GCN Tech Clinic: Steel bikes, exploding tubeless, and 1x Vs 2x

This week Alex Paton is joined by Simon Richardson to take a look at some of your tech questions and to offer the answers and advice to keep you enjoying riding your bike and keeping it in fine working order, too.

I left my carbon tubeless wheels in the sun and the rim exploded. Why was this? How can it be prevented?

This is a very uncommon occurrence with a tubeless set up and would point towards something within the system failing, allowing air to pass from the tyre into the rim cavity itself. The most likely cause for this is leaking or damaged rim tape that could have been caused during the installation process if tyre levers were used to mount the tyre onto the rim.

Even in direct sunlight, 20 degrees celsius sounds like too low to cause any negative effects to the system, unless it was already on its way out. The best bet to ensure that this doesn’t happen again is to fit a premium rim tape that is at least the same width as the internal rim width of the wheel with a good overlap of tape. Also check with both the tyre and the rim manufacturer for their specified recommended maximum pressures, this is even more important if you are running hookless rims.

What is the best thing to do with dirty rags?

If the rags in question are covered in grease, oil or drivetrain grime then the best bet is to put them in the bin, trying to salvage anything from them is a losing battle at the best of times. For general rags that are used to wipe the bike down or just all together aren’t that dirty then these can be washed in the washing machine and then reused.

Can I use a trailer with my carbon fibre bike?

You can. What you will need, is a specific rear thru-axle that can be supplied by the trailer manufacturer. To make sure you get the correct one, you will need to find a few measurements of your existing axle, typically this will be written on the axle itself. You’ll need to know the axle length, size and thread pitch to match up the correct axle for your frame.

Another consideration is to factor the weight of the trailer and what you are carrying in to the maximum weight limit of the bike. A super lightweight carbon fibre bike is going to be a little bit less robust than a gravel bike for example as they will not have been designed with the specifics of pulling a trailer.

Although it will work and you shouldn’t run in to any issues a steel, aluminium or titanium bike would be the ideal bike if using a trailer is something common.

Is it better to use a quick link or rivet to fit a new chain?

If there is a choice, for example if a chain doesn’t come provided with one, my preference would always be to fit a quick link. They are easier to fit and allow for the chain to be easily removed when needed as well as the rivets being more prone to issues during the set up to get them dialled in.

I’m in the market for a new road bike, is a 1x setup something I should consider?

This is becoming more of a decision for consideration with SRAM offering groupsets with a 1x configuration including the new Apex groupset that is entirely 1x with no option to run a double ring up front. The choice is completely dependent on your own judgement but there are some factors that need to be considered.

If you ride mostly on the road and in hilly terrain a 2x setup is going to give you more gear ratios to find the optimum gear that allows you to pedal at a desired cadence. It is not necessarily the case that you get a bigger spread of gears as some 1x setups can have up to a 520% gear range, however to achieve this range in just 12 gears means that the steps between them are far larger. The issue you can potentially run into with this is that you are often riding at extreme cadence’s to compensate for the lack of gearing.

With a 2x set up there are far smaller jumps between gears allowing you to pedal at a cadence that suits you from very slow speeds on climbs, to very fast speeds on descents. The more variation in speed you have in a ride the more a 2x setup will benefit you. If you find that you are riding more and more on unpaved surfaces then a 1x will become a more logical solution.

This is because a 1x will have far great chain retention for when things get rough, also your average speed will naturally be slower, meaning your speed range will be narrower and therefore a 1x setup will be able to accommodate this easier.

Is there still a place for steel bikes in a world dominated by carbon?

100% there is plenty of room for steel bikes in the world of cycling. A perfect example of this would be the question above regarding using a trailer. The materials that bikes are made of whether that be Aluminium, Steel, Carbon or titanium all have different characteristics. It is not a case that one is inherently worse than another but more about what your needs are and what material most closely matches what you need.

Can I use a tube in a hookless rim, and what is the maximum pressure I can run them at?

You can indeed run an inner tube in a hookless system. The most important thing to check is that the tyre you are fitting is certified to be used with hookless rims as this does matter. As the system will still be hookless following the ETRTO pressure limit of 72psi must be followed regardless of if they are set up tubeless or tubed. Other than that if you want to run an inner tube you can, although it would be recommended to use a latex or TPU tube to get the best performance from the setup.

Have a tech question you need answering? Head over to this week’s Tech Clinic video over on the GCN Tech YouTube channel and add your question to the comments along with #ASKGCNTECH.