Two Wheel Blogs

In keeping with my recent movement to single speeding (about a year and a half ago), I decided to remove the tubes and run tubeless with my bikes. This procedure involves removing tubes and buying or building a rim strip (typically) and mounting a regular (non-UST) tire tubeless with some sort of sealer (Stan's or homebrew).

My first entrance was a complete fabrication using the knowledge I have about tires and such. I split a 24 inch tube used it as a rim strip on my 29er, along with some industrial sealer we use on off road trucks and quarry equipment. It worked great, but the sealer was a bit thick for the high rpms that MTBs produce (relative to a quarry vehicle). Nevertheless, I used this set up for about 3 months with very little problems, but wanted something even easier.

My second setup was Stan's. I went by the book completely. It worked as advertised, and I aired up the tires with a floor pump as the videos claim.

I don't go around telling people that they should run tubeless, but when asked, I do share my success stories, along with my failures.

The biggest failure occurred a couple days ago, and you guessed it, it was completely my fault. I got a flat. That is not supposed to happen, so I figured that it must be a breached seal. Nope, there was a 1/8 inch hole in the tire that was not sealing up. I went home with my brother, and declared to teach him what I know about tubeless. Little did I know that I would be showing him that the one thing I harp on the most about tubeless is the one thing I did wrong...I did not follow directions exactly.

Upon disassembly, it was obvious that there was no sealant in the tire at all. I had not rechecked monthly and added sealer as instructed.

10 minutes later the sealer was added and the tire was sealed with a floor pump as the air source. I think my brother was sold on the concept, but not sold on my ability to maintain my bike!

In summary, tubeless has been very good to me. It may not be for everyone, but the benefits are huge (may be I should cover them in another post...if you are interested shoot me a comment). It is something that you have to maintain monthly, but I find that to be far less jacking with my tires than when I used to run tubes.

I have set up a few friends with tubeless both Stan's and my own creation. If you want my 2 cents, I say try it and you may love it. If you have any problems, I would be happy to try and help. I would recommend the Stan's product and website as a great source for instructions.

I feel like I have only touched the surface here, so if you want more info, etc. shoot me a comment. Want to know the good, the bad, the expenses?

And, no, I am not a shill for Stan's. I will be the first to tell you that you can DIY with great success, but you really have to know what you are doing to pull it off.