Comments on: Going Tubeless: What You Need To Know: How To

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:17:45 +0000

diesel29: I would think that some of your decision would be specific to what you want from a tire regardless of the tubeless factor, such things like traction and cornering being important, perhaps. In that regard, I would think similar tires to your current set up would be desirable for you. (??) Taking that into consideration, tires like Ignitors, Hutchinson Toros, Continental Mountain Kings, and the like might be a good front tire choice. Tires in the rear might be chosen from Continental race Kings, WTB Nanoraptors, or similar treaded tires.

If you switch wheels to use Geax tires specifically, the UST rims on Mavic, Fulcrum, and Shimano wheels will work best, although there are more choices coming.

By: AGuy

AGuy — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 13:58:21 +0000

For all the mavins out there, how do you compare Joe’s Super sealant to CaffeLatex? I had good results with Joe’s.

By: diesel29

diesel29 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:44:39 +0000

GT I sent you a post a few days ago regarding my issue with tubeless set ups, currently I have the Arch 29 with Bonty 2.2 acx front and Bonty dry x 2.1 rear running just the yellow rim strip. Im 215 lbs and found out pretty fast I couldnt run less than 35psi without folding the tires off the rim/burping/. so I upped the pressure 35/37 front rear and this worked for a while but I think the beads have streched a little and now Im getting blow offs under power/cornering, I really wanted to get a set of Saguaro TNT but to concerned with the mounting issues/field repairs. Do you think the black rim strip could solve my problem with my current tires. Is there another tire you could recomend tubless with my arch rims for somebody my weight , the TNT sounds like my tire solution but I really dont want to sell my wheels if I dont have to. In the end if you dont feel there is a reliable tire for my current set up what rims would you recomend for the TNT?

By: swampfox

swampfox — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:30:50 +0000

It took me 45 minutes to successfully mount the Saguaro TNT on my front Bonty RXL TLR. One month later, while trying to mount another Saguaro TNT on the rear, I gave up after 10 minutes and 3 broken tire levers. Yes, I used soapy water and simple green. Finally, I took the rear wheel to my lbs. It took two experienced mechanics ten full minutes to squeeze the tire on the rim.

I’ve mounted many different tires on these rims over the past two years and I’ve never had any difficulty before. Since then, I’ve destroyed my RXL rims and replaced them with Rhythm Elites. I wasn’t there when the lbs put the 3 month old Saguaro TNTs on the new rims, but the wrench said it wasn’t as dramatic as when the tire was brand new, probably due to stretching.

I love the way these tires ride and I appreciate their toughness. However, I’m scared shatless that I’ll be stuck out in the puckerbrush with a torn sidewall and I won’t be able to get the tire off or back on again. When I wear these tires out, I’m going to get a new pair and see if they mount up “new” better on the Rhythm Elites. Maybe early production issues, (if that was the issue) will have been solved by then.

By the way, I have 2 perfectly good RXL rim strips doing absolutely nothing in my garage. . Don’t know if they’ll work on the Duster, (Why don’t you email bontrager.com and ask them?) but I’ll be happy to send them free to the first person who asks.

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:44:41 +0000

Pablo: I have not seen a Mustang TLR rim, so I can not make any comment other than that a rim strip for a Race X Lite may very well work in the Mustang.

By: Pablo

Pablo — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:15:02 +0000

So, did Bontrager come out with new rims or simply rebadge the originals and make rim strips to fit.

I’ve not beheld a bontrager TLR rim/wheel with my own eyes and I’m wondering if the TLR Mustang rim is actually any different than the non TLR predecessor.

My old style Mustangs work very well converted to tubeless but I like the idea of a made to fit rim strip and valve.

By: cg

cg — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:12:33 +0000

with all these comments I see that I seem to have been lucky with all my ZTR / TNT combinations; sometimes having a hard time but never defeated.
Anyhow the fairly uniform experiences show how different the rims are designed (possibly even varying within one model?) when compared to a tire system with very low variations in dimension (That´s what a TNT or UST system is after all).

This makes a discussion like this even more valuable because one person can never test out all the combiantions out there ( not even GT alone) and with all of us giving their experiences we might just find out some very positive combinations. Could and sgould become a win-win-situation for all interested in going tubeless or enhancing the fun in doing so.

Keep the posts coing and thanks for this series GT.

So the message I am getting from this is the need for more stringent control (and or publication) of rims and tires alike.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:43:17 +0000

Same result for me with brand new gato tnt tires on a arch rim : impossible.
mounted fine on an xt rim

By: UnitedWeRide

UnitedWeRide — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:51:52 +0000

GT,

Man I am glad you did this tubeless series. I was going crazy trying to figure out how to mount the TNT to my FLOW, my local shop also gave it a whirl with the same results. I am sure the Geax is an awesome tire, just not for the FLOW. I will run my MK’s tubeless with the Cafe Latex since they seem to get just as high marks as the Geax and others.

By: Guitar Ted

Guitar Ted — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:40:26 +0000

Davidcopperfield: I’ll elaborate in a future post. Stay tuned……..