Ksyrium and Tubeless

[Dude]

Anyone running this setup? I ran k's and tubeless tires but was having some issues with burping. I ran it for a few weeks but I just wanted to see if/what people are doing to make it work.

thanks.

[Ray]

Anyone running this setup? I ran k's and tubeless tires but was having some issues with burping. I ran it for a few weeks but I just wanted to see if/what people are doing to make it work.

thanks.
I had no problems with it. I had about 2005 SSC-SLs and they worked fine. No burping. Not sure if the shape of the rim changed at all to make it harder either earlier or later versions. I couldn't inflate it initially with a pump - had to use CO2 for that quick burst of air to get the beads to seat on the rim. And then I'd use a pump to top 'em off daily. No problems and tubeless really transformed those wheels.

-Ray

[Dude]

@ray If you have about 20psi in the rim, does the tire come off? or does the bead stay engaged?

[Ray]

@ray If you have about 20psi in the rim, does the tire come off? or does the bead stay engaged?
I'm not sure - I don't know that I ever had 'em that low before topping them off. I know with my tubeless specific rims, once they're seated, they stay seated until you squeeze them together to get them off, even with no pressure in them. I don't know if the Ksyriums did that or not. I only had the K's for about a month running tubeless and then sold them to help finance a set of the Dura Ace carbon/alu tubeless specific, which are just ridiculously nice wheels. I have no business owning or riding them, but I'm gonna keep and ride 'em anyway.

-Ray

[Satellite]

Ray,

Did you run a tubeless specific tire on the K's? I know I didn't like my Stan's getto tubless conversion on my Mountain bike. Do you have a thread link to old postings I could read?

Satellite

[Ray]

Ray,

Did you run a tubeless specific tire on the K's? I know I didn't like my Stan's getto tubless conversion on my Mountain bike. Do you have a thread link to old postings I could read?

Satellite
I don't know much about mtb tubeless, but with road, you HAVE TO use tubeless specific tires. You can retrofit MOST rims to work with them, but only tubeless specific tires have the right type of bead to grip and seal and hang on properly. At the moment, the only tires out there are Hutchinson Fusion 2, but they're supposed to be coming out with another, slightly fatter tire soon. I hope other manufacturers are going to get into the tubeless thing, but for now, its just Hutchinson. A non-tubeless specific wheel/rim needs to be retrofitted and what that takes varies. Most rims have spoke holes coming through the interior wall so those need to be completely sealed off with special rim tape. On Ksyriums, the inner wall is solid so this step isn't needed. And then you need a tubeless valve and stem. But the tire choices are limited to tubeless specific, which is the one real shortcoming of tubeless so far. Then again, they're very nice tires.

-Ray

[dekindy]

Ray,
Did you run a tubeless specific tire on the K's?


Absolutely. A non-tubeless specific tire is simply installing a regular tire without a tube and will come off the rim before you go very far at all. Do not do it under any circumstances.

[ejh]

I ran them for cross last year down to 25 PSI with no problems. I have an old pair 01 or 02 vintage. running bullgogs

[Dude]

@ejh and ray -
Interesting because i did a lot of prelim research with some hutchinsons and the ksyriums, playing around with it for a whole week before I even rode them (I didn't want to mess up such a pretty face :) ). The biggest concern for me was that it would hold air fine and as long as there was 60+ psi in them, the bead was fully engaged. When at really low PSI, the bead would pop off the rim, not like a true tubeless setup should run (that was my first red flag). My concern was that if all of my air dumped out, the tire would come off the rim. Also, if i pushed in directly on the sidewall i could get air to hiss out (red flag #2). SO i put some sealant in there and same thing happened.

Thinking that wasn't a force a tire typically saw (when is something pushing directly on the sidewall of a road tire??) i ran the setup for a couple weeks with no problems. It was holding air, no leaks, i'd run 100 psi for a few rides, then down to 95, then 90 then 85. I settled right around 90 psi for another week or so.

My ah-ha moment came when i turned to go into a friends driveway and I heard a hiss. BURP! nothing major, but i confirmed the burp when i saw some sealant sprayed up on the sidewall. Basically, i hit the square edge at an angle, causing the tire to fold in a little bit and go slack, creating a gap where air could burp out. I took them off as soon as possible. Nothing happened, i didnt crash or anything

Moral of the story, do your due diligence. I liked the way they rode, thats why i was asking how you got to run the setup.

[ejh]

I was worried about them burpping and after trying it the first time I put the Stan's strips in and have had no problems.

[Ray]

I was worried about them burpping and after trying it the first time I put the Stan's strips in and have had no problems.
I wasn't worried and AFAIK, they didn't burp. The moral being, don't worry - be happy!

But I can't guarantee that they didn't. They guys at Notubes.com, who've done a zillion conversions, indicated that they'd never had problems with most rims, Kysriums among them. They DID have trouble with open pros, which is a drag considering how many of them are out there. They said they tended to burp a lot and very easily.

I generally ran the K's and my other tubeless at around 85-90 psi and haven't had any problems with any of them. I can imagine there would be a pressure at which they'd be more likely to come unseated with a side force and 'burp'. But I didn't find it.

-Ray