Cycling News and Race Results

Not too long ago I was in the market (meaning I got 5 punctured in 4 days of riding) to convert my 4X bikes whees to tubeless. Being the scrooge that I am, I did my research on which strips, sealant, technique works best.

I asked the experts (those with 4 or more bikes running tubeless, hahaha)... Here's what I gathered...

Rim Strips:

Stans - work well... pricey
BBT (the green ones) - cheaper... but too plasticky, premoulded shape wont work with all rims and generally crap
20" BMX Tubes - cheapest of all, but work like a bomb! (my choice)

I have also gone through almost all 'versions' of tjoopless anad here is my take:-

1) ghetto - cheapest, easy to do but have yet to find tubes with removable cores freely available, have a set of wheels running for 3 years on the same conversion no problem - not so easy to inflate without a compressor

2) Stan's/Joe's - much of a muchness between the 2, find that over time the valve to strip 'attachment' becomes weak and eventually breaks. Solved that by using the 'stand alone' valves with the damaged strip no problem - not so easy to inflate without a compressor

3) Bontrager 'hard' plastic strips - don't fit all rims, have trimmed them to work though (painstaking ....). Tyre generally fits pretty tight so inflation is generally pretty easy (even hand pump)

4) BBT Green plastic strips - mixed success, fit all rims that I have tried them on. Tend to crack at the valve hole very easily. Have had 3 replaced because of that. 1 set of wheels with them working fine.

5) New rubber strips (26 & 29") name escapes me - easy to fit, tyre pretty tight and easy inflation. (NB busy trying out their road tubeless) - WILL CHECK the name tomorrow

Have tried all sorts of sealant but always end up back at Joe's - the worst I have used was OKO! Have some Zero Flats at the moment, will try it out soon.

Also had hassles with the plastic ones.

The Bat Seal works awesome. And it's local!

I've used Stans, ghetto, and also using just a rimstrip in one of my tyres, with a stem taken off a road tube, which is the only non stans still running.
Stans is the best, sealant and strips. The ghetto conversion worked well, but getting a tube with the removable core is a shlep, I used to be able to get Conti tubes, but no more.
Whichever way yougo, it's worth it.