RubeRad

That's what I used. It seemed to work fine, as long as I had a good seal with the rimtape and bead. It's nice that it comes with a syringe.

Darth Lefty 

Got the back tire of my MTB set up. It's 26" clincher everything, tubeless ready nothing. The tire is a WTB Wolverine Race with two years on it, and old stock before that... A cross country racing tire with small lugs, soft and about as light as a MTB tire gets, no layers of anything. It weighs less than half a tubeless ready all mountain 29er tire. The tape is Gorilla on the channel only, not up the walls; the stem was cut out of a tube. To my surprise it inflated just fine with the compressor, with the only gross leak at the not-welded rim joint. Now it's sitting in the garage and I soon noted some bleeding around the bead. I'm really expecting it to sweat through the sidewall, it's such a light tire.

I was really prepared for either total success or failure, having it sort-of work feels weird somehow

RubeRad

pump only, that's impressive! I did this:


and still it was not easy. One tip that helped me was, inflate with a tube first to seat the beads, then take the tube out and leave one bead intact.

Darth Lefty 

I used the compressor.

RubeRad

Oh right. Since you said 'surprised' my brain filled the rest in with 'with just a pump'

Darth Lefty 

That 2L bottle is a little scary. The pressure in a soda bottle is probably like 3 bar / 45 psi (unshaken and cold). It will always be less than that after you open it. When I was setting up a water rocket rig for undergrads back in my grad school days, we took them up over 100 psi to experiment but north of that they would distend scarily and fail before 150. We gave the students a limit of 35 iirc, which we considered a safety factor of 3 with no knockdowns. I wouldn't cycle it too many times either, or keep it for long.

Soda Stream bottles are much stouter and because they are made for reuse they are rated pressure vessels. If you look on one you will see an expiration date printed on it.

RubeRad

I used a 5qt apple cider bottle, and I am never able to get it over 40psi before it starts leaking. I should probably try again with a soda bottle.

gsa103

The good news is that the bottle can be replaced trivially, you only need to keep the modified cap. So you can keep the cap in a tool box, and just get a new bottle everytime.

skinny matt

Not trying to be snide but all this jazz sounds like a pain in the butt. Is it worth it? Maybe the appeal is in part an excuse to monkey around with some bike stuff. I could understand that.

Darth Lefty 

it hasn't been that big a deal. Not worse just different. I don't find it as messy as chain lube so far. I'm trying it after years on the fence because of a bad run of flats. I put it off in the past because I was worried about the stuff hardening in a puddle in the bottom of the tire in storage.

acidfast7

ok one can just buy them cheaply ...

£1/1 2L bottle

£10 for a 4 port threaded cap

Must safter than the plastic bottle.

There are some high-pressure glass bottles available as well

acidfast7

Also, just get a puncture-resistant tyre and skip this fuss. SMP should be more than enough.

RubeRad

The two goals of tubeless are to be able to run lower pressures for mountain biking (with no risk of pinch flats), and to have self-sealing tires in case of punctures. Maybe a third goal for some weight weenies is to lower rolling resistance and save weight?

I'm mostly after self-sealing.

HardyWeinberg

I am in my 2nd or 3rd year of evaluating tubeless. Definitely as much gearhead value as anything else. I do like the lower pressure w/o fear of pinch flat. I don't think weight savings is possible (I am pretty sure the sealant weighs more than a tube)

RubeRad

I'm pretty sure the sealant weighs less than a tube. Usually it's like 2oz into a bigass 29er tire, right? How much does a tube weigh?

And then it dries up and has to be replenished, but (a) 'dries up'=loses all water weight, and (b) only so many replenishes are needed before the tire is worn out. Probably a different life cycle for a commuting tire than a mtb tire though.

Darth Lefty 

That's definitely the normal approach. I have a bum ticker and low wattage, my average speeds are less than 10 mph and if I have a pair of slow tires eating an extra ten of my scant hundred watts I can feel it and it's frustrating. That said, my sliced Voyager Hyper got replaced with a regular Marathon, which is not too bad for rolling resistance, and it's only on the rear.

nayr497

Old thread, but this is exactly my question!

I commute on a MUP 35 minutes each way 5-6 times a day. Had a few flats this week, because of storms blowing all the smashed beer bottles folks drink and throw into the woods onto the trail. With the ride being on 35 minutes, when I get a puncture halfway there...it's a toss up to swap it out or ride to my office to make it easier to swap. That happened this week, was cold-ish, pouring rain, and halfway there. Oh, and bike has a rack and fenders, so makes changing flats a bit harder than on a road bike.

I'm not looking for performance or weight savings, just a lack of punctured tubes. Been riding this trail for years now, not a ton of flats, but this week I've had two.

I run cyclocross tubeless on my CX race/gravel riding bike, so have set it up. And have all I need on hand - Stan's tape, rim strip, liquid. Older rim, but brand new Panaracer Gravel King tubeless ready tire. I'd still carry a tube and would get a plug fix kit.

Don't see the reason not to try, especially having set up tubeless already and having all the needed goods on hand. (though I know non-tubeless rims always can pose some challenges in setting up.)

Thanks!

Oh, and beyond commuting, I ride this bke all over the city, so I'm on it 7 days a week. Run 38 mm Panaracer tires. And it's a solid-quality commuter I built up myself two years ago. Nothing fancy, but a solid bike.

Darth Lefty 

Yes. I'm onto a different bike than the one I posted about in this thread. My new one came with tubeless rims but not real tubeless tires. The tires when set up tubeless with Stan's or Truckerco would seep out the sidewalls, but did ok with Orange Seal. One of them has worn out and been replaced with a Schwalbe Snakeskin tire, and that hasn't been a problem any more. Sealant drying out has turned out not to be a big deal - just ignore the residue and add more. But I'm using big mountain bike tires that wear out in a few thousand miles. If I were on a smaller volume 10,000 mile tire for five years I could see it being a problem. It's nice not to fix thorn flats roadside any more. I carry a 2oz bottle of sealant in case it turns out I forgot and I got a tubeless patch kit (worms) for bigger holes but I haven't had to use it. It still won't save you from a severe cut, but that's really pretty rare.