The Fling: A #metoo Izalco Max

[Peeza21]

Thots?

[tonytourist]

youre too old to say thots

[Sizzler]

Dang, hots!

[milesaway]

Hey Ryan! If you don’t mind me asking,
What is your saddle height?
Trying to decide on 50 or 52 frame for myself

[RyanH]

It's 72cm. Saddle to bar drop is around 10.5cm.

[RyanH]

Here's the current daily setup at 5.86kg:



Full build sheet:



The Vlaanderen have about 950 miles on them and still look great. Sealing the Vlaanderen with tent sealer made a significant difference. Normally they'd be covered in streaks of black by now.

[Calnago]

My Vlanderens developed microcracks in the rubber (the tread part, not the sidewalls). I think they must have been faulty. Do you notice anything like that on yours? Great tires for a 27mm Tubular, I just prefer 25’s for my roads and riding. And I really like the lines of the Focus.

[RyanH]

That's strange, I've never had that develop on mine. How old were they?

I used to prefer the 25mm offerings but I found that if I pump these to 70/75 (at 70kg) it gets rid of any squishiness particularly when paired with a wide rim like the Reynolds. I find them extra versatile as I can run them at low PSI when I want to just chill or I'm going to be going over mixed terrain.

[Calnago]

They weren't old at all, and hardly had any mileage. However, I admit I didn't use them much beyond giving them a good trial to see how I liked them. They have since come off, but I just drymounted them on a rim to show you what I'm talking about.... notice the cracking in the outer tread... the main carcass seems fine so I don't think there's a danger of them blowing out or anything, but it's like the outer tread is deteriorating very prematurely. Maybe I just got a bad batch or something, as I've never noticed this with any other of my Veloflex tires. I did ride them in some nasty weather over crushed gravel etc., but that shouldn't have caused anything like this...
At 80psi...


At much lower psi so I could squeeze them to help show the cracking if you can't see it in the pic above...


Very nice tires to ride, if you're into that sort of thing... but my roads are good and do prefer the 25's properly inflated. If you're running bigger tires like this, and infalte them fairly hard (let's say over or above 80-85psi), you're kind of defeating the purpose of having big volume tires in the first place and ending up right back to a situation which, in theory, was the reason for the fat road bike tire in the fist place, to overcome the hystereis effect over rough roads.... that bouncing over bumps instead of rolling over them. The higher the pressure the more bouncy. But the other side of that sword is lower pressure means more rubber in contact with the road and hence higher rolling resistance. There is no way in hell riding these tires at 60psi up a steep paved hill is faster or more efficient than riding my 24mm Veloflex Roubaix at say 110/100 psi (for my weight). They are very very comfy however. Just not for me, on my roads.

[RyanH]

I run Veloflex 25mm offerings at 80/85 for fast days and may run them in the 70s for cruising days. I think for most roads, they're ideal. But, after the fires in the Santa Monica mountains, the roads are worse and it was a bit of an eye opening experience at how miserable one can be on a bike when we were descending the ridge behind Deer Creek. For those that have raced up in Norcal, it was just like that descent on Copperopolis.

These aren't every day roads (edit:actually, this comment isn't true, Franklin Canyon, Laurel, most of Griffith Park is very bad), but having a wheelset that you know is capable of handling any road bike appropriate terrain that you may come across is nice. So, for the most part, I don't ride Vlaanderen for the day to day comfort, I run them for the edge cases since even at high pressure, they handle large surface imperfections much better and I can ride rough roads more aggressively.

[Calnago]

Yeah, I get that.... I had these exactly for those types of roads, but they ended up just sitting around as I never really ventured to those roads often enough, and they felt a little overkill for the good roads I spend most of my time on. But I would certainly like them for potholed filled descents or even on the flat or super rough fresh (ugh) chipseal. No question. But for me, 25mm Arrenbergs/Roubaixs at 100R/90F psi is pretty much ideal at my 200+lbs of meatpacking delivery truck momentum.

[kgibbo1868]

Can I ask if the Tyre logos on the Vlaanderens lined up the same on both tyres? I have had bad luck getting veloflex tubulars to have consistency regarding this.... I know it doesn’t really matter, but........


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RyanH]

You'd have to check my photos. All of my builds use Veloflex but that's not something I pay attention to...

[dolophonic]

Your bike is DOPE ! great whip.

[coreyaugustus]

Nice wheel setup. Ride looks great!