Tubeless Tyres -"saying the same things about tubeless tyres over and over again" Hippy read the first f**king post

Tesa tape, lifeline valves

Cool, thanks. Sealant?

Can't say, I have Stan's, but somehow managed to ride everyday for years with no flats but once that I forgot to top up for months. Weird

Quite fitting that on the day I get my latest puncture on my Pro-One, Goodyear enters the game. I think it's a sign.

What's the cheapest set of bits I can get for a tubeless setup (excluding tyres)?

50m of tape available for £5 from Planet X. I don't have long term experience but stuck to the rim much the same as any other tape I've used.

There's some valves available on there for cheap too, with the rounded plug, which I rate above the square.

Gorilla tape and valves chopped from inner tubes * is all you need in my ‘cross and MTB experience

* removable valve cores pls

valves chopped from inner tubes

Really? That's interesting, presumable you leave something of a rubber flat around them to stop them going though the valve hole? Do you add any extra tape to hold them on?

+1 for gorilla tape, its excellent because you tear to to the exact width of your rim to get the best seal. I did three wheels with it and Schwalbe vales at the weekend, all perfect.

presumable you leave something of a rubber flat around them to stop them going though the valve hole?

Yep

Do you add any extra tape to hold them on?

Nope

Hmm yeah, I was wondering about the width. If I'm buying 50m of tape I might as well put it on all of my wheels (and my friends' wheels too) but then I need to have the right width for both a 29er and a road/gravel/touring/whatever thing.

Okay, so I'll go with Gorilla tape and whatever valves I can get (I have a few dead tubes I could use for now), what about sealant?

Well I've not had to do anything to my IRC Fusion 28s. These tyres were so good on the wet cobbles yesterday. Really amazed that the fine nail-file tread coped so well. Mounted on 19mm internal crabon rims, two layers of generic tape supplied by arkane wheel worx (tesa?) with caffelatex just blobbed in (& tipped around a bit) before trying to seat the tyre in. Just had to add some pressure up to about 80 every few rides.

I feel like when I crash with this run of luck I'm going to crash hard. What am I doing right?

What syringe should I get? It's for when I have to switch a wheel, I want to try the 'proper' way.

I use a baby/pet feeding one from the chemist. It's like 30p

This probably does not help with the 'proper' way.

I get the big Quart of Stans, its useful if you're using it to set up several bikes

In my experience, MTB wheels only need tape wide enough to cover the valve holes in the central channel. So 22mm tape should do you fine for most applications.

I find if you do that, the tape comes up when you change the tyres

Yep. Best to run it wall to wall. Or wider :)

Well! After 48 hrs of swearing, bleeding, redefining "tubeless" as a pejorative, and considering setting myself on fire, I finally got my IRCs on and seated...

Phoned @cycleclinic this morning to discuss my problems, he pointed out that if I was rotating tyres (rear was about twice as worn as front, so front -> rear & new -> front), the bead would be a bit stretched on the used tyre which could be the reason I couldn't get it seated with the standard amount of tape.

The new tyre went on the front wheel fine, and seated with a track pump, with some fairy liquid suds around the bead/rim lip.

So I added a layer of Gorilla tape on top of the stuff that was already on the rear wheel, and after a lot of swearing and one broken tyre lever (parktool), the used tyre finally went on.

I had tried putting the new tyre on before adding the layer of tape, but did not have the same fortune as I did with the front wheel. Even the LBS with a compressor couldn't get it to seat, so we figured that maybe the tape was damaged. I definitely poked it a lot with the end of the IRC tyre levers I have. Even managed to pinch-flat a tube using the pointy end of one of the levers, would recommend using the wide flat end for both mounting and removal. Hadn't a hope of getting the new tyre on with the additional layer of tape.

#csb

Also, Gorilla tape is available in Aldi.

My Schwalbe Pro One honeymoon is at its end. I've used these on my daily commuter for almost a year, and had more punctures than I had on regular tubes in the last 10 years. I think I'm doing everything right; sealant levels are constantly maintained and tyre pressure is nothing too high.

I've only got 4,000 miles on them and they're ready for the bin, which is pretty shit. What are other people's experiences with them? Does anyone else use them on a daily commuter, or only on their weekend bikes? Have I just been unlucky?

Anyway, can anyone pitch in with which alternatives they've been using, and what their experiences are with them, how many miles you've done on them?

Cheers

@Mu_Mu had flakey experience with those too, he returned and got IRC I think. Mine are working fine, obv not on the daily bike.

Schwalbe Pro One too lightweight for daily communter. They are a fast road tyre.
I didnt like them much and wouldn't swap for Maxxis Padrones.

As in Padrones are just as bad?

No much much better.

@finger_jockey I've got them on my race bike which I also use at weekends during the summer months. Had about 6-7 punctures on them in the 2000miles I put in them last summer. Switching to IRC tyres for them and would consider the xguard ones for commuting purposes.

Is Gorilla thicker than Stan's tape?

i.e. I've just taken iff two layers of Stan's cos it had splintered where I'd messed around getting tyres off, and now i'm putting Gorilla on.

I found that Pro-ones punctured quite a bit.

Put a Padrones on the back but that punctured as well. Then I think I did for it riding on too low pressure when I was hoping the puncture would seal. Not sure if I'm going to put my Pro-one which I've patched on the inside back on, or try and sort out the Padrone, which only has 300km on it.

Is Gorilla thicker than Stan's tape?

A bit, yes, but not enough to make much of a difference.