After every Tom, Dick, Harry, Geoff, Jim et al telling me for years that it’s the best thing since sliced bread, I am in the process of converting to Stan’s. I’ve looked in to it on the No Tubes website and my choice of Conti Speed King 2.2 tyres and Mavic XM719 rims fits with some extra rim tape which has been duly ordered.

So please share with me your experiences of taking the plunge; do’s, dont’s, tricks of the trade for initial fitting and upkeep for someone who hasn’t used the system before

Cheers

Compressor or mandraulic?

watch the videos on the stans website

if you are using new tyres inflate them with a tube and leave overnight – this will help with inflation.

use plenty of soap to help rim seat, take valve out to help with initial inflation. Easier if you get someone to pump while you hold wheel/tyre. As a last resort – gas cartridge inflator!

I usually put sealant in after using the stans syringe, take your time with sealing the sidewalls, can take up to 20 mins to get a non ust tyre to be airtight.

It can go one of two ways, quickly or you end up in a sweaty mess covered in gunk 😯

A compressor is a must imo and a lot of patience getting the rim strip seated correctly

here is what not to do… spend ages trying to get an advantage to pop into position…use 1 CO2 get it to pop..then put gunk in fail to pump so use another C02.. get it all sealed.. then realise you have the tyre on the wrong way round then use two more CO2’s repeating the process…..

Lol @ Simon! Co2 tends to make the sealant go off in my experience, good track pump or compressor is preferable.

There otherways to create a lot of hassel in your life – choose something that dosent bugger up your riding fun.

Tubeless ready rims and tyres is probably the way forward for mountain bikes eventually when it gets consistent, cheap, and widespread. Effing about rim strips and regular tyres probably isn’t.

Fitting rim strips can be an exersize in futility, you’re trying to make air tight a rim that wasn’t designed to be, with a tyre that wasn’t designed to be either. You may get lucky, and it’ll go straight up, you may get one go up, and the other after doing the same preparation will just refuse, and you’ll be down the garage, whatever, every time you want to change tyres, you have to run the gauntlet of not knowing quite how it’s going to go…

Whilst there are benefits to low pressures in mountain bike tyres, IMO they’re more obvious to the DH brigade, you loose a bunch of weight, you get supple and grippy tyres, and a massive reduction in pinch flats. For the XC set it’s less clear, single ply tyres at really low pressure are a nightmare of wibbly-wobbly uncertainness going round corners, and I’ve never really honestly said to myself “You know, I need more supple tyres that offer more grip, and yet rolls faster over off-road terrain”. Now, I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice, but it’s not killing my riding enjoyment, you know?

I’m yet to be convinced that it offers enough thorn/flint puncture protection in proportion to the faff quotient that comes built in, now some-one will uncountably come along and say they’ve been puncture free for 10 years, there were a million thorns in the tyre and women find them irresistible etc etc, after going tubeless, but I’ve yet to personally see a tubeless wheel that hasn’t failed, and at that point, usually trailside, usually in the rain, you’re forced, like the rest of the world, to fit an inner tube, so you still got to take all that stuff with you, only now you’re covered in latex, so not only do you look like you got over excited about changing a tyre, it’s a right f*&%er to wash out of your shorts.

Decide how much inner tubes really honestly piss you off, then decide if you want to swap that faff with another, costlier, messier, and ultimately not really all that much better system.

Or maybe I just fitted it wrong and chose the wrong tyres, who knows, eh? 😉

this website has lots of good advice

use almost neat washing up liquid, lots of it. helps as a lube to get the tyre onto the rim over the rim-strip, and to get that initial seal. when inflating, the bit round the valve is far more important than than the rest – once air’s going into the tyre volume rather than escaping immediately you’re well on the way.

it does make a difference to your riding, although i’m now *far* more reluctant to change tyres, ever again!

total lack of hassle post fitting (five months so far) has been most welcome compared to the number of punctures i was getting before. i stuck some more sealant in after about 12 weeks.

I put a non-tubeless tyre on a 819 tubeless rim, it was dead easy – had to use a 20″ bmx inner tube but it sealed fine with a bit of soapy water and a track pump. Been on two very rocky rides so far and it’s not leaked at all. Did wobble about when I had the pressure at 20ish psi, but put it up to 25 and it was fine.

Going to try a tubeless tyre on my non-tubeless 719 next. 🙂

nickc
“Decide how much inner tubes really honestly piss you off, then decide if you want to swap that faff with another, costlier, messier, and ultimately not really all that much better system.”

well said ! Actually though, for the first time in months I went out for ride in the Peak with a tube in the rear and second descent was trashed by a flat halfway down.. annoyed..yes ! So I’ve gone back to tubeless.

I think if you are at all competent with fettling etc. you won’t have a problem with it – it seems to be those that don’t do much that get issues

I’m nearly nickc’s candidate for not having a puncture in the last 100 years
in 4 years I’ve had 1 deflation when I screwed up a drop off & the tyre burped – I quickly fitted a tube without getting covered in latex & was on my way in minutes
I’ve had 3 punctures this year – all on the same day & all from cactus needles on a hire bike that had tubes in it.

YMMV – as they say

“Decide how much inner tubes really honestly piss you off,”

I did and now love riding tubeless.

My tips would be to inflate new tyres at least overnight to get them into proper shape after they’ve been folded in a shop for months.

Use a compressor. I got nowhere near with a trackpump or CO2 but a compressor worked first time.

Put neat washing up liquid round the bead of the tyre before you try inflating for the first time. It seems to work as a very temporary sealant and blocks the gaps between rim and tyre just long enough to allow the tyre to inflate.

If the tyres are supersonics, use a bit more sealant and expect to need lots of shaking, leaving tyre on its side, shaking, leaving on other side.

Before inflating for the first time, take the valve core out – you can then get more air in, faster, which is the key. Then put the sealant through the valve. Re-inflate quite hard. Then screw the valve core in quickly before all the air comes out.

Im having some read troubles with my tubeless system (notubes Olympic on nobby nic 2.25). I pump them up no probs, and it appears to be ok, but every day it loses pressure. I did the “shaking” and turning wheel technique but it does not appear to block the tiny holes in the tyres (i leave it horizontally afterwards as suggested). Been doing this for a week now still no luck, losing patience. Rear wheel with Racing Ralph seems to be ok.

I’v posted on a similar thread,but here goes. There is very little faffing if you stick to the routine.
A compressor is a big help.
Soapy water on the beads,really helps.
Riding ASAP following the fitting makes a massive difference.
You CAN do it with non-tubeless tyres and rims.If I can do it anybody can.
Run some insulating tape around non-tubeless rims 3,or 4 times. Tightly.Again this makes a big difference.
Ofcourse the Stans system isn’t perfect,but it brilliant for folk that do a lot of riding.(especially in thorn-cursed areas)
I’ve had 4 thorns,in the rear tyre without any problems. Only noticed them when I was cleaning the bike.
A mate rode over some glass the other week.We heard the hiss as he hit the glass. He stopped,shook the wheel a bit,it sealed no problem.
“Burping” is the main problem,it’s happened to me once,a quick blast with a CO2 cannister did the trick.
Hope this helps.

New to tubeless, and not going all that great so far but:

fairy liquid is ESSENTIAL I’d say – not to seal gaps but as a lubricant to let the beads slide onto the rim prorerly

pre-inflating as GF said, also helpful. One of the 2 tyres I’ve tried had 1 bead REALLY tight and wouldn’t set onto the rim – this seems to result in the other side blowing right off !! (Luckily I hadn’t pre-jizzed the tyre 🙂 )

Another good inflation device I’ve used is a HIGH volume pump that came with my wifes birthing pool !!! It really works well with some tyres !!

Had my first puncture that i’ve “known” about today after converting to stans 3 months ago, I heard the pop, stopped and saw a bit of sealant coming out. Had a bit of flint go straight through the middle of the tyre leaving a cut about 1cm long. What is all the fuss about ???, it was so easy to sort out, i didn’t even have to take the wheel off. Just levered the tyre off the rim where the sealant was coming out(Puncture at the top so the rest of the sealant runs into the bottom). Rubbed the latex off the inside where the hole was, roughened it up a bit, stuck a patch over it, tyre back on rim, pumped it back up with a normal little pump. All done in about 10 mins start to finish. Then rode another 30 miles no problems…… 🙂

I’m using stans sealant and rim strips with Bontrager XR’s on stock FSA XC-300’s rims that came with my bike.