OK, having a ponder at work today about lightening my MTB wheels for a bit of XC race action 🙂

Got some hope XC hubs, which I’m thinking of putting ZTR Alpine rims on… I have some Schwalbe Racing Ralph non-ust tyres… does anyone have experience of whether these work OK without tubes or Schwalbe non-ust tyres in general with tubeless set-ups?

ta

Got the 355 stans rims, racing ralph or nobby nics tyres on tubeless set up. Amazing. No problems. Done a few races like this inc solo in wiggle enduro 6, no issues what so ever.

I’ve never a problem running Schwalbe non UST tyres on my Stans. I have run ‘racing ralphs’ and ‘rocket rons’ this year. Rims = Podiums

cheers folks, sounds promising!! Nice little wheel building project for me 🙂

I’ve run non-UST Alberts as tubeless before and they were okay but worked best as ghetto rather than straight onto the (sealed/taped) rim. The BMX tube helped it seal and kept it snug. Without it they were a tad loose. Just an idea.

I’m running ZTR Olympic rims (the predecessor to the Alpine) and have run Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.1, Nobby Nic 2.25 and Dirty Dan XC 2.0 with no bother. All of them were non-ust standard tyres.

These tyres seem to attract thorns though – when I swapped a Ralph last week I found more that 10 thorns stuck in it – they had all sealed with Stans Fluid with no bother so I had been unaware they were there.

neninja – sounds good!!

Hope XC hubs are heavy, and Alpine rims aren’t cheap, you’d be better off flogging what you’ve got and buying Hope Hoops on Crests, the rims are marginally heavier, but the hubs are far lighter, and it’ll work out cheaper.

I’ve run the most of the Schwalbe range, Nics, Ralphs, Rons, Freds and 1.5″ Black Sharks on Olympics and Rovals, they’re the best brand to convert IMO, go up and stay up really nicely.

it’ll work out cheape

hmmm, will be about £150 for the spokes, rims and bits for the way I’m thinking, rather than £260 on Pro2/Stans Crest.

EDIT – see you’re point on selling what I’ve got. I’m kind of attached to those hubs! They’re 9 years old… interesting thought though.

Neninja – how do you find the Dans? Thinking of a set for the winter.

Sorry to be the one negative voice but perhaps I’ve missed something. I bought a set off here secondhand, Racing Ralphs on ztr Olympics and both gave out on a sandy section half way through a 103km race. Hacking out the valves wasn’t much fun!

But they were incredibly light and if I could believe I could get them working reliably again I certainly would. Is there a trick, how regularly should you replace the latex?

Sorry for the slight hijack!

Neninja – how do you find the Dans? Thinking of a set for the winter.

I got on with them really well – grip well and don’t seem to clog up. Also work well on wet roots, loose surfaces, rocks etc and are surprisingly fast rolling for a mud tyre so don’t hold you up on fire road climbs or stretches of tarmac.

The main downside is that they wear quickly on tarmac/fire roads and the soft rubber of the tread gets cut by sharp rocks.

I’ve just put one back on the rear as it’s got so muddy round here again.

I ran non-UST nobby nics tubeless on my Stans 355. Getting them on the rims was a pain as they are so ‘baggy’, I ended up inflating with a tube in to get them to pop on and then removed one side of the tyre to get the tube out and put the valve in. Easy to mount then with one half of the tyre popped on the rim already.

With the non-UST’s the sidewalls are mega thin though and I cut through mine the other week resulting in complete loss of solution.

I’ve got some UST ones now and they are feel much tougher on the sidewalls and went on the rim without any faffing about.

Standard Racing Ralphs and Nobby Nics on ZTR Olympics with no problems at all. Tried the UST Racing Ralph and didnt like it so now stick with the non UST.

tried putting some non-ust schwalbe tyres on mavic 819ust rims and after an hour with a compressor and no success gave up.

maybe it was the tyre/rim combo.

i’ve had them on 819 and crests no problem, i did once completely fail at it but the next day popped on 1st time, weird..

Ron Evo’s on Alpine rims are just peachy – no problems at all … though I did use a compressor to put them on, but mostly because I have one and it was my first go at tubeless and I wanted a hassle free fit.

just got some nobby nics 2011(non-ust) from nextdaytyres.com and they are tubeless ready!, slightly thicker sidewalls. running ’em tubeless on american classics. used standard nobby nics before; ran tubeless no problem but thin sidewalls tear too easy