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Tubeless for road tyres
I've recently converted my mountain bike tyres to tubeless and loving the benefits. I've got lots of rim tape and sealant left over and wondering if its possible to convert the road bike.
I have 25 wide specialized armadillo tyres on fulcrum racing sport wheels. I know none of these are specifiaclly tubeless compatible but in mounting bike gear that's usually not a problem as the tyres generally seal and seat pretty well anyway. Refered to as Ghetto tubeless.
I know there's not really an advantage to running lower pressures but i would like to never get punctures again and benefit from a slight weight saving.
Is it possible to Ghetto tubeless road tyres? Anyone done it?
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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It's 19mm, which sits perfectly in the concave 17mm rim bed, but I know people who either cut it to size on the roll or trim it on the rim.
SOME non-tubeless tyres will work with SOME non-tubeless rims but it could get expensive figuring out which.
I sealed up Fulcrum sport rims with Kapton tape no problem and then built up the rim bed with black electrical tape but I'm running Schwalbe G-One tubeless tyres. Super plush ride.
Interesting.... What width rim tape did you use? I've got 30mm that i used on my mountain bike E13 rims so i was planning to trim it down.
That will be a right faff! Getting the 'tape' to sit smooth and flush is one of the 'tricks' required for no hassle riding. If you get it even a bit wrong 1) getting a 'tight tyre' to seat on will cause you headaches 2) any bits NOT totally sealed, will get sealant under them, which will mean they'll raise around the edges (see point 1) and you'll have to replace the tape sooner than you would expect to.
I've fitted 4mm wider tape to 19mm inner width rims, you wouldn't want to go wider than about 4mm but you certainly do want a bit of 'extra' width on the tape.
Good luck!
Thanks for all the tips everyone. I've found similar comments elsewhere. Think i'll hold off for now and do it with tubeless tyres when I come to changing them.
To be fair, my armadilios haven't punctured yet but I was thinking about switching back to a lighter slicker tyre for the summer. My last summer tyres used to puncture quite often.
You can do it but difficult without a tubeless tyre. Higher pressures make ghetto road tubeless less reliable than MTB (although I still think KiwiMike is overtstating risk of death). Wait until you need new tyres and replace with tubeless variety, less likely to result in frustration.
Keep some spare sealant handy as you will need to top up your tyres as the stuff does dry out.
PS I bought some Easton carbon aero road tubless wheels from Chain Reaction for about £1k and they are great.
GOD NO NO NO NO NO
Never, ever set up non-tubeless tyres as tubeless. You are almost guaranteed to suffer catastrophic, instant loss of pressure / tyre coming of fthe rim, most likely in a hard corner, at speed.
MTB tyres are a different case.
I rode about 30 miles on them with no problem, but this was at the back of my mind and was definitely a factor in my moving the tubeless tyres back onto my older bike with UST rims.
My LBS did this with Fulcrum Racing rims (non tubeless) and Schwalbe Pro One tyres (tubeless). They reckon that as long as one part is tubeless, then it should work. However, the tyres lost some pressure over a couple of days, so I decided to go back to inner tubes. The last thing I want to be doing is trying to fix ghetto tubeless at the side of a road.