No tubes rocks!

[Andy R]

It does look impressive to be fair....it would stop the thorns of death round here no problem :0)

what would be the total cost of setting that up on a bike?

Two 20" Schwalbe inner tubes (for ghetto tubelesss conversion) - £10.
Schwalbe because they make presta tubes with removable cores....
1 pint Stan's - £10

Total cost 20 squids....

could you explain how you do it ?

with traditional Stans , you need a air compressor to put the tyres on the rims , and the whole kit cost about £65 for a bike .


I have been using inner tubes with slime in them , and found them excellent . bought them last year before MM and the lasted a year with no puncture . only downside is that they weight a ton .

As P20 said - it's probably better to Google it than for me to explain it (badly, no doubt ).
I've only ever used non-UST tyres (Michelin XC, High Rollers, Kenda Nevegals and Panaracer Rampage). I've seated them all with a track pump (and the Michelins with just an old Mt Zefal pump :roll: ) but in 99% of cases a CO2 cartridge would do the job too.
If the tyres are brand new, fitting them on any old rim with a tube for a couple of days helps them lose their folding creases - another useful trick is to leave them turned inside out overnight before fitting as this opens the sidewalls out a bit.

Plenty of very soapy water helps with initial sealing. I've also tried the duct tape method but with no success - the split inner tube method, on the other hand, works perfectly, as good or better than any proprietary system.

I always carry a few CO2 carts. with me, because if a tyre did "burp" and break the rim seal a compact trail type pump probably wouldn't seat it again and then you'd be buggered :shock: (or walking home, at least). To date, I've never had this happen though and the "ghetto" system seems, by all accounts, to be more resistant to burping than UST.

 

[cchris2lou]

is it safe though ?

there cant be much room for the tyre to seat in the rim properly .

will give it a go though .

 

[perry]

Been meaning to go tubeless for about a year . Got a flat yesterday so might actually get around to doing it . Andy can you really pull a 20" over the rim ? I was thinking 24" but if the 20 " is betterer I'll use them instead .

If you don't want crappy presta valves schwalbe are still the tubes to use as they are threaded on the outside which I've been led to believe is useful .

I will be mixing my own sealant : atv ( thicker bits ) slime , antifreeze , liquid latex and water . The sealant seems to last most people about 6 months both in very hot and very cold places before it dries into bogies . From what I remember when I worked it out it costs about £20 for the supplies and you end up with something stupid like 4 liters of sealant , so plenty spare .

It's certainly the way forward for me , I never carry a spare tube anyway so if I get a problem with it I'd be walking same as with a normal flat .

 

[Andy R]

is it safe though ?

there cant be much room for the tyre to seat in the rim properly .

will give it a go though .

I reckon that you lose a maximum of 2mm from the rim width - don't use really thick tubes for the rim strip. I've used this system with Mavic 717's, 719's and Sun EQ27 rims. I never use more than 25 psi (you don't need high pressures anyway, as pinch punctures are a thing of the past). I've never had a problem out on the trail and, as my mate will testify from our ride on Tuesday, I'm not particularly kind to them over fast, rocky going :roll: . In this case it was Panaracer Rampage 2.35" / Sun EQ27's on the rigid Hummingbird .

 

[Andy R]

Been meaning to go tubeless for about a year . Got a flat yesterday so might actually get around to doing it . Andy can you really pull a 20" over the rim ? I was thinking 24" but if the 20 " is betterer I'll use them instead .

If you don't want crappy presta valves schwalbe are still the tubes to use as they are threaded on the outside which I've been led to believe is useful .

A 20" tube will fit a 26" wheel with no problem Perry - I use 24" for 29" wheels.
What I do is inflate the tube to some sort of reasonable pressure and then fit it over the rim and line up the centre seam and fit the valve lockring. Then get a pair of scissors and cut all round the seam, folding the cut edges back over the rim as you go. Because the tube is fairly stretched it stays in place ok, plus I suppose the stretching must make it a little thinner?

Then I get some soapy water and a sponge and wash off any talc that's been inside the tube, lube the bead area of the tyre with the soapy water and fit the tyre (without levers if possible).
Then inflate it with a track pump or CO2 cartridge. If it seats/seals ok, then unscrew the valve core and add your sealant (I use a syringe to do this). I've also found it best to support the wheel off the ground when you do this, so that its own weight doesn't distort the tyre and push it back into the well of the rim.

Re-inflate, spin the wheel/turn it end over end etc. to distribute the sealant and leave it a while to check for leaks before cutting off the excess rim strip, either with scissors or a Stanley knife (or skip the "leaving it" stage and just go and rag it around some nice singletrack )

It sounds like a lot of faffing, but it's probably taken me as long to type this as it takes me to fit a tyre .

 

[IDB1]

Googled the ghetto tubeless and it does sound tres simple. . . definitely going to have a bash on one of our rides and see how we get on..

 

[Dead Rats]

Googled the ghetto tubeless and it does sound tres simple. . . definitely going to have a bash on one of our rides and see how we get on..

ditto, pretty tempted to go for it as well

 

[cchris2lou]

Thanks Andy , will give it a go .

certainly a lot cheaper than the whole kit .

 

[wynne]

I've been using a joe's tubeless strip with a 1.8" Fire XC Pro on the rear for the last two years. You can run a really light thin tyre at quite low pressure with no danger of pinch flats.

I've kept to slime tube on the front because I've a vague (and probably unfounded) fear of rolling a tubeless set up on the front. Weight is also less of an issue up front.

I've also been running tubeless specific tyres on Fulcrum tubeless wheels on my road bike for the last six months. They work brilliantly.

I've managed to inflate the tubeless set ups using just a track pump. You might have to build up the rim bed a bit in the middle so that tyre bead sits towards the rim wall. That helps with the initial inflation.

No punctures for two years in all conditions. I'd recommend it.

Rich

 

[mikesnowdon]

How to do ghetto tubeless part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRM7gq1fcoQ

Part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwON2VxZL0g

Worth watching the Stans installation video too because its relevant to the ghetto version also.