Sorry... can someone explain tubeless to me?

PardonTheWait · 1 May 2020 at 23:16

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

PardonTheWait · 4 May 2020 at 00:16

Psycho Sonny said:
Plenty of videos on YouTube that explain what it is and how to do it.

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

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

PardonTheWait · 6 May 2020 at 21:25

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.

PardonTheWait · 8 May 2020 at 22:35

TallPaul_S said:
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.

This and the shakey thing were good shouts, they’re definitely tubed at the moment. The white stuff must just be lube from the factory.

PardonTheWait · 18 May 2020 at 23:06

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.