When doing the ghetto mod, how much tape or how much if at all of a bmx tube are you guys using, just wondering how far off the weight of an actual light tube you are?
dont say rolling resistance because with high psi it wont make jack all difference and running low psi on a ghetto mod wheel is silly as it doesnt have the flanges to stop the tyre rolling off as easy like a ust rim has?
Im planning on doing a Super Ghetto conversion. I will get a tube with a threaded valve lock and cut a 1" square around it and then use electrical tape around the rim to seal it. Shouldn't weigh more than 50g but its not about saving weight for me I like the way you can run at really low pressures and not worry about pinch punctures.
It doesn't work. Don't do it. Forget about it. You obviously know best already so why bother. The faff will put you off at the first hurdle anyways. Enjoy your tubed riding.
Well I ran ust for a season in the alps 2 years ago and it was sweet, just wondering how people get on with normal rim's but im guessing you guys must be running high psi's on xc bikes?
Just to add to what I said above. I ran Ghetto with BMX tubes and low pressure for a good few months even riding DH and they were fine no burping no punctures and I even destroyed a rim and the tyre stayed inflated. I want to try the electrical tape thing just to see if it works because if it does that will be better than normal ghetto.
Oh and low PSI to me is 25-30. I normally run my tubed tyres at 35 or so and still worry about pinch punctures.
I’ve run Ghetto (BMX tubed) Specialized Eskars for both DH and XC use on 729 and 721 rims as well as on a pinned Rhyno-lite, I even did a 24” Tioga Dh rim with a Moto Digger tyre and it worked really well, no pinches, Burps or rolled off tyres on any of these setups… I think it comes down to tyre selection and taking your time to get the bead seal right, for “XC” use I run at anything between about 30 and 40psi depending on how comfy a ride I want Vs rolling resistance, for DH I’ve gone as low as 23psi before but tend to stay above 25…
The thing with a tubeless setup of just about any sort is you have a larger volume than the same tubed setup so you do get marginally more “give” in the tyre carcass not masses but it does make a difference to grip an ride (IMO)…
You can Ghetto mod just about any rim/tyre combo I reckon, obviously a welded rim is a far better choice for sealing and a sturdier tyre wall will help too, I’ll be trying a tape only sealed setup on the rear wheel of my Road bike soon, should be Fun… Maybe…
If you get a puncture the sealant will seal it. If you change tyres you can still use the ghetto rim strip. I've successfully used it on High Roller 2.35 Kevlar, Racing Ralph 2.1 Triple Nano jobbies, Maxxis Crossmark 2.25 Kevlar, Maxxis ADvantage 2.25 Kevlar, Continental Edge 1.9 Wire, on Mavic Crossride and 717 Rims.
I even used the same rimstrip/BMX tyre on the replacement rim to the one I destroyed. I just removed it and put it on the new rim popped the tyre on it seated it with CO2 and put some more sealant in.
Kind of topical for me as I have been suffering from recurring punctures on my front wheel: Dr Sludge tube inside a Rocket Ron, topped up with extra sealant before the latest ride. On feeling inside the tyre I could feel a sharp thorn, which was obviously waggling around and keeping the hole in the tube open – the tyre was full of sealant that had run out of the tube. No sign of the thorn on the outside of the tyre, so tried to pull it out from the inside, seemed to work for a couple of weeks then this weekend the same story.
So, I am at the far end of the supply chain and looking at the possibilities: Stan's/Joe's/ghetto. Ghetto has some appeal because I can probably buy sealant locally – anybody know if car tyre sealant will work in a bike tyre? Otherwise it's CRC and UPS which will take 10 days.
BenjiM, you say you have ghettoed a Racing Ralph Triple Nano but others have had problems (notubes.com message board, linky doesn't work)
I added two layers of velox and managed to inflate the tires and added the sealant. Generally they keep their pressure very well. It appears that while riding (100km) While riding I'm not losing any pressure at all, but when the bike stands still for a few hours the tires lose some pressure because of new appearing tiny holes in the sidewall just beneath the tread. How can I expect it will take for the tires to be perfectly sealed ?
It seems to me that the bead rubber on Ralphs and Rons is slightly ribbed, does this not cause a seating/sealing problem when going ghetto?
I'm not a hardcore rider: not too much in the way of extreme terrain, just rolling trails, thick sand and tribulus terrestris.
(Offtopic: whilst Googling for answers to my questions I found this, which makes STW forums look like a repository for the Queen's English.)
Yep I’ve re-used the same trimmed BMX tube a couple of times over before, even transferred one between different profile rims (wider to narrower, needed some additional trimming, not very difficult) it’s all rather simple actually, and best of all so cheap that as an experiment even if it fails abysmally you’ve not really spent much on it at all…
You can find a few “recipes” for homebrew sealant (primarily latex and water) and a fair few guides on the best ways to inflate, seat the bead and distribute the sealant around the tyre all online with a bit of basic googling, I’ve used Slimes sealant for Cars before, and it seemed to work, but to be honest homebrew seems to work as well as that and cost even less …
Just give it a go, there’s plenty of people who’ve had successes and failures and will offer specific advice if you need it, you’ll soon figure out if it’s for you or not…
– conti gravity UST
– stans no tubes strips
– mavic EN321 rim
– JRA wheel milk (not needed for the first 100 miles or so untill the 1st puncture)
– blackburn mini pump
The same combo but with maxxis HR's is having none of it though.
alexx…If you've previously run UST successfully then why on earth bother with ghetto?
I ask as i previously had a ghetto set-up but couldn't run low pressures without the tyre burping and/or squirming all over the place. Now have UST on both bikes and it's far superior, certainly heavier (not an issue for me) but worth it IMO.
Why? Are you having trouble getting a tyre on a rim?
I've had a couple of burps with the Ralphs, but not a massive lack of pressure and they are still ridable. I've not had air loss over time though. That's using the Stans Notubes solution. I think the ghetto will seal better with Ralphs than a rim strip will as the fitting is more snug.
Posted 13 years ago
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