Tag: conzelman rd

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Vittoria Rubino Pro Tires

My Team Cofidis De Rosa Merak came equipped with 700×28 Vittoria Rubino Pro tires. Bike-room.com set up the tires with tubes. (The wheels are Fulcrum Airbeat 400 DB, an OEM wheel that is similar (but heavier) to the Fulcrum Wind 42)

Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready tire mounted on Fulcrum Airbeat 400 wheel
Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready tire mounted on Fulcrum Airbeat 400 wheel

The rear tire started showing wear through the tread at 2050 miles and I retired it 30 miles later. I attribute the wear to my weight (~211 lbs – 97.7 kg).

Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready rear tire wear after 2080 mi
Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready rear tire wear after 2080.3 mi

The front tire, after almost 3300 miles seems to have a lot of tread left. In the center of the tire, there is still a trace of the flash.

Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready front tire wear after 3300 mi
Vittoria Rubino Pro Tubeless ready front tire wear after 3300 mi

I replaced the rear tire with a 700×28 Continental Grand Prix 5000 S TR and went tubeless. The Continental tire has a little over 1200 miles on it and the wear indicators are still showing. I did get a puncture, a 1.5 mm long cut in the tire (probably from a glass shard), that the Orange Seal Endurance sealant sealed.

For safety’s sake (see this video of my descent down Conzelman Road in the Marin Headlands), I decided to patch the tire from the inside. I removed the tire, cleaned out the sealant and put a round Rema patch over the hole. I’m wondering what other high performance tubeless road tires there are that are slightly more puncture and cut resistant.

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Conzelman Road, Marin Headlands

Conzelman Road, Marin Headlands (GoPro HERO3+)
Conzelman Road, Marin Headlands (GoPro HERO3+)

To do a little extra climbing on my short bike ride to Battery Townsley at Rodeo Beach, after I ride across the Golden Gate Bridge, I’ll ride down Alexander Avenue then south on East Road. East Road winds it way through Fort Baker past Cavallo Point Lodge and the Bay Area Discovery Museum to Center Road and Moore Road to the beginning of Conzelman Road. There, it’s about 15 ft above sea level near the Moore Road Pier, pretty much under the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

As Conzelman climbs up the headlands, it passes several scenic turnouts where all those generic Golden Gate Bridge photos (with the San Francisco in the background) are taken. The road climbs up Hawk Hill for almost 770 feet in a little less than 2.5 miles to the Marin Headlands Vista Point.

If you venture down the hill past the Vista Point parking lot, you’ll be rewarded with this view of the Marin Headlands, the Pacific Ocean beyond the Golden Gate and a brief but very steep 18% drop in the road.