JonathanGennick 

Not just for Marlin. Raleigh also uses those OEM Horizons, on their Redux: https://www.raleighusa.com/redux-135724

nbarbieri

Not surprised. There are probably a couple more out there as well.

Darth Lefty 

praivo

I've been using a "ghetto" tubeless conversion (using a split 20" tube and Caffélatex) on my commuter with 26×1,75" Mitas Shields and old 21mm single-wall (!) rims for about a year and 1600 km. Everything worked surprisingly well, I was getting barely any leaks even without sealant, and didn't even need a compressor. With tubes, I used to get flats every <500 km, either from punctures or from ripping the valve stem off after the tube moved during braking. Without tubes, I just keep them inflated and add sealant every 4 to 6 months, that's all. I've never had a puncture that the sealant couldn't seal, even though I've ridden through/over a lot of crap including broken glass, and the valve hasn't moved.

Last weekend, I decided to convert my MTB (27.5×2" Schwalbe Hurricanes on 18mm Remerx MasterDiscs), this time with all the Caffélatex stuff (tape, valves, sealant). The Hurricanes were a bit looser than the Shields and wouldn't hold more than 10 psi without using a compressor and about 80 ml of sealant, but after I did manage to inflate them to 40 psi, getting them to seal completely only took a minute or two and they've now been holding 20 and 25 psi for about 100 km with no signs of any problems.*

Despite none of the tires and rims being tubeless-ready (and the tires having wire beads, not kevla), I haven't had any problems with the tires coming unseated or leaks/bleeding sealant though the sidewalls.*

HardyWeinberg

With today's staple puncture through both sides of a tube I was missing my tubeless setup.

SactoDoug

Update on my setup. I got another flat on my rear Hutchinson Sector 28 tire two weeks ago. Something went through the patch that I had applied on the inside of the tire. I was able to plug the tire and was on my way in less than 10 minutes.

When I got home that night, I replace the rear tire with one of my new "armored" Goodyear Eagle tires. That lasted for two weeks until today. I got a large slice in the tire. I have no idea what did it. I did not see any glass or other things in the road. I tried to use three plugs to seal up the slice but it was no good. I ended up putting in a tube and riding home. I will put the second Goodyear Eagle on the rear when I get a chance. I can tell that there is a lot more roll resistance with the Goodyears vs. the Hutchinsons. My average speed went down .5-.8 mph and my legs are more tired every day that I ride.

I just ordered a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Almotion tires. They are supposed to have both low roll resistance and high puncture resistance. I am only going to ride until daylight savings time kicks in. If I get another flat, then the Schwalbe tires go on. Otherwise, I may not get to them. If they fail, I am done with my tubeless experiment. Three sets of tires in a single season costing $400 is more than I am willing to pay every year for tires.

RubeRad

On my Krampus, last weekend I replaced my worn stock Knards with a pair of Bontrager Chupacabras I got off eBay lightly used. They were ghetto before, and I reused the same split tube to do ghetto again. It was pretty interesting that the old tires came out with the split tube sealed to it, had to rip it off. The new tires went on pretty easy, sealed up with just manually pulling the bead up to the rim and vigorous floor pumping. They held 40psi solid even before I deflated them to inject the sealant, and afterwards not one drop of sealant leaked out the bead or wept through the sidewall (latter is not surprising since the chupas are TR).

This was my easiest tubeless setup ever! So much easier than trying to seal a rim with tape. I'm ghetto 4 life! I don't care if there's flaps, or if the split tube weighs more than tape. Easiest to set up and most reliable long-term, that's a win-win for me.

Darth Lefty 

Double0757

RubeRad

Yes, but it was trivial to get them up to 40, even though in the end I ride them between 10-15.

And I would never ride 25/100. My commuter (crosscheck) has 700x50 on the back and I think 700x42 on the front. When they ride too soft (I test them every day riding over the triangular steel rail for my work's retractable gate), I find they're at like 15-20, and I pump them up to 30 or 40. (And those tires are tubed, but I was thinking just this morning about going split-tube/ghetto tubeless with them next time I have to replace the tires)

u235

Follow up. My love hate relationship has not changed. It is more reinforced on both sides. I've had to redo the setup on my rear twice since I posted that above. I have 700x38C Hutchinson Overide on WTB i23 Freq race rims. I did once with Orange Seal Endurance instead of my normal Stans and just the Scotch 898 strapping tape, one loop in the middle, two on the outside and a topper in the middle. It worked for about a month but.. I got some leaking from the valve stem. This usually indicates the tape is leaking somewhere and into the spoke channel and then out the stem but after pulling the tire and looking, I don't think so in this case, I really do think it was just the seal around my stem, it was dry and had some deformity to it. Oh well, either way and not taking the risk I pulled all of the tape off anyway and this time went with Tyvek home wrap tape, 2 laps around. That stuff is STICKY. Easy to cut to width and apply and gets down in the center channel easily, you do not have to pull as hard as Stans or the Scotch 8898. I hope it doesn't leave a residue because that would suck. I put a tube in and filled up the tire, let it sit for a few hours and then went with the sealant. That step really pushed down on the tape. Also went with the velotube stems someone earlier suggested, nice stems and a great price. I got lazy this time and didn't spend a few hours (half-joking) picking all of the dried sealant boogers from the sidewall, it did seep on intial fill though because of that old sealant. Funny thing here. I did my front tire once with my old rims and once when I switched to new rims, never had a single problem. My back tire is on like it's 5th time. Holes, leaks, rim swap, and another hole. I did my MTB early this year to and haven't had a single issue on either tire. That is Stans tape and Stans sealant (probably dried out by now). Sometimes the process works flawless and lasts a long time, sometimes it works for a month or so, and sometimes if just doesn't work.

Lessons learned so far.
- I had initially either in this thread or another suggested using Gorilla tape to seal slits and holes in the tire on the inside. I had good luck with that in the past. I noticed this time on a patch I did the sealant munched up the tape and shriveled it up. I can't say that is a long term fix, it took me a while to clean up the remaining residue from the inside of the tire and this time applied a regular tube patch. I will no longer use or suggest Gorilla tape to repair large slits.
- On the fence with tapes still. I still like the Scotch 8898 but mine seems to not be as flexible as it was when i bought it a few months ago, must not have a long shelf life. It was too hard to get into the deep center of the WTB i23 rims. Read about the Tyvek and people having good luck so gave it a whirl. It comes in 48mm x 164ft roll for $13 at Home Depot and slit in half worked perfect for me. That's 328 feet so I won't run out for a long time.
- My Hutchinson Overides have a ton of small holes on the road touching tread area. When I fill up tubeless after being tubed, there are about 50 places with pin holes that leak until the sealant does it's thing, zero on the sidewalls.

DrIsotope

This seems to be fairly normal. My Overides do it, my Maxxis ReFuse did it, pretty much every tire I've used does it to some degree. I call 'em weepers, they show me where I would have gotten a flat tire had I been on tubes.

Ald1 

Love Hate

Ok FWIW. I run Schawbe Pro one on ENV 4.5's. Had close to 2k to my first flat (Love). Sidewall cut 12 miles from my car, 30 miles from home, learned quick, although I had a spare, no fricken way my 66 year old arthritic hands was going to remove that tire (Hate). Sealent actually started to hold, but only to about 40lbs. Enough for me to limp back to my car (Love). Took to LBS for new tire. They could not get it to seat and as they added sealant right off the bat they made a big mess. They finally gave up and added a tube, told me a lost cause (Hate). Didn't like that so I did research, bought an airshot and went for it myself. Ruined that new tire trying to get it off (learning curve Hate). Mounted another new tire went like a dream (Love). Fast forward a couple of weeks. Going over my bike the front tire right sidewall was showing the cords. Have no idea what happened but decided to replace WTF (Hate). OK, I thought, I got this down now. Got new tire but had a hard time mounting/ seating it have no idea why but took 4 attempts (hate). The ride, the ride the ride (love). SUMMARY. They are more work and sometimes they can be a PITA. Steep learning curve but, at least for me, at this point in time, I'll keep using them as the ride and conform are second to none.

TIPS, What I learned.(At least for my setup).
Unseating the tire. I use wooden shims and gentle pry between the bead and rim working the bead to the center. Once both beads are in the center tire comes off easy. Plastic tire irons too thick to work.
Mounting. Kool stop Tool! When half the tire is on, make sure that bead stays in center channel when going for second one. This was my problem the second time around.
Inflating. Seat tire BEFORE sealant! Remove valve core. SOAP Tire sides. I needed an airshot and feel you do need a quick blast of air. After seated add sealant, valve core, pump up to only 40 lbs spin tire etc gve sealent a chance to work at lower pressure. Pump to full pressure. Done. No mess.

I also put the tire in water to check leaks. Absolutly none. NOTE the original lbs mount showed slow air bubbles out of some spoke holes and valve stem. Is this why folks think tubeless need air more often as these leaks were very minor Normal?

Darth Lefty 

RubeRad

My recent change from stock (non-TR) Knards to TR Chupacabras has eliminated leakage for me. Most decent MTB tires sold today are TR, so when you get new tires you should be in great shape. I'm a cheapskate though and try to buy lightly-used tires off fleabay, and we're still in a transition period where people converting to tubeless are selling off their non-TR tires, or companies/vendors clearing out non-TR stock. Like yours, the tread looks in great shape, they will do a great 1000mi for somebody that wants to run tubes or put up with weeping.