Done. Personally I found the question about how much you’d spend slightly leading – I’d remove the ‘it’ll cost this much’ flag.

Done. Don’t ride tubeless, tried it once, lasted half a ride before I ripped a tyre that I could never get to reseal again. What mess and what faff.

So I couldn’t answer two of your questions – how much would it cost and would I buy it – it would depend entirely on how well it worked. £30 to have an easy always working tubeless setup, yes. £5 to have a plastic drinks bottle with a couple of inflation tubes, no.

Done but agree with clubber – suggest the Problems question should use something like a Likert scale rather than a simple Yes/No.

You’ve spammed my ‘latest replies’ on BikeRadar now!

Si,

Done with a sensible hat on. It really shouldn’t be as much of a pain as it is. I tend to give up after a quick go with the track pump and once red of face use a CO2 cannister. With those costing around £1 a go proper product would be ace.

Bottle and hose just isn’t great and can be a pain in the ass to set up. Compressors are expensive there has to be a product to solve the problem but no one has made it yet.

good luck.

Andy

Bottle and hose just isn’t great and can be a pain in the ass to set up. Compressors are expensive there has to be a product to solve the problem but no one has made it yet.

I found that a Coke bottle, some hose and a 10mm gas valve works fine for me. What’s not to like?

Well, where to start…

The problem isn’t really the lack of tooling available. It’s a lack of knowledge and experience.

Tubeless tyres wont go up for two main reasons:

– too much friction between the tyre and rim interface
– too little air volume (this is actually an exaggerated result of above friction)

To solve both of these requires:

– Reducing the friction, i.e. lubing the interface
– Increasing the amount of volume delivered, i.e. using a high volume pump

The associated cost is:

– ~£30 for pump
– £2.99 for lube

So for £33, and enough change for a cappuccino, you can tubeless your tyres in a couple of stress-free minutes without any swearing.

However, this doesn’t mean:

– there aren’t numpties out there who don’t know the above
– there aren’t numpties out there who give out the wrong advice
– there aren’t numpties out there who were the above, and now have a compressor and want a cheaper and less noisy solution
– there aren’t numpties out there who want an easy way of not doing something right in the first place

I haven’t failed to tubeless any tyre onto a Stan’s rim using the above method in about 2 years now. Multiple manufacturers, and different models.

This +1, although I’m a tightarse so just use electrical tape on the MTB.

IME they curdle the stans fluid meaning they pick up punctures. Ok as a fix on a ride, but then needs faffing once home.

A gas bottle with a trackpump hose and valve on one end, and a presta valve on the other? Problem would be regulating it, sticking 150psi in a cyinder is easy (if tireing), not then destroying your rim/tyre with it would be the challenge. Add a regulator and you’re most of the way to the cost of a compressor.

I’d still just add another layer of tape though, a whole roll of electrical tape is 30g.

+1 for badly worded survey too, everyone has had problems, but 99% of people probably solved them with some other simple tip/trick.

It won’t be too loose once you add extra rim tape…

No. But it may well pop off when you’re g-out’ing a berm, or landing a big jump, or banging through rocks.

I just buy tyres with the right actual ETRTO that fits my rim. I know the brands that are spot on now, and just use those.

Given, its a PITA to buy a tyre and then it wont fit and have to send it back – but it’s the only thing in contact with the ground before your face is.

Not yet anyway 😉

They may well be fine, but I prefer something I know:

– won’t fail randomly
– will be easy to fix a puncture in the field

And yet you also said:

You can’t discover the former whilst the latter is true. Either you’ve been lucky, or you’ve tried very few tyres. Sooner or later something will change and it becomes a bit more of a faff.

Take Schwalbe tyres, always my default choice. Back in the day I ran Olympic rims, with rim strips, and Evo tyres, had about 6 pairs. Always worked perfectly, never had any problems with inflating or sealing.

Then I switched to Podium rims, which were marginally tighter. At the same time Scwhable introduced tubeless ready tyres, which were marginally tighter. The result was some chuffing tight combinations. Still the same ETRTO (stupid comment anyway – they’re all gonna be 559mm for a 26″ tyre), but causes compatibility issues.

Older tyres still worked perfectly, so I simply sought those, rather than the TLR ones. Job done.

There’s no need to be quite so preachy!

And rim brakes, rigid forks and singlespeed. All work.

Could really have done with a “do you use a compressor” box since all my answers are skewed by that.

But I ended up saying I’d pay a small amount for a more portable (car boot) one, if it was better than using a trackpump, because I just don’t like doing it in a hurry with just a pump.

think i spent more than that on 819s and tubeless ready tyres and sealant…..
with those caveats, only ever need a few suds and a track pump.

I did when I started. I don’t now. My answer therefore is ‘yes’ I have experienced problems.

I answered yes but I would probably pay more like someone who answered no. The questions aren’t giving consistent results.

I expect that I’m like a lot of people. By my reckoning, most people who use tubeless now have either never had problems (‘proper’ set up with good combination of tyres/rims) or had problems when starting out but have now solved them.

So, is the OP targeting
– tubeless-virgins
– people who’ve tried but failed
– people who’ve got tubeless working well now?
– (possibly a fourth group – people who are ok with their current tubeless set up but struggle to change their tyres or refit them)

I would be trying to ask questions to categorise people into those groups first and then work out what they’d be willing to pay.

Sorry to say this BUT I (taken the basic idea off someone else) already made a tool/item to aid inflating tubeless tyres and it’s great! makes my life so much easier when I have to change 2 or 3 pairs of tyres track side because it rained over night!

Just for this thread lets call it “FTR inflater” (I don’t have a name for it as it works)
The FTR inflater is a conversion of another older version of a “item”/part (the newer vision are every where but can’t be re-inflated/presurred) that is out there,
it is very potable, small(ish) and and be reused/pressurised in a field with a normal track pump and when topped up/pressurised it can do 2 tyres easy with out topping up again.

I have also looked into selling “FTR Inflater” after converting them ready for use. (still on the back burner)
BUT I do have a few issues; (more to cover my ass when selling to the public!)

As a pressurised “item” (even if we say a max of 150psi) does the “item” need to have a pressuration check and certification? (I would leak test it at a min, pressure it & put in tub of water type check)
Note, item be non pressurised when sent.

Finding enough of the older “item” version, newer ones I feel can be converted (drill a hole, tap and thread part in) but need a bit of extra work & cost in parts, but then it will bring the first issue into account even more
The cost of “item” (I have tried to find cost of item but not much luck, also min number order but got a rough idea based on a “new” item)

The “item” state, I would feel they would need sand blasting blasting and a re-spaying, adding cost.

Posting item.

Rough cost I worked out is looking about £65-£75 maybe a bit depending on hose fitting etc. So might be a bit high for some people?
If I bring sand blasting and painting “in house” might be cheaper.
I been using mine for over 3 years so it is a long lasting item.

The biggest issue it the first one.

If anyone knows me and knows what “item” is, please keep it to yourself as I think it might be fun to see what people will guess the “item” is!

I’d say, having been a Scuba diver, trying to market a rechargeable 100psi+ compressed air tank without looking at certification, testing and training is a Health and Safety nightmare. How many fingers would it remove if it went pop in you hand while charging it?

And FWIW, if it has lots of volume it may well not need 100psi. A large, relatively low pressure (50psi) container would supply air more consistently than a small, high pressure one which undoubtedly supplies a good initial blast but is less sustained – of course testing would be needed to show whether that initial blast is necessary but anyone who’s seen a tubeless setup blow on initial inflation at even 40psi will know that it makes a loud noise…