I have a Knight 95 front wheel that I want to run tubeless. All my other wheels are running tubeless, so I would love for the front race wheel to as well. It is not rated as TLR, but I know some people have taken wheels that arent tubeless and gotten it to work. I wanted to see what people’s experiences have been before I get started. Also, Is there anything beyond doing a solid job of tubeless tape? Is it just harder to get it onto the rim? Are there any actual risks? Let me know your experiences, specifically if you have done this with a knight composite wheel.
I’ve also converted non-tubeless rims to tubeless on MTBs - as have many folks I know. Usually with the Stans purpose designed rim strip (sort of like an expensive inner tube turned inside out with the valve still embedded - one if the strip’s functions is to close the gap up slightly between rim hook and bed of the rim so the tyre bead is better located ).
All with ‘normal’ (not UST) tyres.
I found the Conti (Mountain King and Trail King) tyres a bit naff for sealing up (side walls quite weepy with sealant, and defo needed a compressor or big cylinder to dump a large air vomume in to get the bead to seat). But the Maxxis High Roller II tyres went up easily and minimum weeping of sealant, and rarely need pumping up since.
Also know plenty of folks use the ‘ghetto’ method on MTBs - ie a smaller diameter inner tube split around the circumstance, the valve pushed into the rim hole, and the tube stretched around the rim. The tyre is then put on top so the tyre bead seals up onto the inner tube material (and helps fill the gap between the hook and base of the rim). The excess tube is trimmed with a modelling knife.
For the road bike… I’m far more nervous - there’s no equivalent Stans strip for road rims, which tells me something.
I suspect the risk of the tyre popping off the rim may be too high on a road bike ?? Certainly the speed is usually far higher and the consequences also usually worse on a road bike than mtb.
I’m not familiar with your rims, but I’ve successfully used my HED Ardennes standard width wheels as tubeless, with tubeless tires (Hutchison Intensive 25s, I believe). At a friend’s urging, I bought Gorilla tape at Home Depot and used two layers on the rim. Getting the tire on the rim was very difficult. I used this setup at the Belgian Waffle Ride a few years ago and for 7-8 months after, without a single issue - but when I did finally get a flat, it was nearly impossible to get the tire off the wheel on the side of the road in order to insert a tube. I decided that while I like riding tubeless, I didn’t want to have this issue on the side of the road again, so I’m back on tubes.
Edited to add: Gotta use sealant, of course. I used Orange Seal and found it to be very good.
I tried getting some Alex Rims to seat on tubeless. I had stans, the tires were TLR, and even with a 5 gallon air compressor a 60 PSI I couldn’t get them to seat. I even did the “tube in the rim for a week” leading up to the removal of the tube.
Why would you limit the compressor to 60 psi? Certainly, I wouldn’t want the tire to go over 60 for initial setup, but most of the air (with stubborn tubeless) goes right out beyond the bead.
The booster pumps all say to precharge well past that as well. My topeak booster charges to 160, then blasts out.
So, for my compressor, I let it fully charge (to around 160), then open it up. I have a hand squeezing the tire, so I know when it it starting to seat, but it never dumps in so fast that the pressure would climb faster than anyone could react and let go.
Just curious…
To the OP - lower pressure, wider tires are less likely to burp out when setting up a wheelset not specifically TLR. Mountain bikes, likely no issue ever. Cross/gravel, usually OK…but may be picky to certain rim/tire combos. For road, I wouldn’t risk it, but that is just me.
Why would you limit the compressor to 60 psi? Certainly, I wouldn’t want the tire to go over 60 for initial setup, but most of the air (with stubborn tubeless) goes right out beyond the bead.
The booster pumps all say to precharge well past that as well. My topeak booster charges to 160, then blasts out.
So, for my compressor, I let it fully charge (to around 160), then open it up. I have a hand squeezing the tire, so I know when it it starting to seat, but it never dumps in so fast that the pressure would climb faster than anyone could react and let go.
.
I limited the compressor to 60 psi because the tires I was trying to fill were 650x47 haha, That’s a large volume of air and being that there was a lot of “iffy” things going on (not tubeless rims, large volume tires), I didn’t want to push my luck.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try a higher PSI. I should’ve been more specific on why I used 60 psi. If I was doing road 700x25’s or something, yeah I’d be at 120 psi.
I’ve been running tubeless road on a set of Ritchey aluminum wheels since 2011. Also on a set of Mavic aluminum wheels that I think I bought in 2005, so they’re old. I initially used Stan’s tape, but have switched to Gorilla tape. It’s a lot cheaper, if a bit heavier. I never had trouble sealing 23 mm tires, but I’m now using Hutchinson Sectors 28 mm and they’re not as tight on either of those rims. They still seat with a compressor, but it takes a lot of soapy water. Both of those sets of rims have run different CX tires that weren’t designed for tubeless as tubeless. For that I use one of Stan’s rim strips with the built in valve. I’ve also run tons of non tubeless mtb wheels tubeless. Same thing, gorilla tape.
I don’t know if they still do, but I know Stan’s had a kit to convert non-tubeless road wheels. It was really just tape, valves and sealant. I bought it and converted my non-tubeless wheels.
Did it with a set of none-tubeless 404 NSWs. Never had an issue, but somehow i was a bit more worried riding these wheels compared to TR wheels. I mean, hard to not think about consequences of a potential front wheel blow out when descending. I don’t have these wheels any more, but probably wouldn’t do it again. Just not worth it, to me.