Tubeless Bicycle Wheels Conversion 22/09/2007
Bicycle wheels suffer from pinch flats when the innertube is pinched
between the tyre and the rim in a impact. This ruined my Mountain
Bike rides for years until I converted to tubeless in early 2007. On
my last ride with innertubes I had 3 pinch flats on one circuit of
Ae forest. Since then, in 12 months of riding in TransScotland,
Single Speed World Champoinships 2007, Strathpuffer 24 Hours and
countless Glentress weekends, I've had NO PUNCTURES AT ALL! This is
a magic solution, and here's how to do it, nearly for free! Our
mountainbikes and cyclocross bikes are all tubeless using this
technique.
These photos are an Al's Half tubes conversion of new wheels and
tyres using BMX innertubes. The cost is about £5 per wheel.
Schwalbe 20" inner tubes: use these. They have removable valves
(cheaper prestas don't).
Even if you want to use Schraeder (aka car-type) valves, still use
Schwalbe because their Schraeder stems have lock-rings. You NEED a
lock-ring.
JRA Wheel milk: Works for me. This super-handy 100ml
bottle does 2 tyres and has a thin spout that fits inside a stem
with the valve removed. Under £3. Bargain.
Inflate the inner tube. Childsplay!
If you're using wire-bead (not foldable) tyres, do this. Turn the
tyre inside-out and leave it like that for "a while". Like, as long
as it takes to drink a beer. At least 10 minutes. This helps the
bead seat on the outside of the rim when you're inflating later.
Stretch the inflated tube over the rim, and align it evenly all
round. There's a seam running around the outside so use that for
alignment.
It's important to get the valve lock-ringed tight to the rim before
you attempt inflation, so do that now. Pull the stem out &
tighten it as much as you can.
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