Tubeless

Why has tubeless been so embraced by MTB but not by road?

There’s greater benefits for MTB than road. Works better at lower pressures, better traction in loose conditions, less of a chance of a pinch flat on a root or a rock, etc.

even though I am building a set of tubeless wheels for my powertap training set… they are not better than tubulars…

I freaking love quality tubulars + a little bit of stans = ride the tires until they are toast and never get a flat… plus you have a few hundred gram lighter wheelset…

get me into: tubeless without buying special stans (or other brand) strips and expensive bottles of goop.

i hear some guys just cut innertubes up and run those with home-made glue stuff with great results…?

I have some friends who ran “ghetto tubeless” for a while. I’ve helped some of them set it up, though I’ve never tried it myself, though I probably will soon. If I remember correctly, it went something like this:

-They took 24" tubes and made a single cut all the way around the outside of the tube, leaving them with essentially a rubber band with a valve.

-Then they put the tube onto the rim with the loose ends hanging over the edges of the hook.

-Then they took their (regular, non-tubeless-specific) tires and carefully mounted them on the inside of the rubber, so that the edges of the tubes were sticking out onto the braking surface and very, very carefully inflated them, making sure to keep the bead engaged with the hook through the rubber.

-Cut off the excess rubber with a razor blade (be careful not to cut your sidewall), pump in some sealant, ride, enjoy.

This setup apparently burps a fair bit the first day out, but after that, works pretty fucking well. If you use rim brakes, make sure you do a good job cutting the excess tube that sticks out or you will have problems.

Which makes you wonder why after 4-5 years of being on the market and pretty much all the best wheel companies making them, have they not taken off yet.
I also heard a big complaint being that they aren’t much lighter than clincher tires and the limited tire availability.

iirc you can only get hutchinsons, which are not that great.

Yellow tape should, (might?) work on rims with a welded joint. Like I said in and earlier post I’m using it in a Sun Equalizer.

http://www.notubes.com/movietape.php

I got the bead to seat once with just the tape but it was much easier with an orange plastic rim strip. (Velox??)

Irc makes tubeless road as well

or

i might have to try this ghetto tubeless stuff, just need some sealant.

I really want to do this.

DQ: Should I take Kenda’s warning to never use fluid-based sealants seriously?

[quote=deadforkinglast]I really want to do this.

DQ: Should I take Kenda’s warning to never use fluid-based sealants seriously?[/quote]

psh, what does kenda know?

Stans is the shit

even though I am building a set of tubeless wheels for my powertap training set… they are not better than tubulars…

I freaking love quality tubulars + a little bit of stans = ride the tires until they are toast and never get a flat… plus you have a few hundred gram lighter wheelset…[/quote]
by better, I do not only take into consideration the ride quality of the tire. I take all things into consideration, including but not limited to ease of use, cleanliness, affordability, cost of replaceable parts, availability, AND ride quality. that and they wont roll from a possible shitty glue job and require razorblad/screwdriver chisel prepwork before putting a new tire on.

it is better than tubular.

Which makes you wonder why after 4-5 years of being on the market and pretty much all the best wheel companies making them, have they not taken off yet.
I also heard a big complaint being that they aren’t much lighter than clincher tires and the limited tire availability.[/quote]
90% of the people that buy spec. s-works and moots and titus and lynskey and cdale and salsa mtbikes from us use tubeless. basically the nitpicky rich people. some are legit tire/rim combos, some are not. no one has had any problems or a single complaint about what they run.

my cross bike dropped a pound, and my mtb dropped almost 2.

availability? kenda, maxxis, specialized, WTB, stans, hutchinson…

also, from what I have heard from users, and can see by looking at them, the dura ace, ultegra, and fulcrum wheels are all pretty ballin and work great on the road. weight savings is not necessarily as much, but my roommate loves his fulcrums.

almost anything can go tubeless.

Campy 2 way fit (euros, etc) are tubeless compatible as well.

After reading this thread and then a three part article in CX magazine (you can read part 1 here: http://www.cxmagazine.com/going-tubeless-cyclocross-racing-intro), I think I’m going to build a tubeless setup for my cross bike come next fall with Stan’s ZTR 29er rims and whatever 32h hub. My current clinchers are nearly trashed anyway, so a new wheelset was an inevitability.

Stoked to be able to run the tires I already have (Mud 2’s) and not have to worry about buying expensive cross tubbies.

Question: will road tubeless work on a ZTR 29er rim? Would the tire hold to the wider rim? Trying to foresee what I’d be training on in the winter post-CX season, since I usually use my CX bike for winter training and only keep one wheelset around for it.

Edit: On further research, looks like it’s possible to use Stan’s ZTR rim with larger road tires + tubes around 80PSI with no problems. Could be a worthwhile setup, then: race tubeless for CX season, then just swap the CX tires for some Schwalbe Marathon 700x28’s and go road training in the winter.