I’m going a bit nuts with getting punctures on my 36er! I’ve been plagued with punctures since I started uni’ing (and before then on my bikes). On my 29er, I use a Kevlar liner in the tyre, which seems to work pretty well (I still get a puncture but very rarely!) But on the 36er, I’m a bit worried to try those. They add a pretty big chunk of weight, and I’d have to buy two and overlap them a bit to fit round the 36er diameter, which sounds like a massive faff.
I’m wondering if tubeless is the way to go. I don’t really use the 36er for anything rougher than canal towpaths, so I’m not hugely worried about splurting sealant all over trails or anything. Now, I’m having a bit of trouble finding information about the rim on my Qu-Ax 36er - The closest model I’ve found is on UDC, but the rim is different on mine. My 36er has a black rim, and the UDC one has a grey/silver coloured one. I assume it’s the same rim though - UDC says it’s 32mm wide.
So… Has anyone successfully ran tubeless on this setup? How exactly did you go about it? Ghetto? Stan’s kits? And was it reliable? What sort of pressures can be run, assuming a successful tubeless setup?
I was planning on doing this ‘by the book’ and paying up for a Stan’s kit, but if a ghetto setup is just as easy (and tested) I may consider it!
I don’t run tubeless, but I was starting to get “too many” flats on my 32", and put in some Orange Seal sealant. I haven’t had any flats since then. Works just fine with a tube.
No, the rim is not the same. The Stealth 2 rim is specifically designed for the 36" tyres and has specific features that make it particularly good for the bigger tyre. It is not sold to QuAx.
Does this mean you customise the Qu-Ax 36ers you sell to have a Stealth 2 rim?
EDIT to answer LanceB - I’ve considered products like that too, I’ve always been scared of having the gunk all over the place when I finally do swallow my pride and replace the tube. I guess I’d have exactly the same problem when I replace a tubeless tyre though! Thanks for the recommendation!
Yeah, guess I could’ve worded that one better, sorry about that!
I sort of wish I’d gotten the silver rim though. I want to put a rim brake on but I don’t want to trash the beautiful black! If it were silver there wouldn’t be as much hesitation
Just wondering, are you actually getting the punctures on the 36 or is is something that you don’t want to happen? TAs and other 4ply 36er tyres are built like tanks and shouldn’t be that easy to puncture.
I never got to grips with rim brakes on a 36er, just too grabby but you may get a bit further. A brake is obviously insanely valuable with that much inertia. As for the coat, is it a powdercoat or anodised?
I’ve not a clue about how the rim is painted/coated. Qu-Ax don’t seem to have much info on it sadly! I’ve never ridden with a brake before, but I really like the 125mm cranks on the 36er for blazing down the road. They just become a bit of a pain on long, downhill roads (I can manage, but it’d be nice to make it easier)! The reason I was looking at V-brakes is because they’re easy to fit and maintain. Getting a disk would need all sorts of extra stuff to fit, and I don’t really want to go through all that effort for something I don’t even need that badly.
Yes, I’m getting punctures! My tube has three patches in it already. I’ve had it a bit over a month (And haven’t actually ridden it as much as I’d like because of the crap weather we’ve had).
I live in a place that is basically surrounded by bushy, spiky plants that farmers love to cut down and leave all over the paths. I had a day a couple months back on my 29er where I pulled 8 thorns from the tyre. Two had punctured the tube. That was with a thick tyre with ‘built-in puncture protection’ as well as a Kevlar belt stuck to the inside of it!
In regards to the TA being thick enough to protect from them, you’re almost right. When I get a puncture, I check round the whole tyre. I usually find plenty of things stuck in it, but they’re usually not in far enough to pop the tube - I guess they get driven in further and further as I ride along.
Not exactly the same. With tubeless, the sealant moves between the tyre and rim leaving residue everywhere. With a tube that has sealant inside, you have a cleaner setup as the sealant is in the tube. It is heavier than tubeless because you have a tube, but it isn’t different from a regular tube setup.
The only risks of spills is deflating suddenly the tube with the stem pointing down or having your tube splitting in your wheel (in this second case, it is really a lack of luck :D).
That’s sort of what I was referring to. If it gets to the point that I’m willing to chuck out and buy a new £15 inner tube, that thing is probably destroyed enough to make a mess :D` +
But it won’t be. There is no way you’ll ever get enough punctures to make a mess. Only if you snakebite will you get fluid everywhere, and there’s no reason that should happen on your 36. As for the valve, keep anywhere but directly down and sealant won’t come out.
I run sealant in all of my tubed setups and it’s worked a trick. Good luck getting that tire tubeless. I took one look at how my 4 ply Coker sat on my D2 rim and put a tube in. I know it’s not the same, but I’d imagine similar circumstances.
How is a tyre supposed to sit before you decide it to be worth attempting? My vague imagination on the subject tells me you’d want the tyre to NOT be sort of, squatting in the middle of the rim with an inch either side of the beads (with a ‘perfect’ setup being, the tyre pretty much touching the rim either side, just waiting to be inflated into place). I’ve never really checked out how mine looks without a tube in, because I haven’t really considered NOT using one up until now! Maybe I’ll give that a test tomorrow
Apparently the Qu-Ax rim is slightly skinnier than the D2 (judging by the above conversation), But then again, I’ve no idea how wide the Coker tyres are.
I’ll definately look into a (tubed) sealant setup though. Maybe that stuff has improved since I last heard of it 10 years ago (There were horror stories about all the goop settling at the bottom if you left it too long and solidifying…) and I doubt I have the puncture problem as bad as some (I don’t for example ever come across goatheads).
Both beads on my Coker tire settled to the middle of the rim and the fit was very loose. You want nice and tight. The beads can move around a bit, but they should still pretty much be touching or all of your air will just pour out trying to seat them.
The Qu Ax rim may work a bit better being skinnier.
The sealant will still solidify if left too long. I’ve never had a problem with that though. Even if it did solidify, you’d just have a big booger rolling around in your tube.
Goat heads are my bane. I wish they would all burn.
Ahh, back when I was in school my MTB buddy put Slime in his tubes. He pretty much left it in his shed over Winter, and came back to find a solid lump sitting at the bottom of each. I guess he put far too much in, because it was definately bigger than a booger
And Slime is different than tubeless fluid. I hate Slime. It clogs your valves and make it impossible to inflate tube after some time. I actually ripped a valve stem out once trying to get through the slime.
I mutilated a 29er tube after stretching it over my 36er rim, wrestled the tyre on, squirted some Fairy on the beads and… Well, the floor pump wouldn’t work. Next thing I tried was the ‘Air Hammer’ pump, which is a huge floor pump that is apparently capable of pumping a normal tyre in a few seconds. The beads didn’t even come close to seating, unfortunately. Dad thinks its because the rubber of the innertube is in the way of the bead hooks, so the tyre has nothing to actually hook onto. I personally think the tyre is doing exactly what Killian said it shouldn’t, and is sitting in the middle of the rim spinning its thumbs instead of moving to the outside edge to hook up with the clinchers.
We have an electric pump, but it’s pretty slow, not exactly the fast air compressor you’d find in a garage, so I’m not sure I should even bother trying it. I’m considering wrapping some rope around the tyre and tightening it to squish it down, and hitting it with the Hammer again. If that doesn’t work… I dunno. Maybe take it to a garage/bike shop and see if they’ll let me use a compressor of some sort?
Is there much else I can try here, or is this a lost cause? Shall I cut my losses on the 29er tube, squirt the Stans into my 36er tube and pretend this all never happened?
Not gonna lie, that’s a fear that hit me at first… I assume that the inner-tube is thin enough to sort of allow the ledge in the rim to do its job though.
Might roll my wheel down to a car place tomorrow and see if they’ll let me…
I’ve been plagued with punctures since I started uni’ing (and before then on my bikes). On my 29er, I use a Kevlar liner in the tyre, which seems to work pretty well (I still get a puncture but very rarely!) But on the 36er, I’m a bit worried to try those. They add a pretty big chunk of weight, and I’d have to buy two and overlap them a bit to fit round the 36er diameter, which sounds like a massive faff.
If it were silver there wouldn’t be as much hesitation 
