Tubeless Conversion on Maxxis Holy Rollers

Here's the Bikemanforu Ghetto tubeless video: https://youtu.be/0MyRoTaAUqg

In the last month, I’ve gotten quite a few frustrating pinch flats on my mountain bike. I could increase my tire pressure, but I’d rather just convert my bike to tubeless 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 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 Maxxis holy rollers, and standard non tubeless mountain bike wheelset. I want to be clear that I’m not trying to make a tutorial here, just a fun video.

So, if you’ve been reading up on Stan’s no tubes, you might be saving up the 3 million dollars you’ll need for rim tape, wheel liners, valve stems, sealant, and injectors On the other hand If you’ve been watching Bikemanforu, 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. By the way, check out bikeman’s ghetto tubeless video if you haven’t already.

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 tubeless rim with a 3/8th bit, but I’ve found that this isn’t always crucial.

I already did the rear wheel last night, so I know that we’ll need 3 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 seal, 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, 3 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 it 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.

Next, we’ll put the tube on and see if it can hold air. It would be a shame to have to take all this shit apart with the sealant in, so dry fitting it first will help you to 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 sealant is in. If it holds not air at all then we’ll need to add more gorilla tape under the rim strip.

So now that we’re ready to seal this up, we’ll unseat the tire at the bottom and add precisely 2 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, and then it’s time to blast some air in.

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 about blasting air in and watching the tire go foomt! So rather than cheat ourselves of that satisfying sound, I’ll use a CO2. And, success. This one sealed 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 rinsed lightly with a hose, as opposed to blasting dirt into your bearings with a pressure washer. So yeah, set your hose 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.

Sealant: http://amzn.to/1IYvSte
Gorilla tape: http://amzn.to/1NlwF9x
Valve stem (if you aren't using a liner): http://amzn.to/1NlwOd3

Full conversion kits:
29er: http://amzn.to/1IYwEpV
26": http://amzn.to/1RHut19
Universal: http://amzn.to/1IYxDqc