Tubeless road test coming up soon.

[ergott]

OP from WW site:

I plan on making myself a test bed for the Stan's road tubless setup. I have a set of wheels here that I will use the kit with the Hutchinson tubeless tires. I should get everything next week and can get a ride in on Thur. or Fri.

Wheels:
Nb-r 19mm rims (hidden nipple design)
Sapim Laser spokes
White Industries H1 hubs
24 radial and 28 2X/3X
1398g

Get this, I replaced all the rear hub bearings with Phil Wood Spec bearings. The fronts were too small (new H2 won't be too small) to use Phil Woods so I used Boca ABEC 5 ceramic hybrids. The rear hub was so f-in smooth, like nothing I've done before. Imagine the weight savings of an H1 hub with that smoothness of Phil bearings.

Can't wait to report on how these ride! I'll post pics later.

Continued...

Well here goes. They went on remarkably easy. The tires have a carbon whatever bead that isn't supposed to stretch which is what makes the tubeless compatible. I weighed one tire and it was 298g (290 claimed). Not bad. I have used a compressor to mount tubeless tires before, but this time I tried using a CO2. It worked perfectly. This was important as if I were to have a big tear in the tire from glass per say, I could boot the tire, put a tube in and get back on the road with just a CO2 to reset the tire. One 16g cartridge got me to 105 - 115psi. I won't get stranded.

I will go for the test ride tomorrow morning and it looks like I will have some decent weather to boot!

Here are some pics to hold you off for now.

http://websites4ever.com/ergott//images/Tubeless/pb211602.jpg

http://websites4ever.com/ergott//images/Tubeless/pb211603.jpg

http://websites4ever.com/ergott//images/Tubeless/pb211604.jpg

http://websites4ever.com/ergott//images/Tubeless/pb211606.jpg

[Too Tall]

Tease :cool:

[davids]

My, that's a good looking bike!

Tell us more about these rims, please. I assume they're tubeless-specific, but I haven't heard of them.

[ergott]

Nope. They are standard rims. They are called Kinlin Nb-r. They are basically like the IRD Cadence rim, but make for internal nipples. This makes them even stronger for the same weight as the holes in the rim are smaller. They build up to normal wheels if so desired. I just chose them because they are real nice rims. They also have a real finished look to them like the Campy Neutrons. The nice thing is you can sub in you own spoke count, color, and hub choice.

[whammo45]

Nope. They are standard rims. They are called Kinlin Nb-r. They are basically like the IRD Cadence rim, but make for internal nipples. This makes them even stronger for the same weight as the holes in the rim are smaller. They build up to normal wheels if so desired. I just chose them because they are real nice rims. They also have a real finished look to them like the Campy Neutrons. The nice thing is you can sub in you own spoke count, color, and hub choice.


I can't picture the internal nipple thing, (no pun intended)
how would the emergency tube work with the nips on the inside?
can you explain or show a pic of that please?
Also would adjustments and truing be a son of a gun?
They look great though.

thanks
Ron C

[amg]

The wheels you build just keep getting nicer and nicer!

[ergott]

Rode today. No problems at all. Here are the steps I followed.

1 Tape the rim according to Stan's (I start at the rim joint and wrap 2X)
2 punch hole for valve and insert valve
3 mount tires (no levers needed, just my bare hands)
4 CO2 the wheels to set bead and bring to pressure ( I got 105-115psi out of 16g cart.)
5 Let sit for a few hours (I don't know if this is necessary, but I wanted the tire to take shape)
6 deflate and add 2oz of Stan's sealant (there are other products out there including make your own)
7 reinflate with pump

I was a little worried that when totally deflated, I wasn't going to get them reinflated and standard rims don't hold the tire in place like tubless specific rims. I pumped a little fast and they set up right away. One note. Once I deflated the tire, I kept it off the ground (hung on my stand). I didn't want the weight of the wheel to unseat the tire and make it harder to reinflate. If you are doing this with a compressor around you don't have to bother. It's the easiest/est way, but I wanted to try without as I know that most people don't have one. All you really need is 1 CO2 per wheel. Once you are setup, the goal is to have the sealant fix most normal punctures, so you shouldn't have to do anything but maintain you normal pressure with a floor pump. I you have a tire killing cut (could happen to any tire), just keep a standard tube and a tire boot (dollar bill/folded paper works) and you are back on the road as if this were a regular tire/tube setup.

I have the feeling that as this technology progresses, it will be the best system compated to tubulars and tire/tubes. Theoretically the Crr should be the lowest of the three if the tire is designed properly. These tires are pretty good, rode nice enough. Objectively, I like my Veloflex tubular clad wheels the best, but this system makes the most sense. The kit costs no more to run than tire/tubes. More tires will come out of varying purpose and quality. The best part, you can start out with the wheels you have sitting around. I will continue to use this setup and if I have a problem, I'll report back. The only drawback I see right now is I don't know were you can get longer valve stems with threading on them. If you have deeper profile rims, you can't use any extensions that don't have any threading as you need the locknut on there to keep from leaking.

-Eric

[bnewt07]

What is the hoped for advantage with the tubeless system?

I say this having 'experienced' tubeless MTB systems and been utterly unconvinced. I'm not alone in that conclusion either.

[ergott]

No tubes (less expensive). Most flats repairing themselves. The possibility of lower rolling resistance. The possibility of being lighter.

[gdw]

Performance's mountain bike tubes have long threaded valve stems which should work with those rims. I've tried the system on MTB's and will stay with tubes. I didn't think it was worth the hassle especially after cutting a sidewall. The cut was too much for the sealant to handle and since it occured on a fast downhill the sealant sprayed all over the frame before I could stop.

Let us know what you think about the road version after a couple months of use.

[bnewt07]

No tubes (less expensive). Most flats repairing themselves. The possibility of lower rolling resistance. The possibility of being lighter.

I'll wager you still go out with spare tubes in your pocket!

I'm not sure why a tubeless system might have lower rolling resistance. I don't know the science but I can't see why that might be.