Tubeless rant: Hurry up Airshot

I’m even more eager to buy a ‘professional’ ghetto bottle compressor from Airshot after spending the last +hour wasting 4 CO2 containers, swearing, soaping, pumping my nuts off & getting royaly ****ed off trying to seat a RQ on a Hope hoop.* Think the Airshot is due for sale sometime in Feb. Hurry up, otherwise I’m going to buy a Bonty TLR flash charger (if they ever arrive in UK).

*Note to self. Stop fixing bike on Saturday night before early Sunday ride. 👿

Why not just use a ghetto ghetto-compressor?

Tubeless ready tyre on tubeless rim?

mikewsmith – Member
Tubeless ready tyre on tubeless rim?

tubeless tyres (UST) on tubeless rims (Hope enduros). the tyre has been on a mavic UST wheel before. sigh. some combos are just a pain. maxis on UST rims are a breeze. straight up no bother. bonty TLRs on bonty TLR rims again easy. But I find conti tyres are a pain

yes i should make up a ghetto compressor; but thought I’d wait for the airshot.

why not just pop down the petrol station and use their compressor?
bead your tyres like a boss 😉

I’m unsure about the Flash Charger given the price. You can get a cheap compressor for about £60 and that will last for years given the number of times it gets used. Tubeless go up in seconds, really good piece of kit.

OP, just buy a decent pump. You should have no problems seating those tyres and them there rims.

Might help you..

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/joe-blow-mountainwho-has-one-and-tubeless-big-volume-tyres

With Valentine’s day coming up you could buy two cheap track pumps, join the hoses & get the wife involved.
Nice meal, bottle of Blue Nun.
Dim the lights & crack on.
You’ll have her up in no time.

Fire extinguisher inflator- like an Airshot only mighty, and cheaper. I went overkill and used a 9 litre extinguisher which frankly is too big, takes forever to fill- but it’s better at fitting tubeless tyres than my compressor.

Are you removing the valve core in order to seat the tyres as thie makes it infinitely more easy than trying to do so through the valve. Failing this I have removed the valve and blown the tyre up using a normal tube, then pop the bead off one side, remove the tube, valve back in and then you only have to seat one side of the tyre as the other should still be on the bead.

That, and plenty of lube

+1 what the Welsh guy said. And for more difficult cases leaving the tyre inflated with a tube to the max pressure overnight, to really get in stretched into the right shape.

Just buy the bonty flash charger and be done with it!
It’s £85 with online discounts, and will put an end to all these threads!!!

DrP

Apparently Swalbe do some head seating fluid. Not tried it personally but had it recommended by Bike mechanic when I was at my wits end with bonty mustang wheels (TLR and fitted with bonty rim strips) and spesh tyres ….. Bloody stupid combo, they’re now up but still leaking air (eventually seated with soapy bubbles). Every other bike is up no problem but not this crap combo.

I know someone who uses the TLR flash charger, he says it’s great and tyres up no problem at all.

Whats the fire extinguisher inflator? Like the ghetto pop bottle one but with a fire extinguisher instead?

I never managed to get a tubeless tyre to seat with my track pump – got hold of a super cheap compressor – have never failed to instantly seat a tubeless tyre with it.

Plus serves me well for motorbike, car etc. Best bit of kit in my garage.

The bonty is a nice pump and the head seems to work well. Much better than my Joe blow mountain.

I had never got a tubeless ready tyre to seat with my track pump and now have a compressor, however I recently bought some Huchinson Toro tubeless ready tyres (a steal at £10.99 each) and they are what you would call a tight fit but the seated easily with the track pump. I have struggled getting normal tyres to seat some times but with tubeless ready they do go with out resorting to lube. This is on proper mavic ust rims.

welshfarmer – Member
Failing this I have removed the valve and blown the tyre up using a normal tube, then pop the bead off one side, remove the tube, valve back in and then you only have to seat one side of the tyre as the other should still be on the bead.

This has always worked for me, but I usually leave the tube in overnight before trying the conversion. And removing the valve core is essential – I’ve failed seating tyres with a proper compressor before I realized this little detail. It makes all the difference.

james – Member

Whats the fire extinguisher inflator? Like the ghetto pop bottle one but with a fire extinguisher instead?

Basically yes- same concept, just better. More air, more pressure, faster air delivery, less fannying about. Cost me about £40 though I’m going to spend a little more to make it nicer to use.

Alternative to the pop bottle or the fire extinguisher is a pressurised garden sprayer – built in pump, nice big reservoir, just needs the sprayer bit on the end of the hose replacing with a head from a track pump. About £15 all in, and 5 minutes work (have never got round to adapting mine because I’m one of the pop bottle pioneers – made myself one of those before Stans tubeless kits were even available and we were still doing ghetto, and it still works fine).

DrP – Member
Just buy the bonty flash charger and be done with it!
It’s £85 with online discounts, and will put an end to all these threads!!!

DrP

I whole heartedly agree with this. But in the meantime……..guess what I’ll be doing tonight

The most dangerous thing about this is trying to drink 3lt of coke.

I seated one bead of tyre with a tube, removed tube, replaced valve and pumped up. Success. 6 am this morning, flat tyre. Took skinny tyred bike out for free ride duties. Doh.

james – Member
Whats the fire extinguisher inflator? Like the ghetto pop bottle one but with a fire extinguisher instead?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-mk-vii

Aye, that’s where I got hte idea. I used a different can, one of these I think:

http://www.firesafetysupplier.com/9-litre-water-fire-extinguisher-budget?gclid=CPr475Dy0sMCFYHHtAodsQ8ARg

Drilled the gauge out and fitted a threadless valve in it, found a pushfit air compressor hose fitting that fitted the hose so just cut the tip off and fitted that, and threaded a car inflator gun onto that. Dead simple but a bit clunky as it has one too many triggers so I’m still going to simplify it but still, works brilliantly.

Just finished a CO2 fire extinguisher inflator myself. Cost £1 on eBay, used jubilee clips to fit an old track pump hose & head. Drilled the refill nut to fit a presta valve. Cylinder is rated to 185 bar, so I think it’ll be able to seat a tractor tyre if I could get the air in there!

My Airshot arrived on Monday and it’s an excellent bit of kit. Previously impossible tyre/rim combo was sorted in about 5 minutes, 2nd try was all good once I’d removed the valve core, first attempt didn’t work with the core in.

Can anyone point me at the garden sprayer ghetto thing that someone made a while back – struggling with a new bonty tyre onto a Stan’s rim today.

Can anyone point me at the garden sprayer ghetto thing that someone made a while back – struggling with a new bonty tyre onto a Stan’s rim today.

Here you go:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-total-cost-9p

alternatively now I have an Airshot I’m selling my ghetto inflator – £10 plus postage 😀

martinhutch – Member

Can anyone point me at the garden sprayer ghetto thing that someone made a while back – struggling with a new bonty tyre onto a Stan’s rim today.

Here’s the lemonade bottle one…

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/diy-tyre-inflator-made-out-of-old-lemonade-bottle-for-tubeless-how#post-456707

EDIT ^^^^ that link above it the proper one….

Cheers guys – works like a dream! Only needed 40psi.

Chuffed with my Flashcharger. Only downside is that the gauge markings aren’t much good for the low pressures needed for tubeless MTB tyres.

I made a ghetto compressor earlier this year. I love it. Changed both my tyres today in no time! im not the most savvy home engineer so get such a buzz when I release the monkey grips and the tyres ping and pop into the rim!
The stans injector jobbie works a treat too!