digibud

Thought I'd lost a glove and road back looking for it and not paying close attention to the road. Heard a pop but didn't think much of it. Later my riding partner commented on my tire being very low. It was but I couldn't see any Stan's goop coming out. I hit it with C02 for a little bit with the valve at the top to reduce the issue with cold...and continued on. Upon careful inspection at home I can see where it probably was punctured but the tubeless setup worked perfectly and once again I spent 30seconds adding a bit of CO2 instead of 15minutes swapping tubes. Love tubeless.

arex

I'm debating going tubeless on my mountain bike build. I have tubeless-ready rims and tires, but I resist change...everyone keeps telling me that tubeless is the way to go, though.

digibud

there's plenty of info out there but as good as it is for road, for mtn it's even better. A "real" tubeless rim and tire combo makes is much easier but with mtn rims you can "ghetto" it for almost any combination. I did finally get an air compressor but the need for that again depends entirely on what tire/rim combination you are using.

ddeand 

I agree 100% with the suggestion to go tubeless on a mtb. I built up one hardtail with tubeless, and it was really a nice improvement over the tubed tires. My current bike is "tubeless ready", but I haven't taken the time time buy the rim tape, valves, and sealant. Maybe I'll do it this week when the weather becomes too dangerous for us old guys to ride.

A question, though. Is there a tire size limit for tubeless? I.e., is there a size where the higher pressure is too much for the tubeless system?

RubeRad

Check out this recent thread, there's a lot of back and forth discussion of pros/cons of tubeless.

I bought a pair of mtb from BD for my wife&I with 'tubeless-ready' wheelsets, and converted them both to tubeless with gorilla tape and TruckerCo Cream Latex Sealant (well, 3/4 ain't bad).

It's a pain to set up (less of a pain if you have an air compressor).

It's not a panacea for flats. My wife slammed across a rut and blew out both tires, had to re-do the tubeless. I rode with pressure too low (10psi? I didn't measure the pressure, that's kinda the point) and rolled my tire off, had to re-do. I am still waiting for the pleasure of pulling out a goathead and hearing the sealant work.

Sealant dries up and more needs to be added every couple months! One day you just walk into the garage and your tire is dead flat, that's how you know it's time for more sealant. (fortunately that's just open the removable core presta, squeeze in another couple syringes, and air it back up). Unless you start making your own, that recurring cost can end up more than tubes (or patches)

In theory you can radically decrease your tire pressures, but in practice that is limited by the width of the rim. Fatbikes have fat rims, so you can get well into the single digits of pressure and be fine. My rims are unfortunately only 19mm internal width, so that doesn't give a very wide stance for my tires, and if I get much below 20 they tend to roll with sideways force from turning. I find 22-23 is about as low as I can manage unless I replace wheels/rims.

Best tip I got from those discussions, when tubelessing a tire, after putting the sealing rim tape on, first air the whole thing up with a tube, that seats both beads well, gets the beads "used to" stretching out to ride above the rim tape. Then crack just one bead to get the tube out, and get to work blasting with air to re-seal. That way one bead is already in there.

Second best tip, make your own manual air compressor: