- Upgrading your mountain
bike to tubeless tires
is definitely one of the better
upgrades that you can do.
'Cause firstly, you can
save a bit of weight,
and more importantly it vastly reduces
the chance of suffering from punctures
as you're riding your bike.
Today I'm going to show you
all the things that you need
to convert your mountain bike to tubeless,
using a tubeless conversion kit.
Okay, so let's get in to
the tools for the job.
Firstly, clearly you're
going to need a bicycle
that wants some upgrading of your tires.
Now, it's up to you how you do this,
you could use your
existing tires on the bike
if they're tubeless ready, it
will say on the side walls.
But bear in mind, the longer
that you've used those tires,
the less effective they will be
when you set them up tubeless.
The reason for that is you
could have deterioration
in the casing, there could
be loads of fine cuts
all ready that are going to prevent
the tubeless sealant
inside doing a good job.
So, if you don't want to
upgrade those tires just yet,
maybe you should wait
until you've worn them out.
However, if you don't like
those particular tires,
now is your opportunity to
invest in some new tires,
maybe sell those old ones, and
go tubeless at the same time.
Try and avoid unnecessary waste of money.
Now you're going to need a few tools,
you're clearly going to
need some tire levers,
to help you get the tires on and off,
always try and use plastic or nylon ones,
avoid metal ones like the plague.
The reason for that is
they can damage the tire,
and worse, they can damage the rim itself,
they can bend and distort the rim.
Next up, you want to get some
sort of valve core remover,
there's lots of different
options available on the market,
and the reason for this is
when you convert to tubeless,
the tubeless valves that they come with,
you can remove the cores from them,
and that gives you the option
of putting sealant directly
into the tire, when the tire
is already on the wheel.
It can avoid mess, and
it's a really good way
of doing it when you just want
to top up the sealant from time to time.
Now a little top tip here is
some brands of tubeless valve
actually have a cap that
has a core remover built in,
so that could save you on
forking out for a specific one,
however, the full-size
ones are easier to use.
Next up is the rim-tape.
Now, you can see here
on this existing wheel,
from the Canyon that
we're doing this to today,
it's got rim tape already on it.
However, this is not for tubeless setup,
this is standard rim tape, and the job
of this is to cover up
the holes in the rim
that enable the nipples to go
through to build those wheels.
Because the holes in the
rim could basically slice
the inner tube, that is
fitted here by the factory.
That is what the purpose of that tape is.
The tubeless specific tape is designed
to seal the rim-bed up completely.
Now there's lots of
different options available
on the market, I'm going to
use this one, by Muc-Off,
it's up to you if you want to chance it
and do something like using Gorilla tape
or something like that, but, as always,
we always tell you the
best tool for the job
is the one that's going to work,
and the one that is designed for the job.
Next up are your tubeless valves.
Now, these come in a couple
of different lengths,
according to the thickness
of the rim that you have.
Now something that's quite
cool about these ones
from Muc-Off, is the fact,
like I mentioned earlier,
they come with a valve-core remover
built on to an additional
valve cover here,
so that is optional if
you want to run that.
And also, more importantly,
they come with different options
of rubber sealing bungs, so not
all rims have the same shape
or the same profile internally.
If you're going to have a leak
anywhere, it's most likely
to come from somewhere around the valve,
air does escape through
there, so try and get the ones
that fit the rims of your bike the best.
If you're using your old tires or perhaps
you've had tubeless
before, before doing this,
then you're going to need to
clean the rims of your bike,
and also the inside of the tires, so,
something like a disc-brake
cleaner or an isopropyl alcohol
can be good for cleaning
the rims on there.
And there are such things as
a dedicated sealant remover,
so that's more for people who've
used tubeless in the past.
Next up is a proper floor pump.
Now, you can do this with
a mini-pump, and of course
if you really had to, you
could use a CO2 cartridge,
although something important to say is,
well firstly, it would be quite wasteful
to just use a CO2 cartridges
to pump your tires up,
and also, CO2 doesn't always play
very well with some
brands of tire sealant.
Try not to use them unnecessarily,
but if you're really
stuck, they can be a way
to help you seat the tires.
Now this floor pump I'm
using has a charging canister
built in, so essentially I pump this up
until it's full and I can release
all the air from this in one go.
(whistle)
Now they're not essential, but they do
make life a lot easier.
Now if you're working on
your bikes quite a lot,
it's a sensible upgrade to have.
There's a lot of different
models on the market,
I'm using the TOPEAK one
here, you can get Bontrager,
there's various ones around.
Or alternatively, if you already
have a floor-standing pump,
you can buy just the canisters themselves
to charge up and then
inflate directly from there.
And finally a bucket with
some warm, soapy water,
just put some washing up
liquid in there, and a brush
so you can smear this around
your tires, I'll explain why,
it will make your life a lot easier.
(chilled music)
Okay, so this is quite a simple process,
there are a lot of steps
to it, and somethings
that can go wrong, I'll
highlight those as we go there.
So, first up, obviously remove
the wheels from your bike,
I'm using a work-stand to make it easier,
but you don't have to do
that, you could put your bike
up-side down, be careful if you've got any
controls or computers
or lights on the bars
'cause you can scratch them.
It's a good idea to put something soft
down on the ground to do that.
Remove the wheels, remove those tires,
I'm not using the original
tires that came on this bike.
I'm not going to use
the inner tube, however,
it's a good idea to
roll these up like this,
keep one in your riding bag
and keep one as a spare,
because they will come
in handy at some point,
if not for yourself, for a riding friend.
Next up, of course, is
to inspect the rims.
This is a brand new rim, so I
don't really need to do that,
I just need to remove the old rim tape,
it's worth keeping for
a spare, just in case,
I don't think I'm ever going
to use this, but I might
know someone that will, so
keep that for another day.
So obviously, without the rim tape on,
you can see why you have to seal this off,
the air would escape
through all of these holes.
Just before I put the rim tape in,
I'm going to check the
fit of the valve cores
that I'm using, just to
make sure the profile
fits with that as neatly as possible,
this is what you're looking for.
This one has got quite a
concave indent on here,
so I'm hoping that there's going to be
one of the fitments that's
going to be similar to this.
I think I'm going to
change it because I've seen
that there is one that has
got a concave sort of profile.
I think we've sit on there,
almost perfectly, in fact.
Yep, so I'm going to opt for that one.
So now, I'm going to go ahead and fit
the rim-tape on the bike.
Of course, these rims are brand new,
they're nice and clean,
there's no residue on them.
So all you need to do is run it around,
basically, and stick it in place.
Now if you're unsure here
about the particular fit
of your tires with the rims,
a good idea is to try
putting the tires on first,
just to check you can get them on.
Now I've done this a lot of times,
I am familiar in this case, so I'm going
to put the tape straight on.
But it can help you if you're
unsure about the process,
because if your tire by
any chance is a loose fit
on the rim, you have to
put more rim-tape on,
to make the fit a bit tighter.
Now it's really key to make
sure it sticks correctly
in the center, take your time,
there's no rush with this,
and feed it all the way around.
Like I said, the rim-tape
comes in different sizes,
this one is actually on
the limit for this rim,
but it fits in nicely under the bead,
so we're going to go with this option.
And stretching it in place
really helps get a good fit as well.
Run your thumb around
it as you're doing it
and make sure that the tape
sticks to the center of the rim,
and you obviously, you want to
try and avoid any air bubbles
if you can, it's not the end
of the world if you get some,
but makes it a lot neater
if you can get a good fit.
Now once you've gone
round and you've stuck
it all down completely,
make sure of course
you overlap where you are, the whole point
is to create a seal all
the way around that rim.
You're going to need to make a hole
for the valve-core to go through.
Now some people make a tiny
cross, now this is fine,
but personally I'd be worried
about splitting the rim-tape
so I'm just going to make
the smallest hole possible,
and then push the valve through.
And then of course you need
to locate the valve-core
on there, put the rubber gromit
in place, and screw it down.
(chilled music)
Now's the time to put
your tire on the rim,
and you've got a few options here
of how you want to do things.
Now firstly, you want to pay attention
to the rotational direction of the tire,
it's normally printed on the
side wall of the tire there,
and of course that
correlates to the direction
the wheel travels when it's on the bike.
Reason for that is most
tires are directional
to give you specific control elements,
so get that right to start with.
Next up, is you may want to line up,
if you're that way inclined,
the logos on the tires
with the logos on the
rims, or perhaps the logo
with where the valve core's going to be,
so it all looks nice and
neat, and if you want
to take photos for Bike Cave and stuff
like that, it all lines up.
Now, there are a few options here.
The best and safest option
is to do a dry inflate,
and what I mean by that
is not putting the sealant
in at this stage, I would
recommend putting the tire on,
both sides, and inflating it.
The reason for that is you
can double check the tire
is going to inflate
correctly, because it's not
too late at this stage to put some more
tape on if you need to.
If you've put the sealant in,
it all becomes a bit messy
a bit early here, so I
do recommend trying that.
And although it's called a dry inflate,
you still want to make the
most of having this warm,
soapy water, this is what it's for.
So, with that brush,
basically just brush it
all the way around the
side walls of the tire.
And the reason for that is brand new tires
can be quite rubbery, and actually stick
to the inside of the rim,
meaning that they don't
always pop into place
when you pump them up.
So this is a good little top tip to have.
It doesn't look very soapy,
but I promise you this
is quite soapy water.
And then now, I'm just
going to inflate this
using the regular part of the pump,
I'm not going to be using
the charger for this piece.
But you want to keep pumping
until you hear it pop,
and the popping noise you'll hear
is the beading on the tire.
(pop)
Just like that, popping
in to the hook in the rim.
Of course, this has no sealant in it yet,
but that is inflated,
it's holding the air.
I can't hear any air coming out,
so we're ready to put the sealant in.
(chilled music)
When it comes to putting the sealant in,
there's two options.
You can go in through the
valve core by removing that
and pouring it straight in, in which case
you don't need to basically
take the tire off again
after this process, so a lot
of people like that option.
The other option is of
course to put the sealant
straight in to the tire, and
then fold it back in again.
For this method I'm going to be
putting the sealant in
through the valve itself.
I'm just going to take the valve-core out,
all the air will rush out, and then,
it's going to be nice and easy
to get that air back in again, afterwards.
And best of all, I didn't
hear the beading pop,
which means it's going
to seal straight away.
Note that I'm leaving a
valve-core on the tool itself,
it just means it's easier to
fit in one go, afterwards.
Now of course there's different
kinds of sealant available
to you, there's more latex based ones,
like this one says it's a
prevention latex sealant,
I'm going to go for the
pink one because it clashes,
today, this is a Muc-Off one,
and it's got an applicator on here.
Now something important to
say is the amount of sealant
that you put in will vary depending on
where you ride, the conditions you ride,
and the size of the tires.
Now, if you've got a massive 2.8 tire,
you might need up to 200ml in there.
And of course, if you're in
exceptionally dry conditions,
some sealants, the latex
ones, will dry out faster
than the more watery based ones.
This is especially simple the first time
because it's nice and new, which means
it's a less chance of anything
clogging up in the future.
So there we go.
So I've got a little key on
the side of the bottle here,
and I should be able to
just pay attention to that
as it's going in, nearly at a hundred.
Okay, happy with that, that's
enough sealant in there.
Valve-core goes back in there,
and it's time to inflate.
I'm just using the regular
part of the pump here,
the charge aspect, all you simply do
would be to twist this,
and when your pumping it
actually just charges up the big canister
and when you want you can release
all the air in a single hit.
Again, I don't need to on
this, and that proves the point
that you don't always need them.
However, they are an
invaluable tool to have.
Now I actually like to pump
mine up to around 35 to 40psi.
Slosh them around a bit,
so there's a good covering
of the sealant on the inside of the tires,
and then leave it
overnight, just to make sure
that they're fully sealed.
Some people just want to
go and ride straight away,
and to be fair, it
usually works just fine.
I like to be on the cautious side though.
So the valve is going to be tightened up.
We're going to put a valve cap on there
that has the core-remover.
Give it a slosh around.
Looking good.
And of course, repeat the process.
So there you go, setting up
tubeless really can be that easy.
Clearly I used two
different examples there,
and I also showed you
inflating just using the pump,
and of course using the
canister style charging device
on there, so just goes to
show you can do it both ways.
If you're going to do this
you also can run into some problems.
Now the typical things that tend to happen
are perhaps if the air is
leaking from the valve,
and that can happen for
a couple of reasons.
The main one is it doesn't
fit the rim properly,
so that's why I said to
you it's really important
to make sure when you
select the tubeless valves
that you're going to buy, make
sure that the rubber gromit
that comes with them fits
the profile of your rim.
They're all slightly different,
there is no uniform standard there.
Once you've got that, the next
option here is the o-ring.
Now if yours has an o-ring on it,
it minimizes the chance of air escaping.
But what it does also is the
fact that you can crank up
the nut on there, and
make a real good seal.
Now if yours doesn't have an o-ring
on the system you're using,
it's even more important
to make sure the fit
of the gromit that goes
in to the rim is the correct fitting.
This way, you can get away both ways,
but also it means it's
a really good fitting.
Now, the next option with
things that can happen
are sometimes, if you have an unlucky tire
or perhaps a cheaper tire
if you couldn't afford
a really good tire, is sometimes the air
can still escape through
the side walls of the tire,
even if you have a tubeless ready tire.
We've heard that, from time to time.
Now generally, the way to get around that
is put a bit more sealant
on, leave it overnight,
inflate again, and it does
tend to seal after a while.
Now, you got to think that
the more latex based sealants
available on the market,
the idea is they coat
the inside of the tire, and
therefore forming a skin,
so that's going to stop the air escaping,
that's really what you want to do.
Which is why I do recommend
leaving them overnight.
You could even go as
far as leaving the tire
and the wheel on one side,
give it a shake around,
flip it to the other side so it's got
a nice, good coating on there.
Now of course, there's still going
to be a few other rarities.
You might be really unlucky,
you might have found
that somehow the sealant
has got under the rim tape,
and the sealant starts escaping
through the nipple holes.
And also, we have heard
as well, that some rims,
particularly on the more budget end.
The ones that are welded together,
they're never going to leak.
But the ones that are pinned together,
sometimes the cheaper ones,
the gap between the actual rim
itself, it's so microscopic,
that air can get out of that.
Again, it will seal, with a
bit more sealant on the inside,
so it just might require a bit
of perseverance on your part.
But I promise you, going
tubeless is 100% worth it.
It really can make things a lot easier,
and then seal up all the small
punctures as you're riding.
It's great stuff.
Now, we're going to make some
more tubeless based videos
because there's a lot of stuff to cover,
we've made a lot of older
videos, and I think it's time
to renew, rejuvenate those videos,
give you some better solutions.
So we're going to make some
videos on how you fix punctures
on tubeless tires, how you deal
with all those annoying things, and also
we're going to show what's
happened if you've managed
to slash one of your
tires, because you don't
necessarily have to
throw those things away.
Now, if there's anything you
particularly want to know
about going tubeless,
selecting your tire, the rims,
all that sort of stuff, let
us know in those comments,
and we might do a video dedicated to it,
or we might do an ask
dedicated to tubeless setup.
As always, don't forget to
give us a huge thumbs up here,
at GMBN tech, hit that subscribe button,
give us some love in the comments,
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