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Tubeless?


Danny

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I'm running tubeless for the first time on my Whyte and so far so good. Sealant seems to be a requirement for all systems from what I understand- I topped up with Stans the other day. Can't say I've noticed any huge difference and I am still carrying a tube and pump with me just in case at the moment but so far there's been zero need for it.

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Not sure how it would pan out with a drilled trials wheel but in the MTB world they've really taken off. I work in a high end cycle store and do around 10 sets of tubeless conversions a week.

 You do still need to used sealant (stans or similar) you can use pretty much any rim as long as you and you tape it up really well. I had a customer in today who claims since going tubeless 3 years ago he's never had a puncture; which Is pretty good going. 

Considering it only takes about 10/15 mins to do, I'd say it's definitely worth the effort 

 

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Gorilla tape for the rim strip (make a jig to cut it to the external width of the rim) and a decent sealant, personally I use oko magic milk and it's worked as advertised.

UST labelled tyres are heavier than tubeless ready but hold air without sealant when used with a UST rim, tubeless ready are much lighter but require sealant to hold air in the porous sidewalls. UST rims + tyres do not require sealant or tape but come with a price premium. I sealed up non tubeless ready tyres on d521s without too much effort, biggest issue is having a compressor that can blow the tyre onto the rim bead to form a seal ; with UST compliant rims (wtb TCS for example) you can do it with a track pump no problems.

The difference to the ride is pronounced, you can lose pressure to increase grip without increasing rolling resistance. Work on your riding weight in pounds divided by 7 less 1 or 2 front, plus 1 or 2 rear for the pressures; my riding weight of 165lb gives 22f/25r which works pretty spot on.

You have to get used to the occasional spadoing noise when the tyre rebounds off a root though.

Edited by forteh
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It's advisable to do so yes but not required to mount the tyre, tubeless ready tyres have porous sidewalls which will only hold air for a short while.  A UST rim profile makes a huge difference when trying to mount the tyres (UST tyre or not) because the bead shelf and hook holds bead much tighter and forms a better seal.  When mounting my tyres I pull as much of the bead onto the shelf by hand as I can which means it takes about 4 pumps with the trackpump to initially inflate the tyre and then up to 25psi to blow it onto the bead shelf.

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So a roll of gorilla tape, some valves and bottle of sealant and you are good to go?

Edit: The MBR review says my rims are tubeless ready but the Whyte site makes no mention of it.  Is it just a case of theres no spoke holes if i take the tire off and have a look?

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Tubeless ready rims still require sealing over the spoke holes (with gorilla tape) but have the UST compliant section which helps retain the seal and the bead.  I believe that full UST rims are solid with no spoke through holes, as such they hold air without the tape.

This is stolen from WTB who have TCS (Tubeless Compatible System) on their rims and explains it pretty simply. I've been using this with michelin wildgrip'r tyres for the last couple of years without any issues, the bead lock and on ramp are lifted straight from Mavics UST standard and facilitate mounting the tyres but don't require a WTB TCS specific tyre to work.

wtb_tcs_overview.jpg?1353

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It is well worth it, I've not had any issues with my tubeless set up since installing. I run about 28-30PSI (i'm a fat lad at 15 stone) which is what I ran with tubes but the tyre seems to deform over bumps more now without the little extra tube wall thickness giving better grip

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 10 months later...
On 02/08/2016 at 3:43 PM, Danny said:

Whats everyones opinion on tubeless?  I have tubeless ready tires but not rim but i've seen all the kits available.

Do tubeless tires still run sealant? 

Is it worth the effort?

Is going tubeless actually worth it because I don't really ever get punctures but I mean for what I do (ride some of my local woods and hop up kerbs).  Is it worth it?

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