tubeless advice please

[hoppy58]

Hello. I have read about the advantages of going tubeless, but have never tried it...but i'm ready now to take the plunge.

I have a pair of 29" alex rims which are tubeless ready (off my 2017 Vagabond) and some 29 x 2.4 conti x king and mountain king - folding bead "pro tection" - they're the black chilli expensive ones (normally) which CR were flogging off cheaply a few months back.

As I understand it I need some new valves, stans (or similar) sealer and possibly new rim tape? (not sure if the rim tape on the "tubeless ready" rims is sufficient?)

If anyone can recommend a good combination of kit, preferably not too expensive; and any hints/videos whatsoever, then it would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Hop.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Here's my method.

Remove everything from wheel - tyre, tube and tape.

Clean inside of rim and wrap it with the narrower Gorilla tape. Go round 2 / 3 times aiming to get the tape right across the rim from inside of bead to inside of bead.

Give the tape a good press down and make sure it's stuck well.

Make a hole with a sharp proddy thing for the valve to fit through ... make it from the inside out.

Fit valve - I've never had a problem with cheaper ones.

Fit tyre. It might be a little tighter than usual but that's normal.

Remove valve core from tyre and try blowing tyre up. Big volume track pump, inflator thing or compressor ideally.

If tyre starts to inflate - keep going until you get a bang / pop as it seats or visual indication. Pour some sealant into tyre through valve. Refit core and pump up again.

If it doesn't begin to inflate - give the edge of the bead a wipe with soapy water. Don't go mad, it's just to help form a seal.

Give the wheel a good slosh about and a bang on the floor to get the sealant everywhere and the tyre fully seated.

I will say, I've never had much look with Conti staying up as I find they have porous sidewalls but other folk don't.

[PaulE]

I used one of these kits https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/WSPTK/bar ... beless-kit from planet X to do my wheels, worked nicely for me..... No idea if it's the cheapest way of doing the conversion, but nice and convenient!

[rich.mike]

I've had Mountain Kings before and mounted them tubeless, it took weeks for the tyres to seal up due to the very porous sidewalls, they always 'bubbled' from the walls in the rain so I scrapped them and bought Schwalbe!

[Chicken Legs]

I will say, I've never had much look with Conti staying up as I find they have porous sidewalls but other folk don't.

I never have a problem with porous sidewalls on the Continental Protection tyres, I am not sure if they are better quality but they are certainly more expensive.

[fatbikephil]

For narrow rims I use https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yellow-tubel ... NYVbiCgcyw Basically what stans and others sell but much cheaper. No need to do too many wraps as its just a case of sealing the spoke holes - twice does me.

Valves wise go for schraeders as they are a lot more idiot proof than prestas, you can get a compressor on them or if you remove the valve cores a track pump will probably get the tyres seated. Something like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-TUBELESS ... Sw3v5YrqgJ

For sealant use the squirt seal stuff as it seems to be best at plugging the bigger holes. Joes no flats is crap at sealing holes but OK for initial set up. Stans is average and Orange is supposed to be good.

I would say that tubeless is a PIA and only worth it if you get lots of thorns on your trails. It won't stop pinch flats and bigger cuts require some kind of tubeless repair strips. There is only weight saving if you run + or full fat.

[sean_iow]

My only tip is once you've got them set up head out for a ride. Shaking/rotating the wheel after you add sealant does distribute it about but riding seems to ensure it coats the inside and finds any holes. Riding is also much more fun than standing in the shed shaking a wheel and the neighbours won't think you're weird

[hoppy58]

Thanks all for all your info..its a lot to take in! I have had quite a few punctures recently. I remember when all the farmers used to cut the hedges around October/November time and that was it, but recently they seem to have been hedge cutting right through the winter.

[giryan]

In addition to everything else I've have them inflated over an inner tube for some time prior to attempting to mount them tubeless. I totally failed the first time I tried, because the kinks from how they'd been packed were just too much and stopped the bead attaching properly.

[whitestone]

Getting tubeless tyres on can be very easy or impossibly difficult! The last set I fitted were good examples - the front tyre went on and stayed up without sealant, the rear tyre needed the rim retaping and three or four goes with an airshot compressor then several rides, with the tyre deflating overnight, before it finally stayed up. The same rims and the same tyres and the same procedure.

Most of the usual tips have been mentioned, it's also worth keeping the tyres warm prior to fitting.

[techno]

If you don't have easy access to a compressor this is an alternative
https://youtu.be/bxNWiLQKxOs
I got mine from toolstation for about £8. Works ace.

[pistonbroke]

1 trick in addition to the tips above that I've recently used with success on gravel tyres where I'm running higher pressures is to give the inner surface of the tyre a good rub with IPA (not beer) to remove the silicone mold release coating. This coating can prevent the thicker sealants from adhering to the wall of the tyre so it just sloshes around and doesn't get into the casing to seal micro leaks. Different retained levels of silicone could explain why some examples of the same tyres stay up for weeks and others deflate overnight.

[Alh14]

I use an airshot to get the tyres seated, works wonderfully but a bit of an investment at £50

[BigdummySteve]

As many have mentioned difficulty depends on the tyre and rim combo. I recently set up some WTB trail boss tyres on some carbon WTB rims, it was as simple as tape and just pump them up casually with a track pump.
When you tape the rims pay attention to the rim/tyre fit if it’s loose add another layer of tape or two, some people even use thin foam underneath the tape to build the rim bed up. Another tip is to work your way around the rim pulling the tyre towards the rim.

A compressor shouldn’t be needed with the right tyre and rim combination, my current tyre and rim combo requires standing on the deflated tyre to unlock the bead! They would set up with a micro pump.

The other option for unsuitable rims is ghetto tubeless, build up the rim bed then stretch a split 24” tube over the rim. The tyre is then fitted and the excess tube trimmed off with a sharp knife afterwards.

[whitestone]

One "trick" not mentioned so far is to wrap an innertube or some kind of strap around the outside of the tyre before you try and inflate it - this reduces the volume of air that you need to get in to the tyre to force it to seat. With fat bike tyres I've just wrapped my arms around the circumference of the tyre and that's been enough (with someone else on the track pump doing the inflating )

[BigdummySteve]

Good one, I forgot that one. it worked a treat on my 29+ tyres.

[golfcurry]

Another trick is to take the valve core out then pump up till the tyre pops several times, that way you get more air into the tyre quicker.

Make sure the tyre is sitting next to the bead around the valve also.

[johnnystorm]

Like Chicken Legs I've never had a problem with ProTection Contis. The normal ones are hit & miss and weepy however. Tubeless can be a PITA but I think any faffing at home far outweighs faffing when out and about.

[Alpinum]

Contrary to some I've had bad experience with Conti.

I've stopped using them. I only used their ProTection version but they wouldn't last long. The carcass would quickly fail to hold air. No sich problems with comparable tyres from Maxxis or Schwable except for Maxxis skinwall.

The problem with Conti was repeatedly that the tread still would've had quite some life in it, but they lost air at alarming rates. Mostly after 600 -800 km not just the porous carcass started leaking fast but tears appeared where the rim touches the carcass. This was always on 2.4" and 30 mm internal rims.
After 3 (!) pairs I gave up. Shame, I quite liked Mountain King and X-King for tamer biking.

I'd ride them with tubes. Especially since you got them cheap, they will be of former style with not-so-good tubeless compatibility. For 2016 Conti seemed to have improved the compatibility on their lighter tyres (their beefier tyres have thicker carcasses and don't quite behave the same). I thought I had read something about new carcass for 2018 to make them more air tight. Hopefully things have changed.

This said, a good friend and longtime Conti fan has moved to Maxxis Forekaster and said it's quite a difference going tubeless. German forums are full of jokes about Conti sidewalls (everything up to Mountain King). To those on Conti - enjoy while their going good

I use Conti Revo sealant. No matter what tyre.

[Kumquat]

Converted my cross bike to tubeless last december. All good.
I have charge saucer wheels.
I think the rims are alex.
I first built up the relatively deep and narrow central channel with several layers of super narrow gorilla tape (cut to exact width with a stanley knife).
I then put 1 layer of gorilla tape 1" wide
Over this.
Put the valves in and then seated the gravel kings.
So far
So good.

[simon72]

I've been going tubeless on and off with varying degrees of success. I decided to hack up a blast pump, but after three attempts I gave in spent £50 on a specialized one - regretted it immediately and then saw the post above about the garden sprayer.. Doh. Anyway I thought this photo might give you a laugh.. Bit too much pressure?!

BANG!
Tubless pump hack fail by S, on Flickr

[Jurassic]

I've been going tubeless on and off with varying degrees of success. I decided to hack up a blast pump, but after three attempts I gave in spent £50 on a specialized one - regretted it immediately and then saw the post above about the garden sprayer.. Doh.

Don't feel too bad, I used to use a garden sprayer as a DIY compressor and while it did sort of work it was nowhere near as good as the Airshot that I use now. Buying nice tools is good for your soul, their acquisition gives the same warm feeling as buying nice bike parts but without the guilt.

[whitestone]

As it happens I've just been watching this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPHuFGMFJKU which has some hand tips and things to avoid. Most have been mentioned in the thread as well.