Hearing about our friends having great times out on the trail is, well, heartwarming to say the least. When we get to be a part of it, as in the case with our friends from Salsa Cycles, we are just plain stoked. Thanks for taking us along for the ride!
Part of every adventure begins with choosing the right gear. Recently fellow Salsa brand ambassador E-Fred and I decided to load up our Spearfish and embark on a three-day bikepacking trip through the mountains of Prescott, Arizona.
While neither one of us had run a tubeless system consistently here in Minnesota due to the many “hassles” of messy burping, difficult tire mounting, etc, we were challenged by the folks at WTB to try their new TCS system on our trip. Given the plethora of all things thorny and tube killing in Arizona, we decided that this was as good a time as any and ultimately the perfect scenario to give it a shot.
We ordered up some Frequency TCS rims mated up with Bronson TCS tires and gave it a go. I can say the results were nothing short of awesome!
Mounting up the tires was extremely easy…with a floor pump no less. We shipped our bikes out to Arizona, and even with deflating the tires to nearly zero psi the bead held, with no sticky mess to clean up when we unpacked the bikes. On the trail the sealant did its thing and saved our butt several times. What it didn’t do was burp. The system held true to claim and didn’t have tire roll or any other adverse effects even with the extra weight of our bikepacking gear. We were able to run nice low pressures and the extra comfort and reduced rotational weight the system provided was certainly welcomed.
I will also say that we both fell in love with the Bronson TCS tire. It was our first experience with this tire and we selected it for the seemingly universal tread pattern given the varied terrain we knew we would encounter on this journey. In the end the tire performed great in conditions from gravel forest service roads to nasty singletrack, and from dusty and dry as the desert can be, to slick and wet from the snow run-off in the mountains. We loved these tires! So now that we are back in Minnesota we've found ourselves asking the question… "Should we go back to tubes?" Well…after riding the TCS system we can both honestly say…NO WAY!
Bobby Dahlberg – Salsa Cycles