Spent most of the afternoon trying to convert my Stans Flow to tubeless. Without success 🙁

This is based on watching the Oli Beckingsale video and the simple 7 step instructions that came with the wheels. Nice.

Washed rims. Dried rims. Applied rim tape. Fit new tyre and tube. Inflated. Left for an hour. Removed tube. Added sealant. Seated tyre. Began pumping. And pumping. And pumping. And….you get the picture.

Muchos muchos cursing, shouting and crying later. Nada. Nothing. Zip.

I cannot get the damn thing to seal or inflate. I’ve seated, re-seated the tyre. Used soapy liquid on the bead and rim. You name it.

Feel a little deflated, literally.

My track pump is pretty basic and old. Do I need some super powerful pump or air hose from a garage??

Hints, tips and advice appreciated.

air hose or CO2 cartridge.

C02 inflator always seats my tyres, cant do it with a track pump.

what tyres?

you should be able to get it going with a track pump. make sure the bead is not the other side of the air hole or summit like that. pressing on the tyre where the valve is sorted mine out. Its a bit weird but it should work. Horrid job though good when its done though. Good luck.

What tyres?Some just won’t have it bar setting off a small thermo nuclear detonation to inflate them.

Only unseated one bead to remove the inner tube.

What tyres are you using?

It took about 10 minutes to swap out my front tyre on a Stans rim at the weekend. Inflated with a track pump – add the Stans fluid before trying to inflate and swill it around inside the tyre. Seems to help them go up.

What tyre you using?

Tyre choice can make a massive difference, as can various other things. My experience of tubeless (about 8 years now) has lead me to discover some combinations work wonderfully, and others less so, whilst some just won’t work at all. Wherever possible though, I buy either UST or “tubeless ready” tyres as the tighter bead makes them 10,000 times easier to inflate initially than a normal tyre.

Are your valves done up REALLY TIGHT? They need to be.

As you’re pumping, have the valve towards the bottom of the wheel and bounce the wheel about a bit – gets the sealant sloshing about which helps create the right seal.

KingofBiscuits

Hints, tips and advice appreciated.

Next time buy Mavic 😆

Compressor… Flows are worth it…

Remove the valve core – you will get a much greater volume of air going in the tyre and it may well make all the difference. If they are old tyres with baggy beads that is also not going to help.

I’m assuming they aren’t UST/TR tyres?

Newbies should do themselves a favour and pop their tubless cherry with UST/TR tyres. Once you have that experience under your belt, then move onto trying other combinations.

Use neat washing up liquid around the beads on both sides.

they are UST tyres right?

i have flows, and a track pump, and used old inner tube valves and some leccy tape to seal them. no problems apart from trying to seat UST tyres with a tube, it just won’t go straight. so i don’t bother now.

hence the q about tyres. sounds like you need to fill the rim up a bit, to take up the gap that’s letting the air out. they need to be a pretty close fit. a layer or 3 of tape will do it. i avoid the proper rim strips as some tyres need more depth taking up than others.

Turn tyres inside out and leave them overnight.

I’ve always found it easy to inflate any tyre/wheel tubeless combo,mind you i always use my diving bottles(300 bar).(Sits back smugly,laughing at the non diving bike riding masses.)

+1 what Liftman said. Lots of neat or slightly diluted washing up liquid over the bead & the inside of the rim. Seat one bead using an inner tube & inflate with the valve core removed.

I’ve tried zip -tying the tyre down around the valve to create a better seal which has mixed results, if not a trip down the Shell garage to use their compressor.

Wow. Thanks for the responses folks. To answer many peoples questions they are brand new Maxxis HRs/Larsen TT tyres.

Lots of things to try tomorrow 🙂 Removing the core of the valve sounds promising. I don’t think my pump is getting enough volume into the tyre. Will an tyre air hose at a garage fit/work?

Mavic 819’s = trackpump joy, forget the compressor/CO2 faffing. Valve extensions are a great addition btw.

I’d bin this whole ghetto sh1te and buy the correct tool for the job, why put yourself through this angst and torment?

Peace and Love

KingofBiscuits

Hints, tips and advice appreciated.

Just use a tube? HTH
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Mavic 819’s = trackpump joy, forget the compressor/CO2 faffing. Valve extensions are a great addition btw.

I’d bin this whole ghetto sh1te and buy the correct tool for the job, why put yourself through this angst and torment?

Peace and Love

+1

819s + ust tyre = minipump joy.

My previous experience with rim strips etc always ended in a swearing match.

Currently have 819s and UST tyres = track pump works like there’s a tube in there.

Same with a set of Fulcrum Red Zones. Zero hassle – I’m never using anything that’s not a proper UST solution or inner tubes.

819s again here.

or Co2 canister. 80p and you don’t get to teach your children the sort of words that frighten navvies, to wifely disapprobation. Ahem.

Massive choice of UST rims about and UST tyres are not only lightweight but very reasonably priced 😉

you don’t get to teach your children the sort of words that frighten navvies, to wifely disapprobation

😀

If I needed a compressor or CO2 cartridges then I wouldn’t bother personally.

What jameso said about filling up the rim is bang on, basically you should be able to (just) get the tyre onto the rim with your thumbs, but it should be very very very tight. This means that the bead will be pulled tight against your rim strip and the air you’re putting in with your track pump won’t just pour out the sides.

I managed it with a variety of rims and a mixture of Bontrager, Maxxis and Continental tyres, so the theory seems sound at least.

Problem I found with UST tyres is that they lost some of that ‘floaty’ feel that non-ust tyres had, I guess because the thicker sidewall of a UST tyre is a little stiffer.

I’m assuming there may be a slight tone or sarcasm there Rorschach 😉

You can get light weight ‘UST’ tyres. Bonty tubesless ready, spesh 2bliss etc have UST beads, so pump up just as easily as full UST tyres. Of course you compromise sidewall strength and permeability for the weight (probably need to use sealant, but then I would always use that in full UST anyway, to seal punctures).

Oh, and they are pretty much the same price as normal tyres.

KingofBiscuits – Member
Removing the core of the valve sounds promising. I don’t think my pump is getting enough volume into the tyre. Will an tyre air hose at a garage fit/work?

I promise you it’s the best tip of all the above 🙂 You’ll need a presta/schraeder adapter to get a garage compressor to work, and even then I’ve found most garage compressors are pretty piss poor as they don’t actually store a volume of compressed air, they just do a bit at a time. So you don’t get a big rush of air which is what you need. Maxxis tyres are generally pretty good tubeless, you just need to get enough air in there to get that initial seal.

Wow. Thanks for the responses folks. To answer many peoples questions they are brand new Maxxis HRs/Larsen TT tyres.

Single, or Dual Ply? Dual Ply’s are a LOT easier to seal generally, though singles can seal in the end with some effort.

Whichever it is though, try putting an inner tube in them first, leave it overnight, then have a go again tomorrow. When you take the inner tubes out, leave one side of the bead in place, then pop the valves back in, pop the other bead back on and try inflating again.

A compressor can be a godsend at times though if you’re having nightmares, though I’ve only ever had one rim/tyre combo that was so stubborn I couldn’t get it up with a trackpump in the end, though I am one hell of a stubborn git! 😉

Remove the valve core

this is true.

I gave up didn’t bother doing Larsen TT’s tubeless as the bead had textured frills around the bead meaning it would likely never seal well.

If yours have a good smooth bead (i.e. not like this) then try maually pulling the tyre bead on to the rim. I do this with my conti’s on Stan’s. I can manually pull the bead on to about 1/2 of the rim. Then you have a smaller gap for air to escape from and it’ll work with a track pump and a bit of effort.

pic of TT’s and ‘unsealable’ bead

why drill the rims?

As said above Maxxis have always gone up easily for me on both 819s & ZTR355s.
A tip that worked for a mate strugling with a ghetto set up was to tighten a rachet luggage strap around the circumference of the tyre to force the the bead into the rim while inflating.

For GlenH
Maxxis Ignitor 2.35 LUST £44.99 820grams.
Maxxis Ignitor 2.35 Exception £35.99 690grams.
UST are mavic licenced are non porous and designed to run with UST rims.2bliss, bonty Tl etc are designed with being run tubeless in mind and with sealant.

Mick – I’ve got some CO2 cartridges (and inflator), you are welcome to pop over and try using.

Tom

You need to build one of these…

Great idea and very effective (I too have struggled with the track pump method, almost had me in tears once it did 😥 )

I have a small compressor that’s only good for about 50 psi and isn’t much faster than a track pump, in fact, I use a track pump to take the tyre to 80psi after the compressor’s given up. I always over inflate for the first ride, seems to help the bead seal nicely. I always use a ‘ghetto’ rimstrip as well, even with Flows. I found a superlight bmx innertube and cut it up to make my rimstrip. I think it just helps to seal the bead against the rim.

Track pump no problem with flows and spesh tubliss tyres – and the rim strip rather than the tape..

No idea why people are recommending Mavic, once yellow taped Flows work absolutely the same as 819s (I have both)

There is good advice in this thread. One that’s not been mentioned, low volume, high pressure trackpumps make things much harder than it needs to be, my big Blackburn inflates tyres almost as easily as a compressor but my old Joe Blow needs a lot more effort.

It depends on the nozzle. My Joe Blow could inflate a tyre on my 4×4 from 10 psi to 30 psi in quite a short time but I knackered the head and have put a high pressure head on – restricts the flow badly.