Today we're going to be installing some
Tubeless-ready Hutchinson Sector 28
tires on our Decathlon RC 520. Here we
have the Hutchinson Sector 28 tires,
these are really cool tires from
Hutchinson. They're actually named after
the Pave and cobblestone sections of the
Paris-Roubaix classic event.
They're really optimized for more
challenging road conditions whether
you're on cobblestones or just
rough roads. Now if we take it out of the
packaging we'll go over the specs. The
retail price on this is $79.99 per tire,
its 127 TPI which means it's a very
supple tire. These are tubless-ready as
well and they offer two variations a 700
by 28 which we're reviewing today and
the 700 by 32 variation. Hutchinson
also makes it really easy to decide which
tire need by providing a really easy
rating system. With the Sector 28, out
of 5 stars this is a 5 out of 5 for
puncture resistance, 5 out of 5 for
comfort and grip. You sacrifice a
little bit of lightness as these a
little bit heavier and a little bit of
performance and durability but overall
really optimized for more challenging
conditions. Also I really recommend doing
a tire upgrade whether you have an entry
level bike or intermediate bike as stock
tires are typically one of the limiting
points. They're designed
to be more reliable so we're really
excited to try this on her to Calphalon
bike now let's take a look at the weight
of the Sector 28 tires take one of the
tires on here comes in at about 292 you
take the other tire comes in at 290 for
the flight variation between v2
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Today we're gonna be doing something
I've been playing into for a while now
and that is to upgrade the tires on the
Triban RC 520. These come with the
Triban Protect Light 700x28 tires
and while I don't have anything
particularly bad to say about them one
of the best upgrades you can really do
with any entry level bike is upgrade
the tires to a more performance
oriented tire.
Before we upgrade the tires let's
take a look at the Triban Protect
Lights. You can see it has a pretty
well defined tread. My only really
complaint with these is that they kind
of hum at higher speeds like an off-road
Jeep or something on the highway
once you hit over about 25 miles
an hour. The first step is to
take off the wheels and pull the tires
and tubes off, then apply the rim
tape.
I haven't done tires quite a few
times these were quite a struggle,
definitely leave a comment below with
what you think, but it looks like these
are actually glued on from the factory.
You can see the white residue here makes
them really difficult to remove, it took
a lot of manhandling with the other side
of the bead still holding pretty tight.
Now that we have the tire off after a
lot of man handling you can see the
tread on the Decathlon Triban tires
are really thick, you have this nice bead
on the edge as well and you can see that
residue from what I think is glue on the
inside of the tire. You can see the
casing again really thick so a really
durable tire should definitely last you
a lot of mileage but as I mentioned
definitely not as high performance as
the Hutchinson tires we're going to put
on. Now we'll do the new tire
installation these are the Sector 28
they do not appear to be directional so
I'll go ahead and put them in in either
direction.
Now you want to center these on the rim and
place the bead on one end and center
it along here. I've already done a little
soapy water on the inside to clean out
any junk and make the installation a
little bit easier. Now I have the
bead on one side, I'll go ahead and repeat
that for the rear tire.
So several hours later I found a little
plumbing kit with a gasket and that
actually allowed me to get a better seal
on the valve stem. Now I'm going to go
round with a little soapy water on the
rim of the tires to help with the
installation, you just want to get
these a little wet on both
sides. With any luck hopefully
things will just pop into place the
other one was quite the bear to get on as
these tire and wheel combinations
just not very happy to to work together.
I've also removed the valve stem just
to get a little more airflow. Now I'm
gonna take my Tubibooster which has
already been boosted up, and pop it on and as
you can hear it is not happy. After a
lot of work off-camera we finally got
the tires to mount, the problem was we're
reusing the incorrect rim tape and the
wrong valve so it kept leaking air. Once we
installed a proper valves and redid the
rim tape everything went well and as you
can see that semi-slick tread on these
Hutchinson tires really give the Triban
a more performance appearance. That
semi-slick tread also improves the grip
and makes the tires look less bulky
than the stock tires. We're definitely
looking forward to putting these on the
road. Now let's get the RC 520 and
Hutchinson Sector 28 tires on the road.
Here's some footage from a local climb
and I was really impressed with the
tires even from my first ride. They really
transformed the Triban bike to be more
responsive and smoother especially
compared to the stock tires. Even though
they're the same 700x28 size they
felt a lot smoother and grippier so
whether I was doing steep descents or
climbing it felt more connected to the
road and provided more confidence to go faster.
I think it helps the performance
characteristics of the bike by providing
that extra grip and what I also really
liked about the Sector 28 is that it's
designed for cobblestones or rougher
roads and has that higher
puncture resistance. Even if you're doing more
mundane rides as I'm doing here on a
local trail commuting to work or school
you really have the confidence to know
that you have the performance to go fast
but also the puncture resistance to make
sure you're not going to miss your train
or be late to class with a flat or
puncture. Now let's give the Hutchinson
Sector 28 tires a final score. We'll
grade it on four different categories: grip,
durability, comfort and value. In terms of
grip I would give it an A. It has that
semi-slick tread which means it's
slick in the center which is really fast
on the flats and then you have that
texture on the corners of the tires
which gives a really good confidence
when you're descending. Durability-wise
another A, it has a really good puncture
resistance with these tires and the nice
and thick so that should definitely
handle thorns or any debris on the road
pretty well. Comfort-wise another A, I was
really impressed with how smooth the
ride was with these especially with that
slick tread. They really rode nice and smooth
and felt like you were glued on the road
without the harshness that you'd get
with higher pressure tires.
Value-wise I've given it an A- the
price is rather high but it's not a
secret that I can always get tires for a
little bit cheaper as long as you buy
them on sale or buy it directly from the
retailer with the 10 or 15 percent off
sales they usually offer. Overall we're
really impressed with how the tires
really transform the Triban RC 520
from a entry-level bike to something more
performance oriented. It definitely added
a lot more grip and confidence as well
as made the ride smoother despite being
the same tire size so we highly
recommend looking at these tires as
potential upgrade whether you're
commuting, doing longer rides or just want
something that's durable yet still fast.
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