Tubeless gods frown upon me...

[jwilds1]

So, if you followed my 29er build, you know I had some issues with it.  Front tire remains tubeless, but the rear I caved and threw a tube in after I got Stan's under the Gorilla tape...

I have a cheapo fatbike (Motobecane Fantom FB4), and wanted to change out the Vee Rubber Missions (holy he**, those are horrible tires) and try and go tubeless with that.  Found a deal on some Origin8 Devist8rs on a  local forum so I picked those up.

First attempt was Gorilla Tape tubeless, with door sill sealing foam.  First thing I noticed was that the Devist8rs are a PAIN to mount - went through 4 plastic levers to get the things on, then gave up and went to the metal ones I have.  After three days of trying to get the beads to seat and multiple times of calming my dog down from all of my swearing, I put the tubes back in.

Second attempt was last week, and tried to go Ghetto tubeless.  Picked up some 24x2.1-2.3 tubes off Amazon and sliced them right down the middle.  Was expecting at least a 1/2" of overlap past the bead seat area and ended up with 1/16", which meant I had to perfectly position them.  Mounted tire, and everything was out of position.  After another few hours of cursing (and dealing with a dog who thought he was in trouble), I threw the tube back in.

Who did I piss off?  Anybody run Devist8rs and have the same mounting issue?

[brmeyer135]

This may be a little off topic but something  you said made me think...what about using that spray rubber product we, in the US, see as a infomercial or commercial:  FlexSeal
It is supposed to be flexible...wonder if that could be sprayed inside a tire and a tire set up tubeless.....probably spray extra to have some rolling around in there to seal later - not sure that stuff works that way.
Anyways, it would seal initially but would it seal a puncture?

[jwilds1]

Not a bad idea, but I wonder how it would deal with the pressure and the whole gas vs. liquid thing...

[cmh]

Who did I piss off?  Anybody run Devist8rs and have the same mounting issue?

No experience with Devist8rs - hell I just got my first pair of fat bike tires (Vee Snowshoes which i hear aren't great) and once I looked up different ways to run tubeless on the Weinmann rims, I decided the very first thing that was gonna happen was a set of carbon rims for the easier tubeless conversion. I saw the "slice a smaller tube and unfold it" thing and combining that with the lack of a good bead shoulder (ala Stan's rims) I was pretty certain that the conversion would be abysmal. The addition of door foam in an attempt to get things to seal was the icing on the NOPE cake for me.

[Carbon_Dude]

Wow, I've never heard of anyone having so much trouble setup wheels and running tubeless.  I've had generally good experiences lately, however, when I first started I chose Mavic UST rims and Hutchinson Python tires.  Back then nobody was running any sealant, UST does not need any sealant as the bead of the tire makes an air tight seal on the rim and a UST rim has a rim strip to cover the spoke holes.  The only problem I had with the UST system was how hard the tire was to get on the rim, fought quite a bit even with two tire levers.  With UST the recommendation is not to use any tire levers so you don't damage the bead.  Biggest drawback to UST is the weight, the tire is heavier, the rim is heavier.

My more recent UST experiences have been with tubeless compatible rims, meaning the rim has a bead hook shape to help grab the tire bead.  Stan's yellow tape, Stan's valves, and Stan's sealant.  5 bikes later(all with different brands of rims & tires), I still use basically the same setup but like Orange Sealant more than Stan's.  I've not ridden for over two months now so the tires on both my Chiners are flat and I will need to add new sealant to help them hold air, although the tire beads are well seated to the rim so I could probably just air up the tires and they should hold air for a few days.

My only thought for your situation is you need to have a good set of mfr certified tubeless compatible rims and tires.  What you have been working with may be neither and that's why you can't get tubeless to work for you.  Have you watched the videos on the Stan's Notubes.com website?  If you have a rim that locks the tire bead and has good rim tape or rim strips to seal the spoke holes, along with a tire that is of good quality (not Vee Rubber as I understand it), you should have a very easy time of going tubeless.

[ecaos]

Hi, here's an article explaining UST patent. I've been using Mavic Crossmax ST with UST tires for years, I'm about to install a pair of tubeless ready Kendas (non UST), I'll see how they work.
http://www.pinkbike.com/news/To-The-Point-UST-Rims-Tires-2013.html
What I've got from reading about this topic when searching about tubeless ready, is that they don't have the UST bead, maybe some sort of modification to help it seat better, but the main thing is that they are sealant compatible, as they do need it to seal (opposite to UST), so rubber don't get ruined by the chemicals in the mix, which sometimes happens (I've always used sealant whith UST tires with no problems, but I've heard of bad stories too).

[bdub]

I don't understand why you would go through all this hassle to go tubeless. Were I ride there are not many thorns and honestly I didn't really notice that big of a difference. I will do the tubeless thing with my new bike, but if it doesn't work straight away I will just throw a tube in and move on.

[Carbon_Dude]

Lighter weight and much higher flat resistance for me.  When I was running tubes, I got flats on a frequent basis.  Running tubeless, tubeless I cannot remember the last time i had a flat tire.  May not work for everyone but it works well for me.  I've used Stan's sealant for several years, I've since switched to Orange sealant as it seems to work a little better for me.  However, Stan's is saying they have a new sealant out that lasts longer that I have not tried.

People may not believe the hype, but every professional and most amateur racers run tubeless, if you get a flat while in a race you will go from first to last pretty quickly.  If running tubes were more reliable, I'm sure they would have tubes in their tires.

Here is the video that convinced me that if my sealant is good (not dried out), I will not get a flat.

[bdub]

Yeah, for places that have lots of thorns and such tubeless is a godsend. Thankfully I don't have that issue and at 215 lbs I will work on losing weight before I sweat a few grams.
The Wheel Set I purchased is supposedly tubeless ready so I am going to go that route. Hopefully it will be painless.

[Carbon_Dude]

Tubeless is not for everyone.  If your terrain is not full of thorns or sharp rocks, then your opportunities to have a flat tire are reduced and if you don't care for the weight then there's not much incentive for you to change.  Also, there can be more hassle involved in getting everything to work tubeless versus throwing a tube in the tire, popping the bead back on the rim, and adding air.

[ecaos]

Same thing for me, no flats in years, and living in Baja surrounded by thorny plants go figure. Besides the "no flats" advantage, there's the possibility of runnig UST tires at less pressure that non UST, even by 10psi less, which for me, has helped in getting more grip. Weight wise UST wasn't reducing any from my bike and maybe even adding, tires are heavy compared to normal, so that's why I'm trying tubeless ready now.

[cmh]

For me, the big thing isn't the reduction in weight (which is surprising because I'm a big weight weenie) or the resistance to punctures (which is huge) - it's the improvement to traction and general ride feel. I'm pretty oblivious to changes in suspension tuning and stuff like that, but I feel the difference with tubeless. The ability to run lower pressures without the terror about pinch flats makes a huge difference in the ride quality and traction of the bike. The only time that I'm running tubes is when there's some reason that I can't run tubeless, and then I'm usually working to fix that reason.

[bdub]

Well tried to tubeless on the new tires and failed. After getting stans all over the place I gave up and ordered some tubes. Inflating your tires shouldn't be the hardest part of building a bike.

[Carbon_Dude]

Was hanging out at the LBS and a guy brought in a 10 year old Mtn bike with v-brakes and asked if the bike mechanic could convert the bike to tubeless.  The bike mechanics said no problem, charged him for a couple small bottles of Stan's sealant, two Schwalb Rocket Ron tires, and some Stan's tape.  He then removed the old tires, taped the rims, mounted the tires, added the sealant, aired up the tires, shook them around to seal the bead, installed the wheels on the bike, and had it converted in less than an hour.

This is on and OLD bike!  bdub, I wish I could help you as the process is pretty easy.  Sure, I struggled a bit myself at first but back then I had nobody to ask or show me what to do.  I later watched the videos from Stan's, then began to understand that it is just that simple.

[bdub]

I think the issue is I don't have a compressior to set the bead and my track pump doesn't get it done. Going to try to do it with a CO2 cartridge tonight.