Decided to go tubeless on the fat bike tonight. I'd squirted some sealant in the tubes in the mean time, but as the tubes are so enormous the weight was considerable. Before I started the weight was 29.7lbs on the scales.
I used 3 layers of gorilla tape on each wheel, then refitted the tube, inflated to 25psi to seat the beads, then very very carefully let all the air out, removed the tube keeping one bead seated (this took a couple of tries), the fitted the valve and 150ml of tubeless sponge (Nuts! I usually use 50ml). The technique which seemed to work best was to lay the wheel down with the loose bead facing down to force the tyre into the well of the rim under its own weight.
Hanging the wheel like you do with a normal bike just didn't work as the tyres are so heavy they pull down and open up a big gap between the rim and the tyre.
I then used a gas canister to get it seated and finished off with a track pump. Seems to be holding air fine, was a little weird when I rode it round the road as the bead seemed to be leaking air under load - never had this before with tubeless so will leave it to seal overnight and see what happens.
The weight was 27.9lbs on the same scales when I'd finished - happy days! It is really noticeable on the fat bike as that's 1.8lbs off the wheel weight.
GB
Are you worried that it might just fail badly once out of the Woking area?
Fully understand tubeless on a fatty, but I too would be worried about it failing whilst out playing..
Your technique seems a bit familiar to me.
How did you discover this technique?
Was it trial and error?
😉
Seriously it'll be fine.
I've bashed mine through loads of rocky shit for ower 12 months with no problems at all.
Haha yeah Stu I wonder where I got the technique from...
How does yours work? Ever had a problem with it rolling off and emptying all the air out? Which rim/tyre are you using?
Once the tyre's been on the rim for a short while it takes a fair amount of effort to unseat the bead even with the valve core removed.
Rolling D's with all of the Surly tyres and a Hu Du have been trouble free.
This is the kind of trails i ride mine on.
Taken at this years Dyfi Enduro.
[url= http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3830/9207977727_41df1e43df_z.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/9207977727/ ]image[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/stu-b/ ]multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr
Careful using CO2 canisters with Latex - they don't play nicely together IME.