Tubeless Blues

[Chargeride]

I have cutouts and tubeless fat tyres

 

[Chazmo]

I have cutouts and tubeless fat tyres

Yeah, but Charge, you refuse to change ‘em!

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

rim tape? I dunno, Jeremy.

Am I wrong about the cutouts? Look closely at the bigger picture. Are those not trapezoids? Is this not common with fat tire wheels?

Yes, cutouts are common in fat tire rims, but I've always assumed those rims were for tubes. And I see the trapezoids, but are they all the way through? Also much larger the individual openings I'm used to seeing in fattie rims. Seems like that would put a huge burden on both the rim tape and the remaining metal.

 

[fooferdoggie]

What I'm noticing is this:



That doesn't look like a trapezoidal cutout to me.

99 percent of the tubeless issues I have had have either been from poor rim tape installation or the valves. Even bike shops with competent techs might take a couple of tries to get the rim tape installation just right on a wheel, especially a rim they haven't worked with before.

Valve placement is tricky because having the lock nut either too tight or too loose results in sealant leaking. Also some pumps (Lezyne) are really efficient at unscrewing the lock nuts when you remove the pump. My least bad solution for this is to have two or three lock nuts on each valve to keep it in place. I might also consider weak threadlocker on the nuts but haven't gone that far yet.

One thing I got right every time is rim tape. I used the DT-Swiss as it has a little stretch, and it was pretty easy to get right. But valves were a battle. But don't use lock-tite, or it is a battle to get the nut off the threads are so fine that anything in them makes it super hard to remove (dont ask me how I know this) but two nuts work pretty well.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I have cutouts and tubeless fat tyres

Well, there's the definitive answer. But have you seen cutouts as large as the trapezoids on the rim in question?

 

[kevinmccune]

I have been trying for days to do a tubeless set-up on a gravel, adventure, road bike. Normally I can do it with a regular hand/foot pump. I purchased at my personal shop a doughnut pump with 110, psi 8/bar, loud air pump. The rear still wouldn't seal. It has a crack in the AL rim at the joint. What are your tubeless bliss blues? And as a Specialized bonus, you get 5 points whenever you smoke a Vado on your bike, ringing the bell three times and saying 'Overtaking to your left' to a fat guy in spandex and Yellow like he just won the Tour de France,.

this sounds suspicious!

 

[Chargeride]

Well, there's the definitive answer. But have you seen cutouts as large as the trapezoids on the rim in question?

They are pretty big, but the difference between a tube and just air behind the rim sleeve isnt obvious.

Heres mine.