost about £18.
I’ve sealed leaking challenge tubs with a small measure of stans down the valve.
I’ve rolled two tubs after taping so now always glue.

Thanks chaps. The “tape only” stipulation was something putting us off the Planet X. But also know people that have rolled glued tubs so guess it is partly down to the prep and materials.

Clement and Tufo have been tubeless tubulars for a long time, they are sealed if punctured with sealant.

As for tape standard tape won’t hack it, there is a tape that they claim does work

http://www.effettomariposa.eu/en/products/carogna-family/carogna/

It’s easy to apply, haven’t ridden my set yet but hope to in the next few weeks, but it appears to have stick as well as glue.

On the tubular thing…

Pros
– superlight rims
– you can run nearly flat
– Dugast

Cons
– unbelievable FAFF at every step
– tape is a complete joke
– Glueing involves ninja patience & skills
– Fixing punctures properly requires fine needlework

BUT

Carbon clinchers are getting light, very light, so are tubeless clincher tyres … and they system is infinitely less hassle than tubular. For example: you can fix them on a training spin, or just lash a tube in.

Mixture of roads and track, running around 65psi! I’ve had them down to 50, but didn’t like the feel/pinched a lot more

Thanks for all the tubular info, definately think I’ll be looking into getting a set for next season. Just need to save up a bit!

Back to the o.p. I don’t quite get how you are getting loads of pinch flats running tubeless? Surely that’s basically impossible?

I run my clinchers around 28psi, started going sub 25 but pinched once and got cautious

The PX tubs seem to work OK. Used a pair intermittently this season. I used glue, don’t see why not and they’ve been fine. I cracked one rim riding into a step but repaired it with cloth and epoxy, not something you can do with alloy.

That’s what I thought, but apparently you can put a snakebite in a tyre, even an EXO one

At certain races / swamp-fests like the CX Nationals, running extremely soft tubs looked to be a distinct advantage. Can those that ride them confirm this to be true?

Absolutely true.
I was running 16psi rear 14psi front in my tubs at Shrewsbury and had zero grip issues (ok a lot of the course was running anyway!), you simply can’t do that with clinchers or tubeless. Yes, tubs can be a faff until you get into it but the performance benefits are huge. Every time this subject comes up I’ll repeat this – I’d rather have a cheap alu bike running Sora but with nice tubs than a superbike on clinchers.

Thanks LS. We’ve happily managed on clinchers all year, but Shrewsbury was an eye opener. My wife raced, and described trudging along the flat slog sections at the limit of traction (with good mud tyres) and just having people with more grip ride away from her (people that she can ride with or beat at mtb races). Then we watched the men and the “tractor bounce” pressures of the tub users was very obvious. Pretty sure tubeless at those pressures is just going to burp or snakebite the tyre.

Almost certain a set of tubs will be bought for specific venues next season – will only get used for soft CX courses so can’t really see them being too much faff.

LS – Member
. Every time this subject comes up I’ll repeat this – I’d rather have a cheap alu bike running Sora but with nice tubs than a superbike on clinchers.

Fingers crossed that’ll be me next winter!

Tyre pressure? The lowest that conditions allow me to get away with – I use 40mm tyres for trail use and run them at 30psi. For racing with tubs, down in the low 20s.
Go blatting hard edges and you’ll suffer pinch-flats.
Tape is hopeless for CX tubs – the lower pressure doesn’t hold them as securely and higher loading on the bigger carcass usually results in a rolled tub. I use the Belgian method for gluing tubs – very secure.
FWIW Tufo tubulars have been tubeless for years and I always run sealant.