Ok I’ve just bought wheels with Mavic XC717s and they have some nice brand new rim tape on them already.

I already have the stans fluid and a couple of tubeless valves.

I am right in saying that to go tubeless all I need is two of the no tube rim strips?

or go ghetto? which would be (even) more of a faff.

you won’t need the tubeless valves as the rim-strips have them inbuilt iirc.

Or can I get away with just this stuff and my existing valve cores?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/stans-no-tubes-stans-rim-tape-1

In theory, you’ll need both the yellow tape & the rim strips, which work well.

Apparently, it can be made to work with just the yellow tape (or the blue Roval equivalent) and a UST valve but I’ve not been brave enough to try it.

Andy

My XC717’s worked perfectly well by the ghetto method. Went up straight away. Bit of hand pressure on tyre around the valve is the secret.

I’ve had more luck with eclipse strips than stans strips on 717s. http://www.eclipse.ch/new/Tubelesskits.html

What tyres did you use with the Eclipse strips?

Andy

Send them back, and buy Stans Crest rimmed wheels?

I’ve used Conti explorer supersonics, Ralphs and Nics successfully. I’ve had other conti tyres blow straight off the rims so it is a bit random. Schwalbe seem to be consistently good though.

My first and most succesful ghetto tubeless set ups were on 717s.

Secret seemed to be wrapping the rim in several (as in 6 or 7) layers of duct tape before using your split inner tube. This filled up all the space between the rim bed and the bead of the tyre so it was a damn tight fit, but inflated easily and never seemed to burp.

If I’d been clever I suppose I could have used one of those velox cloth rim tapes for £3 a wheel to fill up the rim bed, before using a layer of duct tape and then the sliced BMX inner tube.

I maintain that all the stress of going ghetto can be avoided if you fill up the rim with lots of extra rim tape until you can only just fit the tyre with your bare hands, the tighter the fit the easier the conversion in my experience.