I have been riding the local trails for around 12 months now and bought a Giant Trance X2 for a few months now and am very happy with my purchase. Having got a few flats recently I thought I would look into converting over to a tubeless tyre system. I figure If I dont have to carry a spare tube, and levers, and not get flats...that would be great!
I did some research and bought some Maxxis Ignitor UST 2.35 tyres. I used the 20inch BMX tube conversion using Spax mountain bike latex sealant to keep costs down and I have read people use this setup quite successfully. The conversion went fairy smoothly, the only real issue was getting the tyre to initially inflate which was achieved using an air compressor with a bit of persistance to get the bead of the tyre to seat.
First ride was out at Appin which went well with nil leakage. I few days later I rode the trails at Menai where it all came undone. I managed to have a small fall when attempting a smallish drop off (big enough for me) where on landing the bike went one way and I went the other. Thats when the problem started....
The front tyre appears to have taken some side load where some dirt got between the rim/tube and tube/tyre. This resulted in latex leaking out everywhere and not sealing at all. Initially my first thoughts were just to clean out the dirt, pump the tyre back up and off we go. That didnt happen. I just couldnt get the tyre to inflate again! Lucky my mate had a spare tube which got us home.
Thinking back to the initial fitment, the tyre seemed to not sit too well especially around the valve where the tube has the extra reinforcing layers. So back to the drawing board using the 20inch BMX tubes, I thought I would try a different method since they failed on my second ride. Second time round I opted for some good quality electrical tape to seal the spoke holes and bought a Stans tubeless valve. Initial fitment looked the goods but I came back the the same problem with the tyre not seating the bead very well at all, again especially around the valve. This makes inflation using a pump impossible.
So whats going on here? I know I can inflate the tyre using a compressor but thats useless to me in the bush. The rims im using are narrow Mavic 317's, standard issue with the Trance X2 (with standard 2.10 tyres). Are my 2.35 UST tyres too wide for the narrow rim resulting in poor fitment of the bead? Even with no tube or valve, just the tyre and the rim, the fitment of the bead isnt the best.
Where do I go from here? I have spend money on tyres, valves, sealant...do I persist?
I did some research and bought some Maxxis Ignitor UST 2.35 tyres. I used the 20inch BMX tube conversion using Spax mountain bike latex sealant to keep costs down and I have read people use this setup quite successfully. The conversion went fairy smoothly, the only real issue was getting the tyre to initially inflate which was achieved using an air compressor with a bit of persistance to get the bead of the tyre to seat.
First ride was out at Appin which went well with nil leakage. I few days later I rode the trails at Menai where it all came undone. I managed to have a small fall when attempting a smallish drop off (big enough for me) where on landing the bike went one way and I went the other. Thats when the problem started....
The front tyre appears to have taken some side load where some dirt got between the rim/tube and tube/tyre. This resulted in latex leaking out everywhere and not sealing at all. Initially my first thoughts were just to clean out the dirt, pump the tyre back up and off we go. That didnt happen. I just couldnt get the tyre to inflate again! Lucky my mate had a spare tube which got us home.
Thinking back to the initial fitment, the tyre seemed to not sit too well especially around the valve where the tube has the extra reinforcing layers. So back to the drawing board using the 20inch BMX tubes, I thought I would try a different method since they failed on my second ride. Second time round I opted for some good quality electrical tape to seal the spoke holes and bought a Stans tubeless valve. Initial fitment looked the goods but I came back the the same problem with the tyre not seating the bead very well at all, again especially around the valve. This makes inflation using a pump impossible.
So whats going on here? I know I can inflate the tyre using a compressor but thats useless to me in the bush. The rims im using are narrow Mavic 317's, standard issue with the Trance X2 (with standard 2.10 tyres). Are my 2.35 UST tyres too wide for the narrow rim resulting in poor fitment of the bead? Even with no tube or valve, just the tyre and the rim, the fitment of the bead isnt the best.
Where do I go from here? I have spend money on tyres, valves, sealant...do I persist?