We talk a lot about aero gain and turbulence of tires, wheels, aerobars, etc… Stadler lost the race due to bad tires. Hey, two flats in a row from a professional who understands the BIKE.
What kind of Tubes were he on??
I want to make sure to stay far away from them, regardless of the aero gain.
Jimmy
Which tire was the second flat? The neutral support or his original rear? If both original tires flatted you have an issue to be discussed. If his original front flatted and his replacement front of a different tire also flatted, you just have shitty luck.
Do you know of a brand or type of tire that doesn’t flat?? Besides the solid ones. It’s just a bit of bad luck that the former champion got so many flats. I got 3 flats back in '83, the year of the carpet tacks. There were probably over 250 flats that day. Of course there are some things that contribute, extra high pressure, super light tires, not paying attention to the ground you are riding over,the one in a 100 defective tires, but I’ve found that most high quality tires will perform about the same. I would like to know if he even carried his own spare, or waited for the neutral support for a wheel change. It seemed a long time for the first flat to get changed. A seasoned pro who knows what he is doing should get it done with their own tire in about a minute or so. His semed to take between 3 to 4 minutes…Anybody know out there???
Doesn’t he appear in hard copy ads for Maxxis Tires? Really don’t know much about them. Probably just bad luck on his part. Have you ever seen those thorns they have out there (kiava or something?)
I am not sure it can be blamed on the tires, but doesn’t he run Schwalbe tubulars? Not really seen too much in the States.
-Tim
I think schwalbe is correct.
Schwalbe tubulars = TUFO tubulars. They are made by TUFO in the same factory and labeled Schwalbe. I personally have found them to be fragile, I had a 700x19 which was on my disc wheel and it was punctured by a small rock which tore the sidewall. Thats what you get for running a 180gram tubular.
p.s. they are labeled “made in Czech republic” and are “tubeless” so yes they are TUFO and the Schwalbe rep confirmed this.
Yea, I picked up three flats in the carpet tack edition with Monte. After my third I just said F it and limped home. Big Island roads are made of Lava cinders that wear out tires, and sometimes a marble size rock that is sharp as a knife will bite out a sidewall. Be interesting to see what kinds of flats and where the puncture was on the tire. Very important to pay attention to the road in Kona and having a rubber sidewall can help over a fabric one.
Its a non-issue. A study of ONE does not prove anything…his original tire went flat. Big deal. Shit happens. His second wheel was race support and not the same brand…and was clincher…ANOTHER study of one. Simply a coincidence…a sad and unfortunate situation…occuring to someone who had a legitimate shot at winning…but a coincidence all the same. Plenty of other folks had flats on Saturday…probably enough to represent most brands. There is no conclusion to be drawn here (unless for some really outlandish reason Normann did not have a brand new tire on his original wheel…in that case, well, he reaped what was sown…)
When you throw away first the wheel and then the bike, it takes longer than one minute to change a flat.
At awards banquet they showed a recap video narrated by paula showed norman trying to get his tire off the rim with little luck(think he’d learn to carry a razor blade with him) and then throwing the wheel
down so thats why it took him so long first flat.
Must be nice to throw a wheel that expensive around.
Yes, I saw that. They chose not to show the bike throw.
A good reason to not devote a lot of discussion over a forensic, Monday (or Tuesday as it is) morning quarterbacking session is that we *don’t know what happened *to cause Stadler to flat.
Mark Allen suffered a similar problem at Ironman that turned out to be the result of his wheel slicing the valve stem. It had nothing to do with his tire choice.
Also, there are some things that will flat *any *tire. It has nothing to do with tire selection or brand.
To blanketly dismiss Stadler’s tire choice as "bad’ based on the fact that he had a flat tire is to do so without all the facts.
We know he flatted. We don’t know why (at least I don’t). It may (in fact, likely has) have nothing to do with his tire choice.
I wonder if he was using the sealant. Of course, theres the poor rolling resistance characteristics of Tufos…
Yes, I saw that. They chose not to show the bike throw.
Wonder whos bike throw was better? His or Ullrich’s toss of his $15000 TT bike a few years back.
That was Bjarne Riis, not Jan Ullrich.
Ah yes, you are right…my memory sucks!
From http://www.freypressebild.de/freypressebild-cgi/topixx
This is the order in which the photos are presented on the above website, so they may or may not be in chronological order. But, you can see the mounting frustration.
Guys, he got 3 (THREE) flats…now that’s the crappiest of luck.