bicycle repair Tip Tubeless Conversion on Maxxis Holy Rollers > Bicycle Repair Tips

 

in the last month I've gotten quite a
few frustrating pinch flats in my
mountain bike it could increase the tire
pressure but I'd rather just convert my
bike to tube list since the main benefit
is no pinch flats the last time I rode
tubeless I crashed around a turn and
ended up doing the walk of shame back to
the trailhead I took my anger out on
tubeless setups in general but the truth
is that I probably could have been back
up and running again had I brought a co2
so let's give it another shot tonight
we'll be doing a tubeless conversion on
my maxes holy rollers and standard non
tubeless mountain bike wheels so if
you've been reading up on Stan's no
tubes you might be saving up to three
million dollars you'll need four rim
tape wheel liners valve stem sealant and
injectors on the other hand if you've
been watching bike man for you you're
digging through the trash for an old
inner tube and some broken glass I like
to stay somewhere in the middle of those
two extremes my particular tire and rim
combination has a real loose fit so I'm
using some liners with valves built-in
to get a tighter fit and a more reliable
seal Stan's recommends that you drill
out the inner wall of your non-googlers
rim with a 3/8 bit but I found that this
isn't always crucial I already did the
rear wheel last night so I know that
we'll need three full wraps of Gorilla
Tape around the wheel plus the rubber
liner to get a tight seal building up
the thickness of the original rim is a
crucial step in most conversions and
it's important to do it evenly and
neatly for a good seal if you can't get
your tire to seals chances are you need
to build up the rim more if you're a
weight weenie you'll be worried about
adding grams of spinning weight with
each wrap of tape but I don't like to
use the G word right now my main concern
is stopping these pesky pinch flats so
three full wraps of carefully measured
gorilla tape later and I'm ready to add
the rim strip a good amount of soapy
water will help the rubber fall into
place
evenly some people claim they can do
this without the soap but I'm not a fan
of going in dry it's important to make
sure the rim strip is tucked under the
lip of the rim all the way around and
that there are no spots where the liner
is stretched or thinned out it would be
a shame to have to take all the
apart with a sealant in so dry fitting
at first will help you determine how far
off you are from a perfect seal
not perfect but I find that if it holds
any air it'll be fine once the seal
indecision if it holds no air at all
then we'll need to add more gorilla tape
under the rim strips so now we're ready
to seal this up we'll unseat the tire at
the bottom and add precisely two ounces
of sealant or yeah once the sealant is
in there we'll toss the wheel around
real good to coat the inside of the tire
now it's been said that you should do
this with a floor pump because you need
to know that the setup will be
serviceable outside of a shop but
there's something really satisfying
about that sound that the tire makes
when it seals up so rather than cheat
ourselves of that satisfying sound I'm
going to use a co2 and success this one
sealed up so well that actually there's
barely any sealant bubbling out I'll let
the wheel sit for a few minutes in a
bunch of different positions to get the
sealant everywhere but riding it is
actually the best method of doing this
actually since we already have soapy
water and a sponge let's do a bike wash
just for the hell of it any decent
mountain bike can be washed with dish
soap and a sponge and then rinse lightly
with a hose as opposed to blasting dirt
into your bearings with a pressure
washer so yeah set your host to spray
not jet it's been an hour and I don't
see any sealant bubbling out so I'd say
this was a productive night thanks for
watching and I'll see you next time
cat