with brute force, ignorance and a track pump?
I have been tubeless for about 5yrs now but every time I put a new tyre on I get locked into a life and death struggle which results in skinned knuckles and much swearing. I always shape the tyre with an inner tube, I use loads of water/washing up liquid but it still takes me a day of effort. Is there a short cut that doesn’t involve buying a compressor?

co2?

I’ve only ever successfully fitted a tubeless tyre with a track pump once. If you hate the thought of spending a lot of £££s on a compressor, then why not buy one that plugs into the socket in your car? They’re usually adequate to do the job.

decent tyres

Compressed air line at the nearest petrol station? CO2 works but not recommended as it can react with some sealants (apparently).

Andy

is there enough puff in the plug-in-the car pumps? If that works it would definitely be the answer. I have tried co2 but always seem to use a few which soon adds up and I always use tyres recommended for tubeless

is there enough puff in the plug-in-the car pumps?

no, you need that ‘rush’ that a CO2 cartridge or compressed air line gives you, ime.

move house closer to the petrol station

is there enough puff in the plug-in-the car pumps?

Can’t see it, TBH. I’ve once (and once only) managed to seat a tubeless tyre with a track pump and that was on a new (and therefore un-dinged) rim. IIRC Lezyne or someone sell a bigger-volume track pump designed to seat tubeless tyres but I remain unconvinced it works.

Another alternative is to bodge a tyre seater (thread on here somewhere) from a plastic 2l bottle and some aluminium tape.

Andy

The home brew tubeless compressor made from a 2l soda bottle, plastic tubing and valves works amazingly well ime. There’s a thread somewhere but can’t find it at the mo. I’m sure somebody will oblige.

BUTTER.

Smear it all over the bead on both side. You’ll then be able to inflate with a track pump. I do this and it works great – even for light weight 550g 29er tyres.

You know that way they reinflate those huge tyres on Icelandic offroaders for driving up glaciers, using a flammable gas and igniting it so the combustion pops the tyre up – has anyone tried that on a bike?

I’ve found Bontrager TLR tyres on Stans Flow rims go up with a track pump with ease – sadly not the same with all combinations…

Certainly can’t get my new beaver to go up…

Mine seat perfectly every time with a track pump. Maxxis LUST tyres on Crossmax SXs. Getting the tyres onto the rims in the first place does involve swearing / blood / tears etc though.

This:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/home-made-compressor-for-tubeless
works perfectly! Make sure you remove valve cores beforehand though.

Badger, badger, badger, badger…..

I’ve got a Lidl compressor and a load of CO2 cartridges. The latter work better (faster whooosh), but the compressor does the job as well. I struggled for months with just a track pump. Never again.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-total-cost-9p

I started the above thread with the ghetto inflator. However I’ve now just use a CO2 canister but either works.

Having just coverted to tubeless I had an interesting experience I didnt use C02 or the garage compressor just my trusty track pump, I didnt even use that much soapy water.

The problems definately where with the tyres I was using I’m running a standard dual ply minion dhf up front which went on and pumped up likeit had a tube in it.

I then tried three different tyres on the rear a dualply swampthing (brand new) – no hope nothing was getting it to seal an old spesh Eskar, again no hope.

Went and got a 2bliss ready Eskar went on with no issues again pumped up like it had a tube in.

Go figure, saying that it was probably just dum luck on my part! What tyres are you using?

Bit of lateral thinking here… What’s your track pump? I’ve never had problems with my Joe-Blow.

Another tip (from a previous thread) is to put an inner tube around the outside of the tyre so it pushes it against the rim more.

I also find swishing some sealant around inside stubborn tyres often helps to give that extra bit of seal while it’s going up..

ummm perhaps i’m daft here, cos i use conti UST’s on Mavic UST rims / valves, and i find it works sweet with a track pump – if i have any problems i usually go all around the seated tyre pinching it ‘outwards’ and then try once more, then its done.

getting the tyre on usually destroys my IT soft hands

Hmmmm, have only had problems once and that was with a crappy Michelen – after putting a tube in it overnight to remove any folds it was fine.

Otherwise Maxxis, Schwalbe all inflate 1st time. I recently swapped over an old 2.25 crossmark that was really dirty and inflated it with a crappy hand pump with no problems.

On new tyres a but of soapy water helps.

Always UST tyres though.

Non-USTs are a bugger as they’re porous and may take a day for all the holes to get bunged up with sealant – compressor needed to get the bead to snap into the rim – then track pump loads of times until bored.

Not tried 2Bliss but tempted.

Inflated mud X’s and swalbe nobby nics and racing ralphs with a track pump. Mud X’x went straight up (and just refitted them and they went up OK the second fitting). Struggled to get the swalbe’s to seal but got round it by fitting an inner tube then letting the air out and only breaking one bead to get the tube out and and fit the tubeless valve. That means one bead is already sealed when you start. Worked a treat for me.