How To Go Tubeless

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Are you tubeless curious but put off by (true) stories of milky fluid being thrown into your face from improper technique? Well, rejoice! Here’s XC racer Oli Beckingsale to show you how to fit a tubeless tyre properly without getting latex in your eyes. He makes it look so easy…

Oli, like most mountain bikers, is a tyre geek, here he is discussing his rubber arsenal.

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Do you have a special technique or any hints and tips for fitting tubeless tyres or have any horror stories? Do tell.


Comments (7)

    I run Crossmark tubless/ztr flow rims. I fit/seat the tyre onto the rim first with a inner tube. Sometimes you need a high psi to seat the bead onto the rim. Once this is done release the air pressure, release one side of the tyre from the rim, remove the inner tube, replace with valve, pour in latex, reinstall tyre and pump away. Halving your chances of air escaping. remember to check you have plenty of latex sloshing around inside the tyre. You made need to top it up after a while. You can do this if you are using a valve with a removable head buy injecting latex into the tyre via the valve.(release all the air first 🙂 Thus not needing to unseat the tyre.

    He does make that look a lot easier than the last few I’ve used. (Schwalbe, Michelin). I’ve relied on the garage forecourt airline to make it pop up.

    I’ll try that next time.

    I’ve been using tubeless since way back in 2001. In fact that set of (Mavic X3.1) rims are still going strong!

    My tips are:

    Buy proper tubeless rims (I use Mavic 819 and 823 depending on use) – NOT a “tubeless ready” rim.

    Buy proper tubeless tyres (NOT “tubeless ready”). I prefer Maxxis but any with UST written on them….

    Fit tyres by hand (no washing, no **** about like in the video)

    Add some sealant if you want (I use it purely for thorns – you don’t need it for proper UST tyres to just seal)

    Pump up with a track pump.

    That’s it!

    Standards are slipping. Valve logo FAIL

    I glad that his shed is a right mess as well as mine.

    Soapy water around the beading makes them easier to seat ask anyone who fits lots of tyres although the pros use tyre soap. Have fitted tyres on Bike car tractors works a treat on them all.

    Good tip is you cant get the bead to seat use a Co2 pump the sudden blast of gas quickly seats a bead that wont seat or at least gets it to a point you can use the track pump to get it to pop on.

    Put my sealant in using removable cores in the valve much easier and easy to top up

    that tyre already had air in it when he fitted the track pump, you could hear it escape when he fitted the pump, me thinks there may have been some cheating going on!!!!

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