Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Gone Tubeless

After a lot of research and emails to those that have done it before me, I finally decided to go tubeless on the 29er. I dropped by the shop this afternoon and bought a Stan's kit as well as new WTB Nanoraptor tires. I even skipped the Taco Ride tonight in order to get them mounted up (need to allow as much time as possible for testing).

Overall, it went fairly well. The front tire, took a little over an hour. It would have went faster, but I forgot to read the directions on how to mix the soap/water testing solution. Maybe you could skip that part, but I was following directions to see how hard this might be. Since I was running across the street to the neighbors to use their air compressor, I made several trips.

Just about the time that I was going to give up, the bead decided to pop in place and hold air. As I was placing the Stan's liquid into the tire, I was wondering if the air-up was a fluke. Fortunately, it went as easy as pie and I was successful.

The rear tire was much easier and I completed that one in about 30minutes. By tomorrow morning, I'll know if I was really successful, or if I have two flat tires.

I'm looking forward to testing the ride. I've knew they would be slightly lighter (no tube), but it didn't occur to me just how noticeable it would be (I've forgotten that it feels like 29er tubes have a pound of rubber in them).

Possible ride at Denmans tomorrow.

1 comment:

Buckshot77 said...

Have fun, I love the tubeless setup on mine.