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Monday 5 December 2011

Hutchison Fusion 3 (tubeless tyres) puncture report


I have been riding these tyres on the Dura Ace CL24 wheels since October now. To be honest, unlike some of my customers, I have not been blown away by any performance improvements since going tubeless. So no improvements in ride quality or decrease in rolling resistance (and yes I have played with tyre pressure, my favourite being 90/95psi front and rear).
People who say they ride as good as a tub, have not ridden a 'proper' tub!!

However they have been absolutely bombproof in terms of getting no punctures (I have been using Stans sealant).
On Sundays ride I did notice my rear tyre getting soft after we went through a particularly bad patch of road. Sure enough there was a decent sized hole, and air was escaping. I could see the sealant trying to do its job, but with no success. I pumped it up again but could hear the air escaping. I realised that if you pump the tyre up too quickly then the pressure is too high for the sealant to work.
Sure enough, we re-pumped the tyre to 85 psi and it was fine and we continued our ride with no issues.
This morning I checked the tyre and its still at 85 psi. Result !!

The Fusion 3s are marketed as a road racing tyre and have been cut up quite badly in the 3 months I have ridden them. So I will now take them off and put the heavier training version, the Intensive. That has a harder compound, but a better Kevlar puncture belt so will be perfect for the next 3 months.
I am sure that the sealant will go everywhere we I take it off - Matt will love me for that !

2 comments:

Natextr said...

Be careful with stans sealant on those rims. They are not anodized and the ammonia in Stan's will cause them to corrode. Instead try cafe-latex it works just as well and won't void the warranty of the Shimano rim...

Bespoke said...

Is this my mate Nate?
Thanks for that - just realized that indeed you are right. We used Stans on our recent Firefly MTB builds.....