Compass Steilacoom feedback

[d_douglas]

I am wondering if anyone here has used the Compass 38mm CX tires? I don't race, but I do ride off-road on my cx bike, occasionally doing stupid things. This isn't for gravel road riding...

I live in the PNW - it's wet here. The tire's namesake town is within a few hours of me, so I assume that it can handle mud?

[William]

Having lived there at one time I don't remember it to be particularly muddy there. Maybe it's meant to convey that they will ferry you over any mud you encounter?

You'd have to know the place to get it.

From the description they sound like a pretty much mud dedicated tire.






William

[d_douglas]

So, nobody actually uses these tires here ??

[Cicli]

Originally Posted by d_douglas

So, nobody actually uses these tires here ??

I think most use Compass tires for their fat smoothies. Super nice tires, I am sure these are just the same.

[weisan]

http://teknecycling.com/first-impres...olume-cx-tire/

[d_douglas]

Hi Weisan

Yes, I saw that. I use wanted to see if anyone here had used them, though he looks pretty grassroots...

[austex]

Just posted from Jan:

https://janheine.wordpress.com/2017/...obby/#comments

[sirbryanclark]

I picked up a set of the Steilacoom extralight casings. I set them up tubeless with endurance sealant on a tried-and-true wheelset I've raced with several other tubeless cross tires with no issues. I've heard a lot of hype about this tire and really like the tread pattern.

After an initial week test of around town and park trail miles I put them to the true test in a cross race. Pressure set to 30psi front and 35psi rear. First practice lap around the course warming up the rear tire sidewall failed. Small to medium puncture. After 10 minutes and more sealant it finally sealed. Time for the race. A few laps into the actual race and the rear tire burped and blew off the rim. Luckily I was near the pits and able to get it back on. 15 minutes later, the front tire did the same thing, blew right off the rim. All three of these tire failures were under normal to tame course conditions. After the race I talked to three other racers in my same race that had similar if not exactly the same experience on their Steilacoom tires.

Long story short, really disappointed in these tires. I would not recommend them for cyclocross racing. Don't believe the hype.

[Jan Heine]

I'm very sorry to hear about your bad luck in today's 'cross race. Any equipment failure in a race is disappointing, especially when you test the equipment beforehand and can't find anything wrong.

Your rims worked with the previous tires, but as always when you switch to higher-performance components, the tolerances get a bit tighter. A rim that works with a stiff tire may not always work well with a much more supple one.
nIf only one tire had come off, then we should check whether the tire was out of spec. This happens very, very rarely, but we can never rule it out. When two tires don't work, it's clearly a tire/rim incompatibility.

Since we introduced these tires more than a year ago, they've been used in many races without issues. For us, it's important to learn about tire/rim incompatibilities, so I'd appreciate it if you could share which rims you used, which rim tape, which sealant and how much you weigh. (You've already given us the pressure you ran the tires.)

Thank you.

Jan Heine
Founder
Compass Cycles
www.compasscycle.com

[sirbryanclark]

Rims are Mavic CXP33. Have run WTB Cross Boss and Clement X'Plor tires tubeless with no problems.

Wishing I'd gone with the standard casings! Tread pattern and width is excellent.

Originally Posted by Jan Heine

I'm very sorry to hear about your bad luck in today's 'cross race. Any equipment failure in a race is disappointing, especially when you test the equipment beforehand and can't find anything wrong.

Your rims worked with the previous tires, but as always when you switch to higher-performance components, the tolerances get a bit tighter. A rim that works with a stiff tire may not always work well with a much more supple one.
nIf only one tire had come off, then we should check whether the tire was out of spec. This happens very, very rarely, but we can never rule it out. When two tires don't work, it's clearly a tire/rim incompatibility.

Since we introduced these tires more than a year ago, they've been used in many races without issues. For us, it's important to learn about tire/rim incompatibilities, so I'd appreciate it if you could share which rims you used, which rim tape, which sealant and how much you weigh. (You've already given us the pressure you ran the tires.)

Thank you.

Jan Heine
Founder
Compass Cycles
www.compasscycle.com

[justaute]

Out of curiosity..Is this the profile of your rim?

Originally Posted by sirbryanclark

Rims are Mavic CXP33. Have run WTB Cross Boss and Clement X'Plor tires tubeless with no problems.

Wishing I'd gone with the standard casings! Tread pattern and width is excellent.

[Jan Heine]

Originally Posted by sirbryanclark

Rims are Mavic CXP33.

We haven't had reports of problems with those rims. Of course, every production run is slightly different, both of the tires and the rims... I'll check with Theo to see whether he's heard of any issues.

[ColonelJLloyd]

I think it sucks that your tires blew off and affected your race. Glad you weren't hurt.

I would say, though, that it stands to reason you really can't blame the tubeless compatible tire for blowing off a rim that is, to my knowledge, NOT tubeless compatible despite the fact that other, stiffer tires did not blow off the same rim.

[Jan Heine]

Thanks for pointing this out. I had assumed that we were talking about tubeless-compatible rims, so I just looked over our list of rims that are known to have problems. (Sorry, I don't have a memorized every rim out there...)

You are right - running tires tubeless requires a tubeless-compatible rim. Sure, you sometimes can get away with using a standard rim, but you are always running a risk. And tires coming off the rim can cause serious injuries, so it's not worth it. A pinch flat is preferable to a visit to the emergency room!

For now, I'd just stick some tubes into the tires, or get some new, tubeless-compatible rims with a similar ERD and relace the wheels. I wouldn't go back to the tires that worked tubeless on the non-tubeless rims in the past, as the risks are just too great.

[pavel]

30/35 seems really low for that combination of factors- non tubeless, 19mm narrow rim in a cyclocross race being rigged to run 38mm tubeless tires at low pressure... there's a lot of faith being placed in those rims.