Rocky's New Bike Day!

They're fine. Just a lower end heavier tire. Not sure how they'd set up tubeless.

 

Not real good.

 

Man, I'm glad I didn't know any of these guys when I started! I rode my Diamondback with a 3x chainring, volkswagen heavy wheels, and wire bead tires for a couple years! And it was a size too big...

Seriously, though... wire bead tires are the bottom of the food chain. They are heavier, and usually don't offer the protection that higher grade tires do. Some of the guys farther up the thread offered some tires, and tubeless setup help. Guaranteed they are all higher quality than what came standard. Some of us have a collection on the wall that we've swapped out for different rides, or we bought them just to try.

 

Wire beads are flat out a royal pita.

I'd recommend a pair of Maxxis Ardent 2.25 EXO TR. With those you're ready for anything you'll be doing before they wear out. They don't break the bank either.

 

Great that was my next question Runs, thanks for the recommendation! I bought the tape, valve stems, and sealant. I'll wait to go tubeless after picking up some tires. In the meantime, I bought some slime to run in the tubes I have now.

 

For the near future I'd say run what you have, get used to just riding the bike. The tires you have will serve just fine on what you're likely to ride at least for the first few months.

Pick up a set of good TR tires while you're doing that - T-day and Xmas sales will bring down the price - and as you gain experience the tires will matter more.

 

Alright y'all, I'm jonsin to ride, but I'm still on 2 flats. I thought the green slime would buy me some time, but it wouldn't work with my valve stem. So there's no alternative but to jump right in. I think I have everything to do it. I'll be honest, the tubeless conversion doesn't really scare me, but I've been a little apprehensive about pulling the wheels off the bike and putting them back on. I don't want any problems with reassembly. My main concern being the rear derailleur and clutch. I know the chain should be on the smallest sprocket. Do I need to put a spacer between the disc brake pads while the wheel is off?

 

Not as long as you don't pull on the brake lever.

 

And don't forget to turn off the clutch.

 

Thru-axles make this about as foolproof as could be. You may need to gently pull your rear der rearward to get it around the cassette, but everything mostly falls right in and out of place with little coaxing.

 

Thanks @mtnbikej , @UPSed , @mike !

 

Well I think I have 1 tire down.... .. I hope.. Seems like it keeps wanting to leak from the valve stem.

 

Not atypical. Hand tighten the valve stem nut (press the valve in place from inside the rim while you tighten the nut); with valve at 6 o'clock shake the sealant laterally/bounce wheel on floor. That usually does it. If not, check the valve hole and the tape job, maybe try a different valve stem.

I usually leave wheels off overnight after a tubeless mount so I can give em one more shake before mounting on bike and riding. Or in case one goes flat.

 

Go, Rocky!

Like mike says, hand tight only on the retainer nut, and bounce and spin the wheel around to slosh the Stans all over the inside. Don't be bummed if it holds for awhile and then leaks out... Refill. It should eventually seal up if everything is air tight. I usually take them up to 35 or so until I know they are holding...

 

I find it useful to wiggle the stem from the outside, shake, wiggle.if it's a new setup, helps get some goo in there to seal out up

I can usually hear the air come out when I press it to the side, but doing this it slowly stops

 

Thanks guys. I just checked and the tire was flat again. It's leaking from the valve stem and area around it. I didn't think it had enough sealant, so I added 2more ounces. I think I could've goofed. I didn't tape the wheel. It looked sealed to me so I ran it. It's not leaking through the spokes though. I would've liked a smaller hole for the valve stem to pass through. If I would've taped it, it would've been much tighter. I didn't like the fit of the valve stem. I saw a hack where the guy just cut the stem out of a tube and used that. The bigger flat base looked like it would seal better, I was going to try that first.

 

Are we still talking about bike tires? Cuzzz.... I find it useful to wiggle the... and shake... oh never mind.

 

You didn't tape the wheel? My guess is there is only a rim strip there. The rim strip is only there to protect the tube. It won't seal and if it does it won't hold for very long.

 

Someone here, I think Faust, said they saw that the rims are TR on the Marin website. I couldn't even find my bike on the Marin page so I just ran them. May have to take it all apart, no biggie. Do you still wrap a TR wheel?

 

Tubeless compatible... But maybe or maybe not taped. Like Ed says above, what you see in there is most likely a rim strip. If there wasn't a tape/film covering the entire bed of the rim, then it needs tape. Not a problem, though... Take the tire off, and save the Stan's. Clean and dry the wheel... Then go for the tape. I use Gorilla tape from Lowes. It's easy to "rip" it to get the right width, and it holds well. And it's cheap!

 

You wouldn't be the first, @-ROCKY-. If I manufactured rim strips, they would be imprinted NOT FOR TUBELESS.

 

Just checked the tire, it's flat. Every rim strip I remember has been rubber and a little loose. Back to the drawing board.

 

@-ROCKY- I'm located in Tustin and I can help setup your wheels/tires tubeless if you are willing to come to my house.

I have the most success (on both tubeless ready and non-tubeless ready wheels) setting up tubeless using gorilla tape. Simply measure the internal width of your wheel (where the tire bead sits) and create a strip/rip of gorilla tape that is a few MM wider (2-3). You can do the next part either sitting or standing, put the wheel in your chest and either trap it between your knee and your gut or your gut and your work bench. You then pull the gorilla tape taught, and align it down the center of the wheel. Start a few inches before the valve stem, cross over the valve stem and you'll overlap back over both your starting point and the valve stem one more time before you are complete. Don't worry too much about the tape wandering a few mm in the course of installing it as it can travel up the rim/tire bead area a bit without causing an issue. The important thing is that you are adhering it to the center of the wheel/rim bed and pressing that location down with your thumb first. Once you get a few inches (8-12") you can also press the outsides of the tape down (near the rim/tire bead location), to ensure you don't have any bubbles, although small bubbles don't matter much.

Then when you are done, you can cut a small plus sign where the valve stem pokes through and then install the valve stem. Occasionally (1/10) I'll make a mistake and I'll have to re-tape a wheel, but most of the time, this works perfectly on the first shot. This will even work on non-tubeless wheels to convert them to tubeless.

You can search for Gorilla Tape Tubeless Conversion on youtube if you want to get some visuals for hte above method.

P.S. I like the 1" Gorilla tape rolls for this if taping wheels under 25mm (most wheels you'll find out there fall into this category).

 

“Yo, Adrian”
Sorry, it had to be done @ROCKY

 

Of course,,I use stans strips as well.. But some gorilla tape to cover the spokes and builds up the inside of the rim a bit...

I did do full gorilla only, but it made a mess when I pulled off a tire, the tape came out with it.

I have cheap specialized wheels, so if I can do it, you should have no problem

 

Wow thanks for the invite Ebruner! I really that. I'm not ready to give up yet lol. Actually I really enjoyed working on my bike yesterday. I think I have the idea, I'm going to try again. I'm not sure if about the size tape I bought, when I get home I'll look.

 

Lol, there will be many,
"Yo Adrian, I DID IT!!!!!" moments I hope

 

Well one thing you have going for you, (besides all of the help from our wonderful forum members), is I believe this is the longest New Bike Day thread ever!

 

Lol, and God willing much more to come! There's a lot of great stuff on here, earlier someone mentioned changing the name of the thread to a more general beginner title, that's totally cool with me. Or you can always wait until I end up banned lol!

 

Gorilla works well, but is a touch thick, and leaves residue. I've mentioned this before, but I like this tape, which is VERY similar to Stan's and other manufacturers' branded stuff:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C0Z1Z5C/?tag=imtbtrails-20