Velocity A23 Tubeless Conversion

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Permalink Reply by Joey Mullan on June 10, 2011 at 3:09pm

It's always been something on the lines of building up the center channel to decrease overall volume. Something like specialized tubeless rim tape doesn't leak and provides a lightweight buildup of that channel. However, the big question is... which tire? Hutchinson recently previewed their carbon bead bulldog tire and another question to pose. Which sealant? Stan's or cafe' latex?

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Permalink Reply by Scott Hendricks on June 10, 2011 at 8:39pm

Check with Mike at Black Mountain Cycles, he uses that rim in the build kit for his monstercross bikes.  As for building up the center channel, I'm not sure why you'd want to do that.  The channel is there to allow for easier installation of a tubeless tire.  The bead won't stretch, so you need the extra "slack" afforded by allowing the bulk of the bead to sink into the channel while getting the last bit of bead over the rim.  No channel means difficult to impossible mounting for many tubeless tires.

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Permalink Reply by Dirk Ericson on June 10, 2011 at 9:43pm

This was taken from the universal cycles site, it was posted in the review section for the A23's. Not by me.      " I'm now using these tubeless on my cross bike with Stan's Plus 4 rim strips and Hutchinson Pyranhas, and on my road bike with Stan's yellow tape and valve stems, and Hutchinson Intensives/Fusions. Both setups with sealant. The actual weight of one rim was 435g. I'd rate a 5, except that one of the three rims I bought had a narrow spot in the brake track".

I've also seen posted on another forum somewhere that the  stans standard 26' strip stretches to the correct size.

When I emailed Stans about which strip to use they said the cyclocross strip but the site itself says its only good up to 21mm. The reply they gave me seemed sort of generic. like some guy saw the word cyclocross in my inquiry so he just said to use the cross strip. Maybe we should all email them and then compare answers?

I will probably try the Plus 4 later in the summer and see how it works. If it works well I may hold off and  not build a set of major toms and build another set of A23 instead. I'm going to run either a Mudd 2 or clement PDX I'll get back with how they match up/seal up.

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Permalink Reply by Gemma Kernich on June 13, 2011 at 9:32pm

I built up a pair of A23's  for a 'local' here.  He knows what he is doing equipment and cyclocross wise, coaches at international level.  He rode them tubeless on the weekend. This is what he said:

"I ran the clinchers, set up tubeless with a normal mtb stans rubber rim strip and they worked great, no burps or loss of pressure at all. You have to trim a bit of rubber near the valve to get the bead to fit if you want to use these."

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Matt Ruiter on June 17, 2011 at 8:41am

Hi All,

 

My 'cross A23 wheelset set up tubeless flawlessly using Velotape and a standard 26" Stan's Strip.  The strip stretches nicely and fits the 700c wheel perfectly.  I'm using Hutchinson Piranha tires and can inflate the setup with a floor pump.  We've configured the same wheelset for road tubeless using only Velotape, but the strip helps hold the wider 'cross tire on better with very little opportunity for burping.  Hope this helps.

 

Matt Ruiter @ Velocity USA

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Permalink Reply by curt k on June 25, 2011 at 10:06am

Sounds *very* good, Matt. I'm looking at getting an A23 wheelset with this sort of thing in mind. Could you explain a little more (this would be my first tubeless conversion)?

 

So, to mount the Piranhas, did you use *just* the Stans 26" Strip, or Velotape and then Stans on top? For road tires, was it just Velotape?

 

And were these the new, carbon bead Piranhas?

 

Thanks for any more info! Very excited about this set up!

 

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Permalink Reply by Matt Ruiter on June 27, 2011 at 6:07am

Hi Curt,

 

I'm using last year's Piranhas...kevlar bead?  I have them set up using both Velotape for an air seal and Stan's strip for geometry and fit.  I ditch the Stan's strip for a road tire.  

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Permalink Reply by curt k on June 27, 2011 at 7:57am

Got it. Very cool and thanks, Matt.

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Permalink Reply by curt k on July 2, 2011 at 9:54pm

Hey all, just did the conversion on my Velocity A23 rims. Went really quite well and easy enough and it was my first tubeless conversion.

 

I used Stans Plus Four kit, but used Slime Pro sealant (just because I had it around and it was open so I thought I'd finish it off first). I used Hutchinson Piranha tires with the new carbon bead.

 

One trick about the Piranhas, I think the tread is directional, but there's just a subtle sign of that -- a faint arrow on one side of the tire. I had to remount the front, but luckily without sealant.

 

I used one layer of Stans yellow tape (I think the 12 mm version is in that kit). I used the Stans Rim strip. It all went on pretty well. I would recommend reading the Stans instructions *and* watching the Stans YouTube videos. There are good tips in each that aren't in the other.

 

Mounting the Piranhas was okay, maybe a bit harder than an average clincher. They inflated just fine with my floor pump. I then added the sealant through the removable core of the valves -- seemed likely to be a lot less messy than pooling it in and then struggling to mount the tire. (The Slime Pro sealant came with a couple rubber tubes for injecting from the bottle into the open valve which was very nice. I think Stans and others have injectors in 2 oz bottles, which sound even better for measuring, I eyeballed aiming for 1.5 oz.)

 

I did the Stans instructions on shaking to try to get the sealant on the beads, soaping, looking for bubbles, shaking again. Went just fine and no bubbles after doing that a couple of rounds per tire.

 

I just rode around a little bit on them, a little gravel, some grass, pavement. First vague impression is that I think the A23's set up this way felt about 85-90% as good as my tubulars (I've used a couple of Tufo tires on vintage ADX-1 rims). There won't be any real cross to test on for a couple of months now. I'm kind of assuming that the Hutchinsons with the carbon bead and a good rim won't burp.  ? 

 

Overall, so far I'm pleased. I needed to replace my old tubular wheelset. If I had done tubular again it would have been Major Tom, so not much price difference there. The Piranhas were a little cheaper than tubular tires and I didn't have to pay someone to mount them (I couldn't trust myself gluing tubulars, so DIY here saves me about $50 in labor per tire). I might get a Bulldog as well and I could theoretically spend 30-60 minutes the night before a muddy race to put it in, which I wouldn't do with tubular. Plus I'll commute on this set up, so I like that I can throw a tube in in case of a flat and that I can patch tubeless. I'll never wind up on a podium, but I do really enjoy the feel and especially cornering of good tires in a race, so I think this set up is going to be good enough for me. Good stuff! Thanks for everyone's input here.

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