I am considering getting the Stan's No Tubes kit. I keep getting flats lately, and I read it supposed to relieve both these problems. 2 questions: Will it be compatible with the tires and rims that I already own? I have Mavic 321 disc rims and a Kenda Nevgal 2.35 on the front and a WTB Mutano Raptor 2.24 on the back. Secondly, is it worth it? Does it work? Any thoughts?
I've run Stan's since 2002 with no problems. I've also successfully used those tires on Mavic, DT Swiss and Bontrager rims. You'll probably need a compressor to air the WTB since it's a bigger volume tire with a flimsy sidewall. It's worth it watching your flat heal itself without having to stop.
I dont know about compatability, stan's website will tell you all that. I can answer if it is worth it, for me it definitely is. Weight and traction have gotten totally better with my new wheelset. Probikewheels helped me with it and built it up for me. I can run lower pressures, and they sure beat the hell out of my mavic crossride's I was running UST as my training set. Their system works!
1. YES 2. If you do it correctly. Watch the video and do what it shows. I haven't watched it in a while but i remember there being something about drilling out your valve hole in your rim to make it wider, for what I can't remember because i didn't do it. 3. When set up correctly with enough sealant splashing around inside, it's the best thing I've seen. However, it's not going to fix everything; like a 3" slice in your sidewall, but then again with a tube, you'll still have a flat. however, you'll see that nearly everyone who goes tubeless carries a spare tube in our pack "just in case". Mine has sat on the bottom of my pack for the longest time though. :bang: p.s. FIND A COMPRESSOR that can pump air in it quickly. It will pop the bead on to the rim (and keep it there) faster than any standard pump can.
I didnt use a compressor or drill out the holes, and mine turned out fine. I have the rim strip on my front, and since I messed up the rear rim strip I have yellow tape on the rear.
im willing to put money you didn't save any weight by going with the stans kit over tubes unless you were running slime tubes or dh tubes. to the OP. please use the search button, there are many threads on stans. in fact, maybe we can combine them all and make it a 'sticky'?
I cannot recommend the conversion kit enough. Weight and traction issues aside, it's worth it for the flat protection alone. Do some research on their website and forum searches, and definitely find a compressor for the installation -- it will make your life 1000x easier. The videos on their site were especially helpful to me.
I'll take some of that action, bro. The weight of the Stan's strips plus the Stan's juice is less than the weight of a regular strip and a thin tube. I don't remember exactly because it's been a while, but I think the total difference on my bike was about 70 grams. The weight savings alone might not be worth the trouble of changing over, but there might be other benefits. I know this is totally subjective, but it seems to me that the tubeless roll better and feel more supple over rough features. One bit of weirdness is the "weeping." There are always little dots of Stan's leaking out of my sidewalls. It's not something you can see happening, but it's there. Air pressure loss varies between one and two psi per day, which isn't much different than tubes. The weeping might not happen on tires with thicker sidewalls, but that's a guess.
Yes, weeping worried me at first. I got that from Maxxis Highroller (with a thick sidewall) but not from Speshy Eskar Control (thinner, but meant for tubeless). What was really weird was the liquid that was wept wasn't white like Stans, but clear. It never caused a problem though.
...and it NEVER dries out! They oughta mention that in the instructions so people aren't concerned, but it would probably scare off potential customers.
The D321 rims work best with a layer of velox tape left on the rim then put the rim strip in. Ditch the Kenda. IMO they suck when run tubeless, YMMV.
A must-do conversion. I went against the flow and resisted for years and finally did it this summer. I was pinch-flatting downhill tubes and everyone I rode with was getting pretty pissed off waiting for me to repair flats, so finally buckled under pressure to fork out for the set. What an amazing difference, though if you ride hard, be wary of running too low pressures, as it is possible to roll the tire off the rim. By low I mean around 20psi. I now run 30+ with no problems. As some have advised, check out the web site and i recomend that you find the specific instructions for your rim. Follow them and then the watch the instruction video and follow it to the letter and you should be fine. The tire-slapping thing actually works, much to my amazement:lol:.
I prefer my Kendas tubeless to running with tubes (I guess tires are a personal thing though). I found they had way too many pinch flats with tubes but loved the tread pattern. Since I changed, no flats :clap:. They may weep though. I run 729s, three layers of wide Velox tape per rim and a Blue Groove 2.35 and a Nevegal 2.35
kenda tends to have pretty thin sidewalls, which is not necessarily a good thing for tubeless. sure, you won't be pinch flatting, but you do put lots of dings in your rims if you're riding hard. having the thicker sidewall helps prevent this (and provide some cushion should you squeeze the tire far enough). that said, I think tubeless is definitely a great way to go. with the right tire choice, it's pretty easy to set up, and definitely perform well. better traction, and the peace of mind to plow through a rock garden with little repercussion. in my experience: a standard nevegal was very difficult to convert for me. it was fairly well used though, but I could not get the bead to seal completely for the life of me. on the other hand, a tubeless specific nevegal sealed right up and worked flawlessly. going to convert a minion 2.5 tomorrow for my DH bike and see how that goes...
I have been running Stans for about 2 years now. The key is the tubeless Mavic Crossmax rims, with the Tubless tire I perfer Ignigtors they work great.
I suppose I should have clarified. I didnt switch to a kit, I switched to Stan's rims w/ Yellow Tape. I was just testifying to how much I like their product, it has saved weight and alot of flats, ride quality is better IMO. I would also beg to differ on the kit, it still would save weight, and running less pressure for me, and ride quality is definitely different, you can't argue that.
Best thing to do is buy a rim that is designed for tubeless tires such. I bought the 819's a few months back and was kind of worried about the difficulty of tubeless because of everything I have read on here. I have a Nevegal 2.35 front, wtb weirwlof 2.1 rear and tires were as easy to put on as regular tires. Standard floor pump was enough to get the tires to lock on and not a single flat in 4 months of riding. I can't tell a difference in the way they feel when riding but I don't get anymore pinch flats.
My DH bike has UST rims and tires. Mounting tires up with a compressor is really easy. A bit of soapy water on the rim and bead and it hooks up no problem. I did a ghetto conversion using duct tape and valve core on a non-UST rim with a UST tire and it worked well. My major concern with converting folding bead tires to tubeless is have a tire blow off the rim during corner. Pretty sure it would end in a nasty crash. Anyone have this convern or had this happen?
