I need advice about my rims.

[JoshuaBradbury]

Hi all, I am wanting to go tubeless but I am not 100% sure if my rims will hold the bead. Please advise

[marlin321]

I suggest you to purchase tubeless tyre rims. Beacuse the weight and balance of tubeless tyre it different than a ordinary one. I bought tubeless tyre and special design rim from Ritecoupons by using Money saving coupons, there are many varieties of rims are also available if you really wanna buy then once check there.

[rmap01 ✓ supporter]

I’d suggest posting what the brand of the rims are.  There may be some that have direct experience.

[JoshuaBradbury]

Hi, thanks for the feedback. My rims are giant cr70 29″ 6061 they are the stock rims that came on my Giant Revel. I don’t have the budget to get new rims, I am also considering getting tubes with sealant instead, might work out to be less of a hassle.

[rmap01 ✓ supporter]

While it’s always best to go with TR wheels and tires some have had success with a ghetto tubeless setup.  I’ve never tried it so I can’t recommend but here’s a link which provides insight.  There’s a post further down that provides exact directions if you want to go that route.  There are also numerous “how to” videos that walk you through the steps.

https://forums.mtbr.com/giant/giant-stance-1-2016-rim-ready-tubeless-1006760.html

Let us know what you decide.

[Bike Nerd]

Ask your Giant dealer if these rims are tubeless ready.  I bet they would know.

[JoshuaBradbury]

As is they are not tubeless ready. Doesn’t rim tape sort that issue out??

[FrankS29]

Tubeless tape is part of it.

it helps to make the rim air tight because of the spoke holes.  However the rim bead is also really important.  If the rim does not have a proper bead it will most likely not hold the tire properly. You could have anything from minor “burps” where the tire slips off the bead momentarily, all the way to full blown blow outs of the tire.

So, you need to find out if that rim is designed to run tubeless tires. If it is, get the proper sized tubeless rim tape, tape up the rim. Then get tubeless ready tires, sealant and tubeless valves.

Tubeless, when done correctly, is a far better set up than tubes.

[JoshuaBradbury]

Thanks all for the feedback. I think it’s going to be a hassle to try find out if my rims will work or not and I can’t afford to buy the stuff and have it not work. I will rather do tubes with sealant, at least that way I know that it will work out.

Thanks again all

[Sunspot ✓ supporter]

JB, the lack of bead retention of your rims makes tubeless undesirable since reliability is not the same without the bead lock groove on either side. Burping is stupid easy as well as complete air loss without warning.

Frankly, I would look for proper tubeless compatible rims that fit your budget for reliability and safety reasons.

[Andrewsmith011]

Tubeless tire is too good and best for balancing the cars but tubeless tire suits on it rim, In my opinion, you should purchase a new rim too. Me and my friend always use amazon promo codes offer by saveucoupon. This store has a huge collection of rims and other accessories. I recommend you to check this store once, I am pretty sure you will love its products with eye catching price.

[abegold]

I bought a Stans ZTR Crest rim (aluminum), then bought carbon rims. The weight difference was NOT worth the extra money and only noticeable at first yet the Stans rims are much cheaper. $400 wasted on one wheel. Have the Stans rim sitting but it’s 27.5. Could most likely find a bargain on Ebay.

 

[John C Marriott]

Hi Joshua. I read this thread before I attempted to set up my own CR70 rims s tubeless over the weekend. I (eventually) had a successful result so thought I’d share my method.  I didn’t find the project easy but it was my first attempt at a tubeless conversion so perhaps someone with more experience would have found it straightforward.

Method as follows:
1. Clean and dry the tyre bead and rim bed
2. Use Tesa 4289 tape to seal the rim bed. I recommend putting the roll of tape on a radiator for an hour beforehand. It’s inflexible and unworkable when cold. I put on two layers of 25mm tape in one go, going a little up each rim sidewall with significant overlap in the middle.
3. Repeat the above with electrical tape. completely covering the Tesa tape. While the Tesa tape doesn’t allow air through it, it isn’t overly sticky. The opposite is true of electrical tape and it will stop the Tesa tape unravelling or letting air under it at the edges. The flexibility of the electrical tape allows you to go higher up the internal sidewall of the rim.
4. Fit the valves. Pierce the 4 layers of tape with a cocktail stick or similar and the push the value through. Getting an airtight seal here proved to be very difficult, probably because the factory fitted tape on my rims wasn’t fitted very well around the valve area. I wound some PTFE tape around the bottom of the valves to try and get a better seal.
5. Add sealant to the tyre. Use a bit more than recommended (more on this later)
6. Fit the tyre but don’t use a tyre leaver if possible to avoid damaging the tape you’ve just installed. If you stand the wheel up, fit the tyre at the bottom first and work your way up on both sides. Push the wheel down on the tyre at the bottom which will make it slacker and easier to fit at the top.
7. Take out the valve core and inflate with a compressor or ‘airshot’ device. Put your finger over the hole in the valve and replace the core. Spin and shake the wheels to distribute the sealant inside.
8. Hopefully your tyres have sealed and are now looking ok. Attach a track pump with a pressure gauge and inflate them to their maximum recommended pressure. Do they hold the pressure for an hour?  Hopefully so but mine didn’t with air leaving through the valve area an even through the weld in the rim. Give the sealant some time to work. The valves were the biggest pain point for me. Took me ages but I finally managed fix them by unscrewing the ring that secures them on the outside of the rim, which encouraged the sealant to ‘bleed’ (why we used extra), eventually forming a seal. Leave the track pump connected through this process so you can keep an eye on the pressure. Keep turning the wheel 45 degrees every 10 mins if pressure is still being lost so that the sealant finds its way into any little gaps.

Good luck!

[Sunspot ✓ supporter]

John, X-Acto knives are perfect for opening the stem hole.

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