Sorry... can someone explain tubeless to me?

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

PardonTheWait

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Joined
26 Aug 2003
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Title's a bit vague, sorry.

I've ordered a new bike, first mountain bike in ages, I ride road bikes already.

It has WTB rims that are TCS2.0 so tubeless compatible, and the tyres are Schwalbe Magic Mary and Hans Dampf which I believe are both tubeless ready.

What do I actually need to run it tubeless? I've really tried to google this but the information is all over the place. Is it just tape, sealant, valves? Do I need a blast pump? Does the brand of tape and sealant matter, i.e am I best off getting it in a kit?

Is it worth doing? It seems like it is to me.

Sorry for these all being probably really obvious questions, but I've never had any dealings with tubeless stuff at all as my road bike's not tubeless ready. I have genuinely tried to look this up myself!

Thanks :)
 
Benefits of running tubeless is that it allows you to run the tyres at lower pressure than with tubes, which is great for grip.

Also a thorn in the tyre isn't going to ruin your ride or cause you to stop and swap the inner tube.

I purchased a mountain bike last year for the first time in ages. I run tubes and touch wood, haven't had to deal with a puncture yet. I probably put that down to where I ride and getting the tyre pressure spot on.

If it comes with tubes, I'd just ride it and see how you get on. Get your new bike and just go and ride. You can always go tubeless at a later date. :)
 
If it's your first MTB in a while then just ride and enjoy it with tubes in - just keep the pressure about 35-40psi and you should be good. Plenty of people still use tubes, so don't think that it's a requirement to go tubeless.

If you suffer from a load of punctures or snakebites (usually means too low psi) then it's worth swapping over to tubeless. It's arguably better for wintertime or when it's wet, when you're suffering poor grip and can lower the pressure to increase the contact-area/grip - which can also be fixed by changing to a more suitable tyre, if the bike came with XC/fast-rolling tyres.

tubeless ready rims, basically means they have a decent lip around the edge for the tyre to hook into and they come pre-fitted with tape around the rim, covering all the spoke holes.

tubeless ready tyres mean they have a bead that can hook into the rim's lip and are made from an airtight compound.

Tubeless is great, but it's not without it's negatives, so don't rush into it. The worse case would be to struggle to keep the seal, either around the valve or get the bead engaged fully, meaning you cant ride the bike, or have to swap back to tube (and now have a load of sticky gunk all over the place).

So, enjoy the bike over summer and don't fret about tubeless yet. If you start to struggle with grip in the winter then think about it ;)
 
Psycho Sonny said:
Plenty of videos on YouTube that explain what it is and how to do it.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for that insight. I'm glad you're about. You're so clever.

DereksDontRun said:
So, enjoy the bike over summer and don't fret about tubeless yet. If you start to struggle with grip in the winter then think about it ;)
Click to expand...

I'll tool around on it for a bit before I try tubeless anyway but at least when I've got it I can see if it's taped or not because I can't find a definitive answer as to whether they come taped but I'm reasonably sure they don't and they just have the 'solid strip' which looks to me like regular rim tape you get on a normal wheel.

I don't think the performance aspect is going to be a deal-breaker for me, I rode like a jessie on an MTB previously and I don't expect it'll be any different this time around. It's more the puncture side of things, so it might not be worth doing in my case.

Cheers :)
 
I’m an exciting development, the bike turned up today and while I was putting it together I noticed it looks very much like it’s already set up tubeless. What looks to be sealant is evident round the bead of the rear tyre as if they didn’t quite clean it up after fitting it. There’s two tubeless valves as well in the box of stuff that came with it.

It could be some sort of lube from fitting the tyres but it’s still slightly rubbery and liquid and it looks like sealant to me. Didn’t want to pop the tyre off to find out as I’m not sure I could get it seated again as I don’t have a blast pump.
 
mattyfez said:
how often does sealant go off? I've heard of people taking tires off to find it's dried up after X time?
Click to expand...
https://bikerumor.com/2014/02/19/tu...rt-1-how-often-should-it-be-checked-replaced/

depends the sealant (and the temp...) so, it's basically an unknown shoulder-shrug... In the past I've swapped summer and winter tyres so I've replaced it roughly every 6 months, but it's usually still liquid (with colder UK temps) and thus I've never felt the need to replace more frequently.
 
Unscrew the ring on the valve and try and gently push it into the rim. If it goes in then springs back out then its got a tube in it.

If there's tubeless valves included I'd doubt it is been set up tubeless. Did you buy it from a bike shop? Or online?
 
Little update if anyone’s interested, I took a look at the rims and they were already set up with proper tape. So I got some sealant and it was nice and easy. Sealed first time and still holding air a few days later, no signs of anything having seeped from everywhere.

I used a compressor to seat them but they went on really easily, probably helped that they’ve already been on the bead for some time previously.

TY everyone for the advice.
 
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