DaveK's Tubeless Test

When I punctured in the Whinlatter Challenge it really pissed me off. Good day spoilt by a simple mechanical. This got me thinking about punctures and realised that virtually all of my punctures where either pinch flats or hawthorns. I knew the answer was to go tubeless, but after the numerous tubeless failures within the club (many within a few hundred meters of setting off) I was highly sceptical.
The market is full of conversion kits, sealants, DIY solutions and UST systems, so I decided to try a few out to see what worked and what didn’t.


Rims Tested (internal width)

  • Mavic 317 (17mm)
  • Mavic 717 (17mm)
  • Mavic Crossride 2008 (19mm)
  • Mavic Crossride 2007 (19mm)
  • NC17 (28mm)

Tyres Tested

  • 2.3 Continental Vertical Protection Kevlar bead
  • 2.3 Continental Gravity Protection Kevlar bead
  • 2.1 Panaracer Fire XC Kevlar bead (lots of different types)
  • 1.9 Continental Twister Supersonic Kevlar bead
  • 2.4 DMR Moto wire bead

Tubeless Kits

  • Stans No-Tubes
  • Joes No-Flats
  • Ghetto Tubeless (20” BMX inner tube + liquid latex)

Hints and Tips

Seating tyres the first time:

I found this to be a real pain in the arse until I managed to perfect the technique. I use fairy liquid 6:1 with water and mixed until there’s loads of suds. Then use a paintbrush and paint suds just on the bead. No problems inflating using a standard track pump.
Always suspend the wheel (A large hex key in the vice worked for me).
I found that Continental’s with Stans strips are very tight on crossride rims and have to be inflated up to 75psi before the bead pops into place. All other tyres/rim combinations seat at around 30psi.
Only tyre/rim I couldn’t seal with a track pump was the 2.4 DMR Moto’s on the 28mm wide rims. I had to use a compressor to seal these
P.S. The standard airlines at services stations don’t provide enough volume even when flat tyre mode selected!
New Tyres:

I found that the best way to get these to seal was to put them on rim with a tube. Inflate to maximum pressure, then leave them overnight before fitting.
Old Tyres:

First get them to seal with soapy water. If there are any leaks in the sidewall forget about converting them. If there are holes in the tread, fix them using normal inner tube patches on the inside of the tyre. Yes, you can just add sealant and it will seal the holes, but I had sealant failure on a hole fixed this way.
Adding Sealant:

Add sealant using a small container with nozzle (such as the one in Joe’s kit). Take the valve out and position the valve at 12 o’clock, insert nozzle and turn wheel so valve is at 6 o’clock to add the sealant.
With the Ghetto system, suspend the wheel, break the bead then add the sealant at the bottom.

Rim Strips

There are two systems. Stan’s and DT Swiss sit under the tyre use the tyre bead to make the seal. Joes and Ghetto system trap the rim strip between the tyre and rim.
I had three failures with Joes. Two tyres burped and failed on landing at Sankey Bridges BMX track. Third failure (club ride 23/04/09) due to the value detaching from the rim strip. I later read that this is a common problem with Joes strips.

Sealants

The most leaky tyres I tested where the Panaracer, so I decided to see how good each sealant was at sealing Panaracer tyres.
  • Stans: 15 minutes
  • Joes: Still leaking after 2 days
  • Liquid Latex: 2 days
  • Liquid Latex + sawdust from garage floor: 2 hours


Puncture Test

I decided that I see how good each sealant was at sealing hawthorn size hole. I punctured each tyre using a panel pin then rode down the road to see how long it took to seal (Tyres initially inflated to 30psi).
  • Stans: End of the drive, 4-5 revolutions
  • Joes: End of road, tyre had gone down to 20psi
  • Liquid latex: End of road, tyre down to 20psi
  • Liquid latex + sawdust: half way down road tyre down to 25psi


Next I used a 1” nail as both Joes and Stans claimed to seal holes up to 3mm. 1” nail would be a 1mm hole.
  • Stans: End of road, tyre down to 15psi, failed
  • Joes: Half way down road, failed, tyre completely flat
  • Liquid latex: Half way down road, failed, tyre completely flat
  • Liquid latex + sawdust: End of road, failed, tyre completely flat

Results

None of the kits/sealants did what they claimed on the box. Stans is the only one that will seal a puncture from a Hawthorne and allow you to keep riding. All systems will prevent pinch flats. Ghetto and Joe’s suffer from burping, but this only happened to me with Joes.
I also tried, non-tubeless Panaracer tyre on a non-tubeless Mavic 317 rim with no rim strip. I sealed the spoke holes using Stans yellow rim tape. This works and is still going strong after 300km+ of off-road riding.
Continental protection tyres seal really quickly; supersonic variants take several days. Panaracer leak like mad but seal quickly using Stans, other sealants take several hours/days. DMR Moto’s are just like Maxis and have soft butyl sidewalls that seal virtually instantaneously.
Using liquid latex + sawdust is nearly as good as Stan’s at sealing punctures and sealing non-tubeless tyres. However, it bungs up the valve very quickly, so is not recommended.
The only system that saves weight is Stan’s. This was due to the rim strips being lighter at 55g and only having to use 60ml of sealant. Stans saves 40g over a standard Continental inner tube (155g). All other’s have no weight saving or add a little (+30g).
Cost per Wheel (RRP)

  • Stans: £25
  • Joes: £22
  • DT Swiss: £37
  • Ghetto DIY: £3

Summary

If you don’t have tubeless rims want to go tubeless then I would recommend Stan’s or the Ghetto DIY system.
Joes is simply the Ghetto system sold as a kit. It works the same way as the Ghetto system and the sealant is no better than liquid latex.
Ghetto system works well. the only disadvantage is that you can only use the cut down inner tube once. At £2.50 each, you can go though a lot of tubes before you reach the cost of a Stans kit.
JRA wheel milk is simply liquid latex diluted 2:1 with water. You can buy 1l of liquid latex locally in Manchester for £8, which gives you 3l of sealant. JRA charge £10 for 500ml.
I didn’t try DT Swiss but looking at the system it looks like a Stans rim strip with separate valve and liquid latex sealant. Expensive system, considering it’s using plain liquid latex. This system looks like it would work better if used with Stans sealant.
Non-tubeless tyres in a tubeless set-up take time to seal and bed in. I tested lots of tyres and results varied enormously even with the same set-up. Don’t try fitting tyres on a Saturday and think of riding with the club on the Sunday, you will receive a torrent of abuse.
Only good thing about Joes is the stepped valve nut, which fits both Presta and Schrader rim holes. I’ve binned the strips and kept the nuts.