these tubeless conversion kits (Stan’s / other)

do they work? pro’s and con’s?

seems they work with normal (non UST) tyres or is it better to use with UST tyres?

thanks

its a mad faff!

UST tyres & rims is the way to go.

Ghetto tubeless with existing tyres, less than £15

Joe’s with normal tyres – no problems (other than seating beads – use CO2 or compressor).

Joes or Stans are fine, Joe’s isn’t that much more than Ghetto and a lot less faffy.

UST rims + sealant is the easiest way, but its not cheap.

you just need sealant and an old valve and pvc tape see super ghetto done 3 sets of wheels all running fine

I’m really struggling with the whole tubeless concept at the minute. Stans and their ilk, seem like the Emperors new clothes. Tried it myself, and for every tyre that goes up with little or no fuss, three more will take mad pumping, and all sorts of half baked schemes…Then there’s the huge elephant in the room that as far as puncture resistance goes, they don’t seem to be hugely better than tubes…last two rides I’ve down with Stan’s equipped riders both have had punctures, that required about the same faff time as replacing a tube, plus once it goes beyond a certain point, the chances of getting it back up again are pretty much nil. Last summer did 3 rides and flatted all 3 times with Stans equipped tyres. Latex is petty foul stuff to work with as well. It restricts your choice of tyres, and makes changing tyres for the conditions, a chore rather than the 10 minute job it should be. One thing that is good is the low pressure angle, running tubeless has taught me not to put too much air in my tyres

Now, I’m sure I’ll get flamed by the lovers of tubless, many of who will make it work just fine, and can’t see what the problem is. Fine, happy for you, me, happy to be a luddite, happy not to have to think about it, happy with tubes.

I have been considering my own super ghetto was unsure if anybody had tried it. How much of a faf is it? Did you just use electrical tape? Would a thin duck tape be any good?

as i say i have done 3 sets with no problem, as per walts website, i used i layer of cloth tape ani i foud it better to do 2 layers of electrical insulating tape so that you cover the whole inside width of the rim rather han just the spoke hole area, if you could get pvc tape exactly the same width then 1 layer would do, i think its a standard width though.
i have used stans sealant so far but my next step is to make my own sealant from latex, slime windscreen washer.
there is a learning curve but once you get the knack of cutting the rubber around the valve right, about a square cm, and double checking in the bath and then sealing any small leaks your sorted, and do buy a compressor they are only cheap. i think they main reason people get pissed of is messing around with pumps or co2, having unlimited air at high pressure takes away hassle from a reletively simple job.

“there’s the huge elephant in the room that as far as puncture resistance goes, they don’t seem to be hugely better than tubes”

That’s not been my experience. Though I use wheelmilk rather than Stans.

“makes changing tyres for the conditions, a chore”

Yes I agree with that. It’s the main reason I procrastinated over tubeless for so long. Got alternative wheels to get around this issue, although I’m mostly happy to run the Nevegals by default.

Being able to run lower pressures has a been amazing and would not be sensible with tubes.

“once you get the knack of cutting the rubber around the valve right,”
“electrical tape”

Blimey, just get some BMX tubes, split and trim them – sounds much easier.

I avoid the ‘changing tyres for conditions’ problem by having multiple bikes with different tyre types on.

“once you get the knack of cutting the rubber around the valve right,”
“electrical tape”

its not difficult at all and makes use of the old tubes i have lying around, plus it probably saves around 70 grams per wheel.
not sure if it matters but im sure its better to have the tyre seated on the rim as per my method than sandwiching a big piece of innertube.

How about getting normal rims a stans valve and some stans yellow tape. Has anybody tried that? That is what I had in mind. Why should it work on stans rims and not on others? I might have to be a guinea pig.

if you want waste your money do it, but there is no need

£10 for 2 valves and £8 for 5 wheels worth of yellow tape. Might be worth just buying the valves and then using electrical tape.

not sure if that would work, one of the pro’s for Stans (and Joes) seems to be that the rubber strip seals to the tyre bead to the point you can almost take the tyre off the rim and it still won’t lose air (well as long as you aren’t running mental pressure) as it turns the whole tyre into a sealed tube. (dunno if that makes sense) with just the tape you would seal the spoke holes but not get this tube effect.

Pro’s for me, is lack of punctures and pinch flats. Con’s are with normal tyres I have found it to be a ball ache to get tyres to seat and inflate (UST specific tyres are easy, and 9 times out of 10 go up with a track pump), and you have to be really picky with which tyres you get as some normal tyres just don’t work very well (Panaracers for example)

If you don’t suffer with pinch flat or punctures, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you do its a revelation, I have gone down from 2 punctures a ride, to 2 a year (touch wood)