- Welcome back to another GTN Unboxing.
Now picture this, you're out on a ride
you're on your usual bike, you're on a standard route
but today, it feels so incredibly hard.
You check with your brakes rubbing, no.
And surely it can't be your legs.
But maybe, you've got a slow puncture.
We've all been there, that phantom slow puncture
well today's unboxing can put an end
to all those slow puncture worries
and actually maybe, help to improve riding performance.
It comes from our friends and partners of the channel, Quarq
it is the Quark TyreWiz.
And we have three of these to give away
and I'm sure you're getting the hang of this now
but I'll be explaining how you can get your hands on these
at the end of this video.
But for now, let's get started.
Okay, so, these two devices
are a first of its kind.
They will read the pressure of your tires in real time.
Meaning, you can see the pressure of your tires
as you're pumping them up, as you're riding them
and even as you're getting a puncture, and to be honest
that's really just scratching the surface
of what these can offer cyclists and triathletes.
But first of all, let's just see how you attach these
to your bikes and wheels.
For that, I need
a wheel.
So they are, essentially, just an extension of your valves
from your inner tubes for tubular tires
and even your tubeless tires.
And all that's required is a removable valve core
which is this little bit.
And that's where this little tool
from the TyreWiz comes in handy.
It's a valve tool remover.
And it's worth mentioning that removing valve cores
isn't anything new or specific to the TyreWiz
so if you're anything like me
and you're going to lose a small tool like this
then it's likely you're going to get ahold of a new one
from your local bike shop.
But now, for how you remove it
so you just wrap the valve tool around the valve core
and you twist it off.
But I would recommend letting the pressure out
from your tire first, because these little valve cores
have a habit of flying off at quite some speed.
And once that's solved, you can then screw
the TyreWiz device on.
And of course, make sure it's perfectly aligned
because I'm OCD like that.
And finally, you just need to pump your tires up
as you normally would, as simple as that.
And, probably, by now, you've noticed these flashing LEDs
on the devices, and that is because
they're trying to beam that all-important data to us.
And that's the really exciting part
so, let's get paired to them.
Right, so they do this via ANT+, NFC, and Bluetooth
either to your smartphone
or directly to your bike computer head unit.
And today, I'm going to show you connecting to my smartphone
using the Quarq TyreWiz app.
Okay, so, it's a really straightforward pairing, and now
I can see the exact pressure of the tire
apparently, to 2% accuracy
plus or minus 0.1 of the PSI resolution.
In fact, to show you
just how instant the feedback is on this
I'm just gonna let out a little bit of air out of my tire.
Pretty cool, eh?
So also, what this app can offer
is a personalized recommended tire pressure
and it does this by taking into account your body weight
your bike weight, your tire width, and your wheel size
and then it can alert you, if your tire pressure
goes outside of that recommended range.
So, let's just input my own data
and see what it comes out with.
Right, for me, it's recommending 84 PSI on the front
and 90 PSI in the back.
And I'll be honest, that's actually a little bit lower
than I've been running in the past
but then I have been more or less
second guessing my pressure until now
whereas there's been some very fancy mathematics
and calculations that's going into this
to work out for me, so I think I'll listen to this.
But more important point
how are these devices useful to us?
Well, with varying road conditions, terrains
and weather conditions from race to race
I really do think that these are fascinating devices
to use over time.
And potentially, even performance enhancing.
I mean ultimately, our tires are our contact point
with the ground, and we want to make sure we have
adequate traction while reducing our rolling resistance
and all else, making sure that we're comfortable.
See this is where pairing with a bike computer head unit
becomes really beneficial.
On a number of units, you get to see
the real time pressure values
so for things like pumping your tires up
on race while you needed to get them bang on
and when you want to get the pressure of your tires
just before you start.
Be able to check without even needing to attach a pump.
But I think it's the collection of data
that I think is really interesting.
So when you hit record on your head unit
it will record all your pressure values
as well as all the usual stuff.
So where I'm thinking this could be really useful is
for perhaps, one of these days when you just feel fantastic
out on the road, you're cornering like a pro
and you want to replicate that.
So you can look back at your pressure values for that day
and you can look at the conditions, the temperatures
and even the road surfaces
and you've got all that data intact here.
I mean, that's just one idea, but perhaps also good to see
how it changes for hot and cold days
or even for those days where you just feel really uneasy
descending, or you feel like you don't have traction
like your training, and competitors around the corners
it really is a tool to sort of utilize and to learn from
in a similar way to a power meter.
I'll be honest, the whole temperature change
and pressure change thing has intrigued me for years.
I have heard of the odd
mountain biker cyclists actually running slightly lower
pressures at the start of a race
factoring in this heat build up and pressure change
throughout the race.
Now, I'm not recommending we all do this
we start with slightly lower pressures during the race
but it's a certainly really interesting topic
to investigate and to learn from, and after all
we can just learn from collecting all this data
and how it changes for different conditions
and then we could start of fine tune our tire pressures
for performance and for comfort
for different courses and conditions.
Finally, if you're worried about adding more things
to your already lightweight bike
you'd be pleased to hear
that these come in at just 10 grams per sensor.
So barely no spokes already.
And as I showed earlier, super easy to install
and to remove, so you can quickly change it
from bike to bike, and wheel to wheel, really easily.
Now, for the bit I'm sure everyone's been waiting for
the giveaway.
Time to get your fingers on the buzzers.
Yeah, not quite really, because I'm just gonna send you
to a link, where you'll have to answer our questions.
So, to enter that, you just need to go to the description
below this video, click on that link
take you through to a very, very, very difficult question
regarding these Quarq TyreWiz devices.
Again, I'm lying, it's not that difficult
but I do hope that you've been listening
and then, we'll be announcing those lucky winners very soon.
So good luck to everyone.
But before we do head over that link
do make sure that you click on the globe and subscribe
to GTN.
And if you'd like to see these Quarq TyreWiz devices
in action on a descent in Majorca
you can see my tire pressure forward tracked on video
clicking it down here.
And if you'd like to see a clincher vs tubular
change video, just click down here.