OK I treated my self to myself to some American Classic 29" wheels and they are rather nice however I'm trying to seal a non UST Knobby Nick up front and a puka UST Bonty XDX thingy which seems light weight and fast but prone to sidewall nicks.
Both inflate ok to 40psi, both have Stans sealant inside and both go down over the course of a few hours.
Options as I see it are,
Back to heavier wheels and tubes
More Stans gloop and a dollop of luck
New UST tyres that are less than 800g
The first two options I can sort out myself but I have no idea on which new tyres to buy as time is tight because come Sat afto I doing the WRT Sat/Sun/Mon.
Whadda think, time to panic or splash the cash ?
I had some Schwalbe tyres that took a about 3 days of trying to finally seal. Have you tried swinging you wheels around like a mad man to get the sealant in all the gaps?! Or go out for a ride to do the same!
Swung them about that much I nearly sliced my finger off in the disc rotor 🙄
American Classic 29" wheels
Ace wheels, got a pair of the XC ones here.
Maxxis beavers in the winter, cross mark out back and Ikon up front for the summer.
(wire beavers, folding crossmark, EXO ikon, all tubelessed fine with a bit of sealant. The IKON especially went up first time, no effort. None leaked any sealant at all, though they need it to hold pressure overnight)
Continental Mountain King 2 protection
Continental X King protection
Maxxis Ardent
Schwalbe Nobby nic
I've used all these with no problems
Cheers guys, I'm going for more gloop this evening whilst I research the weight and tread profile of the tyres detailed above. In the morning its make your mind up time.
Chance it, risk ruining the WRT and pissing my mates off or dash off to Wistanleys or Royles or some other localish bike monger ????
Purgatory 2.2 2bliss. 800-850g. I like them in the wet Chilterns when I want more all-round-tyre and less mud-tyre. They deserve recommendations, esp at £25 rrp. Seal easily and just work.
Now if only I could get the 2.4 versions in the UK..
Otherwise, Rubber Queens are a great tyre in 26", I expect the 29" would be as good. I don't have any tubeless 29er tyres under 800g but that's ok, there's more important things than 100g over a pair of tyres really.
Edit to add, a 2.25 Ardent lust and a Purgatory 2.2 2bliss is a great middling conditions set up, back end slides out first and predictably when it gets wet, plenty grippy and fast-rolling enough.
Oh, I might be teaching you to suck eggs, but:
Is the valve tight enough?
And: are you sure it's tight enough?
followed by, soapy water the tyre and see where it's leaking.
Tyres I listed are all <600g, and have done ok under my 85kg inc. some rocky places like Dalbeattie etc.
Specialized Ground Control 2Bliss are great, light, tough, fast, grippy and stay up 😀
IA my bath and wheels/tyres are very well aquinted since you ask 😉
Values are air tight, the Nobby Nic is responding slowly to more gloop, leaks on that one were lots of tiny champagne bubbles from numerous areas of the rim interface. The Bonty has a nick in the sidewall I'm going to fix and a single largish rim leak.
Jameso, Ardent up front I'm guessing ?
Xanboy, whats your fave front back combo ?
Hi Steve, hows tricks ?
Good thanks, u?
Those tyres have taken on the peaks, lee quarry & the berwyns no worries
Sounds good - do they come up as a normal/skinny/fat 2.1" ?
hi paul
currently using racing ralphs 2.25 snakeskin tubeless ready f+r on my 29er flow rims - no issues
got a new nobby nic on the sultan but not tried it much as the bike needs some work - tis massive!
previously used the bontrager tubeless 29er tyres on either flows or bontrager tubeless ready rims with absolutely no issues for several years now - acx, mud x, xdx, fr3 and 29-3 front, quite like bontrager tyres me
my xdx's have really thick sidewalls so surprised on the nicks - must be your riding there mate 😛 inner tubes are for noobs dude! 😉
Hey PB2,
I ran Ardent 2.25 front and rear in the lakes and peaks.
I'm going to try Mountain King 2.2 front and rear on my next Peaks or Lakes trip to see how they go.
In herts and at trail centres I run either X King 2.2 front and rear or X King 2.2 rear and Mountain king 2.2 rear.
In the winter I was running Nobby Nic 2.25 front and rear
Bloody hell Xanboy, you actually have more tyres than me, clearly the rubber fetish is not confined to Cheshire.
Hi Paul, the Bontys are second hand so not me on this occasion
rocket ron pacestar tubeless ready (my fave 29er rubber) 525g 2.25 work a treat tubeless and survive riding in the peak and north wales with no worries
The sidewalls on nobby nics seem a bit thin for tubeless maybe
Ardents are good!
Normal 2.1" across and pretty decent on the volume side too
Yup, another tyre collector here 😉clearly the rubber fetish is not confined to Cheshire.
I've just been far*ing about fitting a new Nobby Nic 29er - just a trial fit to get an idea of size, so not put sealant in yet. It's the Snakeskin version - considering the bodged valve and lack of sealant, it seems to hold air better than non-snakeskin...but time will tell eh?!
Oh, I'm another fan of Specialized Purgatory/Ground Control's - the '2bliss' design works a treat, and slightly heavier 'control' casing seems OK in t'Peak.
After having some issues with the stock specialized tyres on my Stumpy 29er I switched to bontrager Mud Xs for winter these took a week of gloop and laying flat on alternating sides for a few hours mixed with shaking like a madman to get them to seal (porous sidewalls). Am now rolling maxxis ardents... absolutely no problems sealing and very very good tyres in all conditions. ride mostly Cannock and Llandegla with no problems in wet or dry. 3 sets of tyres in 8 months, is that a fetish (I certainly hope so)
Jameso, Ardent up front I'm guessing ?
Ardent 2.25 ust at the back - it lets go under cornering more easily than the purgatory and is a tougher casing - I like low pressures and the casing seems to ward off rim impact damage. It's the same size overall as the 2.2 purgatory. I've stopped using Ardents on the front when it's wet / muddy, they don't corner very well. A 2.4 Ardent exo front in the dry through to loamy kind of damp is great though. Purgatorys f+r when it's wet, front only if it's mixed / middling / not sure. Pretty happy with various combos of Purg 2.2 and Ardent in the 2 sizes.
Try a Hans dampf up front if you want some real grip. Easy to set up tubeless too.
Gloop fixed the Bonty 🙂 the NN is an Evo Snakeskin non ust jobbie and its previously been run with tubes and suffered a couple of thorn punctures, these have been plugged by the gloop but the rim interface whilst a lot better is still not 100% tight. My fear is that with the extra WRT load its going to keep burping and that would effectively ruin the ride (I'm going to take a tube just in case)
Test ride with lots of kerbs to follow but its still a case of "ifs and buts"
I'm building a 29er over the next month or so, thinking about some American Classic wheels too and wanted to try tubeless....but should I bother? Vast majority of my riding is going to be XC/marathon race in the South East, maybe a trip to the Lakes once a year. Seems like you guys go through purgatory getting tubeless to work and maybe I wont see any real upside over tubes....?
The wheels are light, tough and spin for ever and my tubeless problems orignate from using second hand tyres, I have no doubt if I had bought new tyres I would not have had these problems.
Seems like you guys go through purgatory getting tubeless to work and maybe I wont see any real upside over tubes....?
I put the tyre on the rim, I inflate it. I leave it a bit to seat, I let the air out, put some sealant in the valve, re-inflate. Slosh it about a bit, job done.
Tyres are ~550g each, + say at most 100g sealant, I can run them at 25psi and they roll nice (better than with tubes), are more puncture resistant than most tubed setups, and lighter too.
You only go through purgatory if you go for a shady setup. Use something that works and it's fine. Most people struggle by trying to skimp somewhere.
What's the issue with tyres designed for the US of A?
Don't they have dirt and dust over there too?
Set-up going to be AC Race 29er Tubeless wheels (if I can get them) with Ron/Ralphs and Mud-X for winter.
Is "Tubeless ready" good enough? If I do it its because I want to get a lot less puntures. No point otherwise.
Purgatory 2.2 2bliss
+1, just works, in a kind of radiohead no alarms and no surprises, middle of the road, kinda way. I fitted them for winter and appart from a few inbetween weeks where the mud turned to a plasticine consistency and stuck to everything whilst offering no grip and everyone struggled they've been great.
What's the issue with tyres designed for the US of A?
There's a rumour they have no rain and dusty trails 365 days a year which is probably true in Utah and Texas, less so everywhere else.
Currently running Purgatory 2.2 front, Ground control on rear. Just returned from CodYBrenin, and very impressed. Found the Ground control can slip out when really pushed, but controllable. Great on the rock gardens.
Run Maxxis Ardent 2.4s on the singlespeed. Great tire. Lethal on wet roots though.
Cant beat bonty mudX for surrey winter slush.
Rim wise, I found the Shimano 29er rim to be great, and well priced. Easily taking the 2.4 Ardents tubeless, on and off without tools. But frustratingly, no 135m QR (yet).
2nd bike has Crest ZTR 29ers, so far so good, but damned hard to load tyres. Would not like to have to do a trailside job. Took me best part of an hour and 2 broken levers before I managed to get them on.
Cant say I have had a genuine puncture in two years. I have had tires 'burp' after a hard landing, but nothing a quick blast of gas couldn't fix. Wont go back to tubes.
Is "Tubeless ready" good enough?
Yup, the AC wheels have a bead hook designed to work with these, or normal tyres. The bead proper "clicks" into them, pulling the beavers off after a while required some force to unclick them from the bead. It forms like a ball and socket joint, very secure.
I've just used normal tyres with mine, no bother.
Normal tyres here. Kenda Slant Six, Nobby Nick, WTB Prowler, Maxxis Crossmark, Ardent and Ignitor all work fine. Standard tyres are cheaper and lighter than tubeless ready with no more puncture issues.
just going from tubes and Geax Saguaro to tubeless
just bought some Specialized Groundcontrols to test out seem ok looking
will report back -
Thanks....and does it result in less punctures? I seem to be able to run mine tubed at 25-27 and dont pinch-flat, just the regular thorns.