|   going tubless - how much maintenance? | Mr. Waffle
Aug 8, 2002 4:47 AM | | Can any of you tubeless users elaborate on how often you have to re-seal your tires? How time consuming is this? How different are the various systems (Stan's, UST) from a maintenance perspective?
It sounds like tubeless has some great advantages, but I'm not sure I want to spend a lot of time messing around trying to seal my tires with goo. |
| No maintenance here other than pumping up the tires... | AndyH
Aug 8, 2002 4:55 AM | | ...I have Mavic Crossmax Disc UST's with Hutchinson Python tubeless tires. I haven't used any sort of tire sealer, as I wanted to see how the setup would perform "out-of-the-box".
Well, after 4 or 5 months of riding, I'm very happy with my decision to go tubeless. Other than airing up my tires to my preferred pressure prior to a ride, I haven't done any maintenance on this setup. |
| re: going tubless - how much maintenance? | woodyak
Aug 8, 2002 5:37 AM | | UST's are very low maintenance. The tires work just fine w/o adding any flat-resistant goop. You just put the tires on the rim and inflate. With a floor pump you have to initially pump real hard to get the lip of the tire to take to the rim and create the seal. If that doesn't work you can use C02 cartridges for the seal to take.
I've found that flat-resistant goop is not very difficult to deal with. You dump a little goo in just before you close off the tire. The goop protects you from puncture flats and it helps you from loosing PSI's during the night.
Overall I've been very impressed with my UST tires. I'm running Panaracer Fire XC Pro's. I did have a problem with one of the tires getting flats but I'm pretty sure it was defective. The guy I bought my bike from is sending me a replacment. |
| re: going tubless - how much maintenance? | SunDog
Aug 8, 2002 7:08 AM | | Running X-MAX UST w/Specialized Enduro Pro 2.25's & slime in cactus infested desert. Right now my front tire has seven mesquite thorns stuck in it, a few of which seep air. It can hold air for a five hour ride but goes low overnight. I re-inflate before every ride and check it during the ride. It will need to repaired soon.
Now the tubeless maintenance part. If you ride in a thorny environment you will have to do tire repair. Patching UST's can be tricky. I use a file rather than sandpaper and plenty of vulcanizer regular patches and a small clamp. Also I am very thorough in identifying all the punctures before removing the tire so after reseating the repaired tire I wont have to remove it again.
MtB Action magazine ran an article on tubeless repair. They used super glue and repaired puntures without removing the tires. I am going to try this on the seven mesquite punctures. I am also thinking about experimenting with a tire plug kit.
Hope that helps. |
| tubeless tires | Fast feet
Aug 8, 2002 7:31 AM | | Go to the Napa Auto store and get some Liquid Rubber Buffer to prepare the inside of the UST tire for patching the puncture site. I'd stay away from plugs, though.
My maintenance on UST involves simply adding air to the proper pressure before each and every ride, takes 1 minute. Before unmounting a tire I use a soapy brush to clean the tire and then I rinse the tire under running water and I let it dry it the sun or wipe it dry. I want clean rubber so that the bead doesn't get dirty affecting the seal.
When mounting, I've got a clean tire and then I get some Simple Green or Dawn soap to lubricate the bead, it helps ease the process and makes it so no levers are necessary. Floor pumps can do the job of filling quickly enough to pop the beads into place and compressed air is the best way. Fill to about 50lbs and let the tire seat for a couple hours.
Find punctures the old-fashioned way by dunking and rotating inflated tire in water. Mark the tire or rim with some sort of marker (chalk, Sharpie) at puncture sites. Repair with Rema patches on the inside of tire carcass per MBAction article.
Always carry standard tube with you on the trail. |
| one last tip | SpongeDog
Aug 8, 2002 9:29 AM | | From a bar of soap, cut a little piece off (1 inch long by half inch thick), wrap it in plastic wrap and drop it in your pack. If you rub the soap on the rim, the tire will go on in seconds (as opposed to the first time my riding buddy had to pull his UST and it took half hour and 3 broken tire levers to get back on). |
| I use Stans and... | casey
Aug 8, 2002 9:35 AM | | have had no problems with the system. I've been using it since the beginning of this year and the rear tire is still holding air just fine. I probably need to add more latex but I'll worry about it when it doesn't seal any more. I had to put more latex in the front tire once but that was due to a cut in the tire sidewall that wouldn't seal. Stans system is very easy to use. Just take your time and have a little patience the first time around. You don't have the increased expense of a UST system, you don't have the increased weight of the UST system and if you do get thorns in the tire, the hole seals itself up with minimal loss of air. How can you go wrong. Best $55 investment i've made in my bike. Good luck. |
| I concur: I use Stans and...(long, but it's me) | mcseforsale
Aug 8, 2002 10:02 AM | | I've been running a home-made version of Stan's for about 6 months now. I've had to re-apply the tape once on both wheels, and I think I'm getting to know why, so that should not be a problem anymore. I just pump up the tire before each ride. In fact, last night, I decided to pop off the rear tire and turn it around (I didn't like the way it handled in the reverse direction) and add latex. It's right now on my car and hasn't lost air since.
The coolest part is I'll stop after a particularly rocky descent (I do live in CT, after all: see www.bikerag.com) and my tire will have several small white bubbles (about pea sized) growing from the sidwall of my front tire. These are punctures! They seal within a few seconds. But it's neat watching people look and wonder why my bike is breathing. In fact, last night, I found about 10 of these on one side of my front tire.
I also like hearing people react to my tires pinging and poinging off rocks. I don't care about pinch-flatting (haven't yet) so I just ride over everything. POING...PING... Itsa riot.
The only problem that I HAVE had is when the pressure gets too low (below 30 psi or so) if you land sideways or off-camber, the tire will break the bead and release all the air by rolling off the rim. This has happened once off a jump. I was able to pump it back up with my Mammoth and keep going. Now I keep the pressure at 36rear and 38 front.
I did the whole kit for about 15 bux. Mold-maker latex at Michaels (worse part was going in there) and 2 rolls of tape from HD/Lowe's.
If you do make your own Stan's, use LOTSA brake cleaner to clean the rim. When you think it's clean, clean it again, then again. Then, put the tape on and use a regular tube in the wheel for about 12-24 hours with about 50psi to really seat the tape. Then mix the latex and go for it. If anyone has any questions, email me for the MBA article scans.
AJ
mcseforsale@yahoo.com |
| Same here... | JsR
Aug 8, 2002 10:36 AM | | I add air LESS often with the Stan's than I did with tubes.
No flats yet, I was getting flats about every other ride with tubes (lotsa patches).
I'm using it on two bikes both wheels.
Oh yeah, don't use CO2 to inflate - it turns the latex into cottage cheese. |
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