Tubeless!

[blown240]

I have thought about converting my main bike to tubeless for a while now, but never really had a reason too. Well that all changed over the weekend.


This was my front tire, the rear looked just the same:

These were all in the front tire:

Needless to say I found myself walking home.

So since I had to buy a couple tubes anyway, and I had a bottle of Stan's sealant that a buddy gave me. I decided to give tubeless a try. Or should I say "Ghetto Tubeless" or "Split Tube Tubeless".

So I started with a pair of 20" tubes. These i stretched over my 26" wheels, and once they were nice and straight, I cut the tube alone one of the seams. This is what I ended up with:

At this point I had a nice sealed rim, and a valve to fill the tire with.

Next, I mounted the tire. Notice that the split tube is sandwiched between the rim and the tire. This actually held air pretty good, but has tons of tiny leaks from when I pulled the thorns out.

Next, I pulled the valve core and put about 4 ounces of Stans sealant into the tire. I put the valve core back in and aired it up to about 35 psi. I went for about a mile ride and all the holes had sealed.

Once I was confident that there were no leaks, I trimmed off the excess tube, leaving just a little lip of tube, so that I can reuse the tube if I ever have to take this tire off.

Here they are mounted and aired up. I rode 20 miles yesterday on this setup and it seems great. Plus it took a half a pound off the bike. And if I get more thorns, I have sealant in the tire!

If you try this, make sure that you clean everything really well with soapy water. Including washing all the powder off that was inside the inner tube.

 

[honestherman]

Do you have a close up photo where you trimmed the tube off the wheel. I really like the idea. Just wondering how it looks up close.

 

[blown240]

I do. As you can see, if trimmed carefully and evenly, its barely noticeable.

I may end up doing this on all my bikes.

 

[jerrykr]

We called the "thorns" goat heads when we were kids. I learned to patch tubes pretty often.

 

[blown240]

Yup! Goat Head is the technical term...

 

[ifitsfreeitsforme]

that's really cool. I did not know about this method. Thanks for showing it.

 

[aratman]

I coached youth football in New Mexico one of the fields we played on was covered with goat heads. Talk about kids popping up after a tackle.

 

[heartlandcruisers]

good show!!!
i like this idea
i remember the goat heads when i was growing up many tubes have bid their farewell because of these things and man did they hurt when stepped on barefoot!!!!

 

[tonygameboy]

I've been reading up on this! Glad you made a simple post about it!! These little b******s are my mortal enemy and killed two of my tires last week.

I LIKE BIKES

 

[MtnBikinPilot]

Being a MtnBiker and having a Ghetto Tubless system on my bike....my concern is burping and resealing and the tire slipping off rim since it's not in contact w/ the inner lip of the rim...That doesn't seem good enough for AM riding...

I did a similar method but trimmed the tube inside the rim so tire would hook on lip...

 

[tonygameboy]

I'm guessing the gorilla tape method is to seal the tube beneath the tire bead for a cleaner look? I'm going to do this to my cruisers to avoid buying tubes all the time.


I LIKE BIKES

 

[blown240]

As far as having issues with this setup and all mountain riding, I can say that's it's still a great setup.

I spend a lot of time at bootleg canyon in NV. My wife's uncle and cousin live out there and her uncle has the same tubeless setup. The only one of us to ever have issues with any sort of flat is her cousin who runs tubes.

Bootleg is gnarly and beats up tires and bikes in general.

 

[MtnBikinPilot]

Familiar w/ Bootleg and if it's Bootleg worthy then I will definitely give it a try...