going tubeless - which tires have worked for you?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Wallace Alexander on December 5, 2008 at 8:30am

Hey Echappe,
Any word how the Hed Ardennes are holding up tubeless. I sure like this idea. Seems like it could make a nice, light supple ride. And if so, what tires have you tried with the Ardennes?
Thanks!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Hutton on December 5, 2008 at 5:07pm

I have seen a guy here running Hutchinson tubless parrahnas on them here. He claims they work wonderfully! GET THE STANS KIT! It works I swear.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dave Anderson on July 13, 2009 at 11:20pm

Quick question, do wire bead tires work for tubeless conversions?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by andrew on July 14, 2009 at 12:40am

dave,

I've only tried once, on a monster wtb 700x44 tire. it held up to about 35 psi, which is all i needed, but just wasn't quite tight enough to go higher. not that you'd need to really at that width, but the seal just wasn't that tight with the wire bead. our past experience has been in general, a tight tire/rim fit is a good foundation for a good tubeless system.

the flip side is that bead didn't move much with bumps, so the tire didn't really burp at low pressures. but that was a big tire.

the other downside is that with the generic sealant i had at the time (this was years back) the sealant eventually ate away at the tire, and then the wire popped out. thankfully that was in the garage, not while riding, and was a year later.

hope that helps. i know some folks have had success converting wire-beaded tires for mountain bikes.

good luck.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by NordicNut on September 21, 2009 at 7:20pm

How do I tell if my michelins are safe to run tubeless? I have an NOS set of green sprints that I'd like to give a go. They aren't skinwall, they're green inside and out. You can definitely tell they sat for a while, but they seem ok. Having heard numerous stories about people blowing up Mud 2s tubeless, I'm a little leary.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by andrew on September 22, 2009 at 12:35am

hey there...saw your post. I don't think it'll work. those sidewalls are still to permeable. it would take lots of effort and sealing. one thing I've wondered about is taking aquaseal to an open grifo and then trying tubeless.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by icolquhoun on September 22, 2009 at 8:37am

so the fango and grifo are a no-go for tubeless because of their very permeable sidewalls?
just how bad are they? I mean, sealing conti supersonic mtb tires is a few-day process due to their superthing "sweaty" sidewalls, are the challenge tires that bad or worse?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by andrew on November 10, 2009 at 1:20am

dave sheek tried to seal the challenge tires a while back, and based on the pic I saw, i trust him that it's a no go. it basically fell apart, and ate up the skinwall polyester casing. ask him to post a pic. it's not a nylon casing - perhaps the thinner thread is more susceptible to the sealant's corrosive properties.

fyi, I have noticed that on a panaracer tire that sealed up perfectly at first, after long tubeless use, then removal, it had a lot of "leaks" that took a long time to seal up (several days) later. I believe that's because the sealant over a long time did eat through the tire a bit.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by FallDownGoBoom on November 10, 2009 at 9:23am

Andrew (or anyone else), any feedback on the use of non-ammonia based sealants such as CaffeLatex? I'm just starting to try it and don't have enough time to mouth off yet, but so far it works as good as Stan's.

At interbike and on their websites, you read/hear a lot of different expert (pronounced "marketing-based") opinions on what the sealants will/won't do to tires and aluminum.

According to Stan of the awesome notubes producs, the ammonia should not affect the casing at all, though I too have seen what I believe to be weakened tires on MTBs and cross bikes.

The Cantitoe Road people of Caffelatex are very quick to point out the bad combination of ammonia based sealants and aluminum, but no one to my knowledge has been able to effectively blame tire failure on sealants. That said, these are all on regular clinchers, not the open tubular types.

Me, I usually trash a wheel and a tire long before the minimal effect of sealant causes a problem. Execpt of course for the ride at Gooseberry Mesa when my tire tread blistered and swelled away from the casing and then literally exploded 10 seconds after I stopped and ran away from the mutating and grotesque lemon size bumps. Quite a sight, and I unscientifically partially blame the sealant.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by andrew on November 25, 2009 at 1:55pm

what i've seen is that over time, it may slightly eat at the casing, but continues to heal itself. that is until you dry out the tire and try to reseal it. I've been amazed at how many little holes have developed, and it takes quite a bit of time to reseal those holes, but it happens over time too. I've used a few tires for over a year now without failure. No evidence of issues on my rims either. Hope that helps.!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by NordicNut on September 23, 2009 at 3:19pm

I thought there was an issue with bead strength of the tires. I'm not too worried about getting the sidewalls to seal, that's just a question of time and sealant, I'm worried about the bead spontaneously combusting when I'm cornering hard at 20 mph.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Gavriel Epstein on September 22, 2009 at 8:14am

Tubeless wheels for sale:
I have a set of Stan's 355 29er rims built with American Classic RD205 Shimano Rear MTB105 Front hubs that I recently built up for the cross season. I have come into a set of carbon tubulars and would rather run those and therefore need the money so I am selling the Stan's wheels. I have ridden them probably a total of 8 times, raced once. You really can run low pressure without worrying about burping. and I had no problem at all mounting tires on them. I have Maxxis Raze tires on there now, I'll include the tires if you want them, they are a year old as I had them on my clincher wheels previously. Built with black spokes and red nipples.
$550 or best offer.
Thanks

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next ›
• Page