If I were (hypothetically of course) to buy a pair of wheels with Flow rims, what would I require to make them tubeless? Do I need special tyres or can I use the ones I have (a Hans Dampf and a Smorgasbord)? Do I need magic goo juices and tapes?

I’ll likely be running with tubes to start with, just curious…

You’ll need a roll of stans yellow tape which you might as well use anyway, and a helping of some sort of goo to seal the tyres. Stans rims are intended for normal tyres, but he’s got some info on his website about good and bad options. If they’re old you might find that they’re a bit baggy or holey both of which can cause problems.

IME stans rims are easier tubeless anyway, just whack a tube in to seat the bead then take a deep breath and go for it.

It needs to be taped, for definite, and it needs magic goo juice for almost definite.
I don’t have experience of using normal tyres for tubeless (I use UST or tubeless ready tyres), but it can be done. This is how the Stans idea started out in fact. I believe it is hit and miss with respect to the tyre – some will seat and run fine, others just won’t work.

You might find you need a compressor to inflate normal tyres on a stans rim. A UST or a TLR goes up with a track pump.

Ok, cool. So – would this kit contain everything I need? Or do I need one of the more expensive ones?

This is why im going for mavic 911 rims with ust tyres i always thought stans rims were tubeless ready etc etc and there not you still need to tape and use goo and muck about imo you may aswell buy proper ust tubeless rims in the first place?

Except the Stans are dead cheap at Superstar at the moment… Unless there’s somewhere I can get Mavics for £200?

The rims are about 60 quid but obviously you need hubs spokes etc, im building some up from my current rims using the hope pro evo 2 hubs from them

That kit has everything you need, make sure you clean the rim thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol or similar then carefully wrap the tape round the rim – leave a 10 cm overlap around the valve hole – make a small hole using a biro where the valve is and poke the valve through and tighten up – don’t overtighten it at this point as you you can always nip it up afterwards rather than squash hell out of the valve sealing ring.

Scrub the inside of your tyres with a scouring pad to remove any moulding release agent and fit to the rim, try and inflate them with a track pump/co2 canister or borrow a compressor at a friendly garage to seat the bead before you fill with sealant – you may need a Presta to schrader brass adapter thingy to fit the garage airline onto.

Bead the tyres then deflate and pop a tyre lever under the bead and prise the tyre away from the rim and poke the solution bottle into the tyre and fill with solution, 75 ml for 2.2″ and 100ml for up to 2.4″, pump up and go for a ride to distribute the sealant round the tyre with centrifugal force, they may leak for a while till the sealant does it’s work but persevere.

I used that exact kit to set up my Flows and Hans Dampfs. First time going tubeless and it was a doddle.

Cheers Somafunk! I have fat tyres so I reckon I’d need more sealant – so it would make more sense to buy the bits individually, I reckon.

**edit** though I’ll be going Flow and Hans Dampf / Smorgasbord, so maybe it’ll be enough!

If your running fat tyres then it’d make sense to buy the pint / 473ml bottle of sealant, i run Hans Dampf 2.35″ with 100ml of sealant, You’ll be changing tyres at some point and it’s a nuisance when you realise you’ve ran out of sealant to fit new tyres

Cool, makes sense. Any reason not to go for the Superstar valves and rim tape or is there some kind of magic about Stan’s stuff? And will the JRA wheel milk be happy with Stan’s Rims?

I’ve never used the superstar stuff as we primarily use stans in the bike shop when converting folks wheels, I’m sure it’s all pretty much of a similar quality though. JRA wheel milk is as good as stans and will work fine with any tubeless system.

Like a lot of bike stuff the only “magic” is in the clever marketing 😉

I did wonder about that! Cheers for that Somafunk, all this tubeless malarkey is new to me so a nudge in the right direction is a big help and much appreciated 🙂

To further confuse the tubeless issue i’ve successfully used Gorillia tape cut down to rim width when i’ve ran out of so called special rim tape, one set of my old mtb wheels are still running tubeless 18 months later, no pressure loss at all.

I’ve got proper Notubes yellow tape sealing my Stans rims, but on other rims I just have some of this Scotch filament tape which also works fine – a bit better than normal crossweave cloth tape IMHO, and is what Stan recommended to use in his first ghetto tubeless instructions before he started selling stuff.

crc are doing a kit for £20 at the moment. labeled up as hope tubeless kit i belive

Aye I looked at the Hope kit on CRC, but it doesn’t come with enough sealant for what’s recommended for chunky tyres.

Hmm. This is proving more tricky than initially hoped. My Smorgasbord is as slack as a wizard’s sleeve, no chance of getting it seated with a track pump… Yet to try the Hans Dampf (which is tubeless ready, so may be easier).

When I had my attempt I got the loose tyre seated with a tube, then removed the tube by only unseating one side, then got tyre to seat on the remaining side, removed valve core added gunk.

However said tyre exploded [yes as in BOOM] off the rim when taking a 1ft drop at Stainburn. I am now scared of tubeless but going to try the front soon (diff tyre). Wouldn’t try a loose tyre again tbh…

Hmm. This is not filling me with confidence. Tube might be the next idea though…

I wouldn’t bother with the smorgas, but hans may be goer.

My next cross mark will be a lust, hopefully that might be better, I know the guys at ProRideGuides get on with them for tubeless.

I’m using proper bonty rim strips and valves on my bonty rims which do the trick on my tubeless setup and no yellow tape was required. I use the stans milk tho as I’m led to believe it’s the best. I’ve not put any air in for over 2 months now. Still perfect. One of my favorite upgrades so far! Instead of tape maybe This might be a more suitable option?

Hmm. I think I might just stick tubes in there and have another go at tubeless when I can be arsed…

I appreciate your worries.

Well I just took the plunge (one hour ago!) after me and mrs running Crests / Bontrager tubeless ready rims (tubed) for the last couple of years.

Stans yellow tape, valve stems and goo.

My 29er Crest with new Purgatory tyre (quite tight) blew up easily with track pump and no goo. Just popped off one bead and put goo in then good to go.

Mrs’ 26er Purgatory and Bonty rim (quite slack) wouldn’t blow up dry with the track pump. Almost chickened out but decided to go for it with goo rolled around the tyre and some frantic pumping. And it worked first time!

We’ve had real problems getting tyres to seat tubed on these rims (multiple attempts with soapy water etc to try and get the bead to pop up to full diameter). Tubeless the beads popped into place much easier.

I’d say give it a go! (just watch the Stan’s videos)