I’ve decided to go tubeless with my Surly Cross Check as I’m trying to make it a super comfortable ride. Since I’m frugal I decided to shop around and ran into the Torchbearer tires by American Classic. These are only $35 each on Amazon and meet all my needs. Take a look:
The Good
All weather tires
Strong flat protection
Tubeless Ready
Good rolling resistance
Reasonably lightweight
Made in Taiwan (better than China)
Also have a tubed version for $30
The Bad
Nothing yet…
Specs
Size: 700x32C
Weight: 397 grams
Actual width: 30.1mm on Velocity A23 rims with about 50 miles on them. If they are like other tires, they will likely get another mm or 2 wider with miles.
I like that these have a nice slick center with tread on the sides. Should make it a very versatile tire.
Ride
I really like riding with these tires. Very smooth over all the cracks and bumps. And they seem to have plenty of speed. I’ve set some really good times with my morning 7.6 mile ride, and my fastest time for a 40 miler. The comfort seems to really make up for any higher rolling resistance these tires might have.
Tubeless Set Up
Initial set up went really well. But for about a week after, I couldn’t get the rear to hold air for very long. I kept getting these pin holes that would open up and sealant would come out. But after about a week of filling the tires up and checking pressure the next day, they started holding air fine. Now I’ve had no problems the last few weeks.
Get yours today on Amazon:
After years of fixing flats (I swear I must have a special skill for finding tons of goat-head stickers in my tires which always result in a fix at the most inconvenient place), I moved to tubeless-wow…what a game changer. Happy trails.
Glad it’s working for you. Hope it goes as well for me.