After suffering a double flat on a nothing section of small rocks today i’m toying with the idea of going tubeless.
I currently have Mavic 321 rims on Sun-Ringle hubs, 20mm/12mm respectively.
I suppose the best option is new tubeless-ready UST rims and matching tyres but its a lot of expense and i’m happy enough with my existing wheels. I rarely flat – i have done two consecutive holidays with Ciclo Montana without suffering a flat tyre but ive just stuck a set of Panaracer Rampage’s on and was running them pretty soft as i like them like that.

Stans/Superstar etc rim strips and latex? is that the way to go?

Seems reasonably cheap but does it work properly/is it a ball-ache to do?

Yes, yes, & yes but worth it

How much of a ballache?

Do i need a compressor because that could be a deal breaker.

Try Joe’s No Flats strips – they wrap up and out of the rim so the tyre sits in side it, made every tyre I’ve tried doable with a track pump. I’ve also used Eclipse and Stans with a track pump, but both were tricky to impossible on some tyres – proper UST ones should be OK.

A CO2 pump is an alternative to get the first rush for fitting, but just do it to seat the tyre without sealant – then deflate, remove valve core and add sealant – else you often end up ruining 100ml by freezing it. Cartridges can be had fairly cheaply in bulk on EBay.

Just gone tubeless myself, but on a new 29er with Bonty wheels/tyres so the technology is all compatible.
Question I have for those with experience is about the longevity of the sealant goo. I’ve run slime tubes for many years and I found that after about a year they no longer seal up properly, even thought the slime still appears to be liquid.
How often do I need to clean out and redo the tubeless gunk ?

To inflate stans style tubeless set ups, you need to make a home made accumulator style thing out of a pop bottle, some plastic tube and a couple of old presta valves.

It helps get that sudden surge of air you need for easy inflation.

There is a thread on it somewhere here, but I’m not sure what to search for.

I did my first tubeless set up last week. Apart from the rear not inflating until I asked on the forum for tips it was fairly straightforward.

I bought a couple of standard Maxxis 2ply tyres (not tubeless specific), Stans tape, valves and fluid. The rear wouldn’t seal after I taped it but with lots of washing up liquid on the rim it was fine. The rims are tubeless though, they’re Stans Flows.

Did 24 miles yesterday through everything that Epping has to offer and they were fine.

I’m now considering doing 2 sets of Hope/717s

This is it – diy tubeless inflator

Inflator [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePbjM6wQ1I8[/video]

link to thread

I converted to tubeless last week, however used mavic 823 ust and maxxis tubeless tyres so no conversion kit was needed, only stans sealant. However if you are looking at a really cheap option of not getting flats then i would suggest running Slime filled inner tubes which work like a treat. Never had any flats with these even when riding local trails which have tons of really spiky plants.
Currently cheapest on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SLIME-INNER-TUBES-CHOOSE-YOUR-SIZE-/160844217005 🙂

Nice touch, but does seem a bit of a faff!

Now, punctures. If you flat do you need a tube anyway to get you home?
If so then i’m not getting sold on the whole deal to be honest..

Ghetto tubeless.

Muddydwarf, tubless can be a massive faff-on in the field. if you do flat, unless it seals first time, getting a tubless to seal with sealant sometimes just doesn’t work: hole to big, sealant to old, type of hole…take your pick, then you end up putting a tube in your goopy tyre, ohh and dried on sealant is worse than sheep shit for sticking to frames, but….

Thorns will seal pretty much without you noticing, you can’t really pinch flat, and you can run nice a soft and grippy.

Choose what’s important.

Well, no thorns around here as such (Pennine hills) but plenty of rocks and i’ve pinch flatted two tyres at once today by running them soft.
Hmmm, friend runs his tubeless and has no trouble – proper set up though, UST rims and tyres.

I’ve spent 10 years or so on tubeless now, and I’ve tried just about all the combinations of rims and tyre types you could think of. I would sum my experience up thus…

Decent tyres that will run tubeless reliably (so preferably UST, or Tubeless Ready) make all the difference. Some non tubeless tyres such as Maxxis Dual Ply’s work well, but for fit and forget performance, go with a proper Tubeless tyre.

Rims are less important. To be honest, having used Proper UST rims in the form of both Mavic 819’s and 823’s, various Stans rims, and various conventional rims converted with either Stans rimstrips or the ghetto 20″ innertube method, I actually prefer the ghetto method over and above everything else! Done correctly, it is every bit as reliable (if not more so) than proper UST as there is significant overlap of the rimstrip (20″ inner tube) and the tyre, and it makes for a practically burp proof setup. Also, though tough to get the tyres onto the rim via this method, done correctly they usually inflate first time, where I find Stans rims and even Mavic UST rims less reliable in this matter.

OK, it costs you a 20″ tube every time you want to change a tyre (buy em in bulk for £2 a time or less), but it’s much cheaper to start up as you can use your existing wheels, and honestly, it’s every bit as good.

Oh, and sealant wise, use Stans… Don’t bother with anything else, just buy a Quart cheap from NextDayTyres and it’ll last a good while. With 20″ tubes with Schraeder valves you have a removable valve core anyway, so you can remove that, squirt the sealant in (once the tyre is on) and inflate away sans mess.

To inflate stans style tubeless set ups, you need to make a home made accumulator style thing out of a pop bottle, some plastic tube and a couple of old presta valves.

Not true.

I’ve got Stanned DT XR400 rims front & rear and they work fine. Cheapest option will be your existing rims with rim strips and sealant. With tubeless rims strips you can get tyres to go up with a track pump and soapy water if (and mainly if) the rim is reasonably true – if there are too many dents/dings it seems to affect the sealing. The tyres will still seat, just is a bit more of a faff, and, even then, I’ve never had a quick blast of CO2 fail.

Lots of info on the Stan’s website.

Andy

I did it a while back and it’s totally worth the initial hiccoughs, but I can see why some people are put off. I don’t think I’d recommend it to a mechanically inept friend, for example.

My advice (feel free to take it or leave it) is that you’ll save yourself a lot of time / energy / anger by just accepting that a ghetto inflator is necessary. Or even a non-ghetto one if you’re really posh. Once you’ve got that in your head it all becomes easy.

Alternatively you can toil away with a track pump pumping until you’re blue in the face, inflating with a tube first then popping the tyre just one side of the rim, using all the tips to make the tyre go up etc etc.

Ghetto inflators are so easy to make that it makes no sense NOT to use one.

Still looking for a tubeless ust tyre that I can’t pinch flat. (XM819 rims) Tried maxis highrollers, pinch flatted, tried inigtors, pinch flatted, tried shwalbe, pinch flatted, the only one I have not is a Geax one that is horrible.

Any recommendations for a decent UST tyre that has sturdy sidewalls. By the way on my stans rims the best tip from the instructions was to take the valve core out on the initial inflation.

Still looking for a tubeless ust tyre that I can’t pinch flat.

How do you get a pinch flat when there is nothing to pinch?!!

We really could do with a tubeless thread being made a perm sticky to save all the threads on here every other day,

http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-components/best-pinch-flat-resistant-tires-781778.html

http://forums.mtbr.com/29er-bikes/tubeless-still-too-many-pinch-flats-762557.html

I went tubless a few weeks ago and it’s transformed my rides. I switched to Cank Brothers Cobalt 2’s and simply took my standard tube Conti Mountain Kings, poured a small bottle of Stan’s sealant in and whacked the psi up to 60. That was pretty much it. Incredibly easy and no mess whatsoever.

The Cobalts have a bad rep but so far they have been amazing. Very light as they stand, and lighter yet when tubeless. Pick up a pair for £250 at chainreaction.

GEDA, in that case the answer is wider rims.