Mountain Bicycle Tyres – Important Info

September 16, 2009

By system

I suggest you know how are you going to use your bicycle. That’s why choosing proper tires is considered to be a very important matter. If you want to ride safe and outperform others you’d better learn about bike tires as much as you can. Of course, you like mountain bikes.

One should differ a mountain bike tyres and a road bike tyre. There’s no wonder that a mountain bike tire is much broader because mountain bikes are used in different mostly extremely rough terrains. So much better grip must be provided. Numerous knobs make hard riding much softer.

Mostly a standard inner tube keeps a tire inflated. But a mountain bike tire also can be tubeless. Let’s look at them closer.

Michelin and Mavic’s UST (Universal System Tubeless) use mostly tubeless tyres. Universal System Tubeless means a specific sealed-bed rim used to keep a thick side-walled mountain bike tyre locked. This tire can successfully resist beating when riding over rough terrain. Unfortunately such puncture-resistant tires with low-pressure performance are quite expensive. To make things worse I should point out that a big pump must be used to inflate this mountain bike tyre. It’s advisable to make sure that a clean rim and tyre provided to fit them successfully. But if the tyre has to be replaced on the trail,clean conditions are usually unavailable. A C02 cartridge pump and an inner tube are required to repair this mountain bike tire.

Small holes can be repaired at home but not big holes.

You should pick a lighter tyre if fast start times and riding speeds are required, because tubeless tyres are much heavier. If you are looking for a greater flexibility, more designs and tread styles choose tires with inner tubes. By the way they are much lighter and you can find the right one for your personal riding style.

Moreover, it’s possible to get kits to convert a tire with an inner tube to a tubeless one. For example Stan’s No Tubes kits. A typical set contains a special latex-based filling liquid combined with a rubber rim strip to seal the inside of the tyre and rim. This mountain bike tyre has the same low pressure advantages of a standard UST tubeless tyre and a bigger choice of rims and treads. But a conventional thick side-walled tubeless tyre has more suitable price. On the trail the same problems may arise. Though standard UST models are more stable than those converted with the help of various kits.

No matter what kind of mountain bike tyre you choose, it’s up to you to replace your tyres regularly. You can lose your competition and even get injured in case a blow on a trail. You should always have at least one spare tire with you if emergency maintenance required. If you follow these advices you’ll be a perfect mountain bike rider.

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