I think I will call this conversion ‘the sans kit’.
Why? Because it was done without rim strips!
First off, my rims had a plastic spoke cover strip in situ already. I left this in place.
Next I used electrical tape and ran three loops – one on each side of the rim and a final loop up the middle. I was extremely careful to ensure the tape went partway up the sidewall but didn’t interfere with the bead hook. I ran the tap directly over the valve hole.
I next made use of some liquid latex that I had laying around from my DIY tyre sealant and painted two thin layers of latex over the top of the tape. Again, i was extremely careful to ensure I didn’t get a big blob of it under the bead hook that would interfere with the tyre sealing against the rim.
I had a couple of spare mavic tubless valve kits from a previous ebay order which I used for the valves. While the latex was still wet, I poked the valve straight through the electrical tape and snugged it up tightly. Hopefully the liquid latex will dry and seal the rubber valve base against the tape. It certainly looked very promising while I was doing it.
I left the latex to dry for 10 minutes or so and then mounted up the tyre. The tyre i chose for the first experiment was a maxxis Ardent 2.25 folding bead tyre for the front. I have heard good reports and it looks like a nice compromise between rolling resistance and cornering grip. It certainly looks so much faster than the Kenda surprise (read: Nevegals) that came on it.
I was very disconcerted when I tried to fit the tyre to the wheel – The bead was quite loose and I could comfortably get the tyre on by hand. In fact, It was close to being described as a ‘loose’ fit.
I added 100mls of sealant – since I had some ‘true blue tyre goo’ from a swag bag at a race, it was my sealant of choice.
Somewhat foolishly, i decided to have a go with a track pump to see if i could inflate it. I pumped like a madman – nothing. Not even close. Next I tried laying the tyre on its side and swirling to get the sealant to contact the tyre bead ( i repeated on both sides). Then I pumped like a madman again. Sealant was bubbling out everywhere, but before I knew it, I had pressure! I actually aired up a loose fitting 29er tyre with a freaking track pump! Especially since I didn’t need to resort to the soapy water trick. Incredible!
So I pumped it up to 60 psi and left the tyre on its side to seal one of the beads, I turned it about 15 minutes later and repeated several times. There was quite a bit of bubbling of sealant around the bead at first, but with each turn, the amount of air leaks decreased until there was no more. 8 hours later and the tyre is still as hard as a rock…. WIN!
So onto the small block 8. Track pump – no success. Car compressor (37L/min) – no success. Garage compressor (lots L/min) – no success. Small block 8’s are not meant to be tubeless….
the unknown rider 