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.
Alrighty so, you don’t know if you don’t try eh?
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?
No way that having rubber in the bead hook is the problem. If that were true, everyone running ghetto tubeless would be popping tires off.
Can you post a pick of the tire on the rim?
Most gas stations have compressors you can use. May try that.
If that fails, I’d get a 29er tube and put some stans in that then stretch it over the rim.
Hi,
I did it with the same setup as yours, a year ago and it still holding air.
One4all did it before me and have a lot of troubles also. The good news that there is a good end to that story…
You can read the full version here:
For the solution go to page 4…
Good luck,
Yuval
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…
Photos:
So you removed the tube completely, and packed the rim full of foam? 
interesting. Was there any other form of tape on the rim to make it air-tight, or did you just use foam you knew was air-tight and tape it down to hold it in place?
What exactly is the function of this foam? Does it simply make the rim artificially ‘shallower’ so the tyre beads have less space to fall into the centre of the rim? Or does it even provide a shelf on which the tyre sits to coax it onto the clinchers?
I wonder what I could use for this foam around my house. I have plenty of bubble-wrap… Does the material matter, or is it simply a case of using whatever will pack your rim up? Should I remove my 29er tube and replace it with tape, or (if not) put the foam UNDER or OVER the tube?
My immediate thought to cheap my way through this is the leave the 29er tube in, but trim it narrow enough to be rim strip-sized as opposed to overlapping the rim as it does right now, then packing a layer of bubble-wrap over it, THEN proceeding to do my thing with the tyre. Am I mental, or could this work?
EDIT: Anyone have any recommendations for the foam/weatherstrip?
Hi Piece Maker, here’s my comments in blue:
So you removed the tube completely, and packed the rim full of foam? 
interesting. Was there any other form of tape on the rim to make it air-tight, or did you just use foam you knew was air-tight and tape it down to hold it in place?
Yep, removed the tube completely. I didn’t fill it with foam, it’s just a thin strip of foam…
What exactly is the function of this foam? Does it simply make the rim artificially ‘shallower’ so the tyre beads have less space to fall into the centre of the rim?..
Exactly!!! This is the purpose of the foam.
I wonder what I could use for this foam around my house. I have plenty of bubble-wrap… Does the material matter, or is it simply a case of using whatever will pack your rim up? Should I remove my 29er tube and replace it with tape, or (if not) put the foam UNDER or OVER the tube?
IMHO it doesn’t matter, as long as it keep the tyre up. Bubble-wrap will do the job.
My immediate thought to cheap my way through this is the leave the 29er tube in, but trim it narrow enough to be rim strip-sized as opposed to overlapping the rim as it does right now, then packing a layer of bubble-wrap over it, THEN proceeding to do my thing with the tyre. Am I mental, or could this work?
You don’t have to use tube at all. Instead use tubeless valve and tape. Apply several touches of any kind of glue, on the bubble-wrap, just to hold it in place until you place back the tyre, add the magic liquid, and pump it with floor pump!
Don’t give up you can do it, and its worth the effort, I’m very happy with my tubeless setup.
Good luck!
Yuval
Good
Alrighty, bubble wrap it is… I wonder if this has been done before…
The reason I mentioned re-using the tube I’m already using is purely to save me having to buy even more stuff for a project that so far has proven futile. Is there any particular reason this wouldn’t work? If not, could I chop the valve out of it, and just use something like insulation tape to strap the bubble wrap down (and wrap it round enough to provide air-tightness), and poke the valve through that?
OK, the bubble wrap was a complete failure. It was far too lose, and so when I wrestled the tyre on, it just poked out the sides, and provided plenty of space for air to spray out.
I’ll go shopping and see what I can find in the way of stuff to pack the rim out with, as well as a good rim strip instead of using this mutilated tube. I guess I should do this properly!
SUCCESS!
TL;DR: the weather strip’s the solution.
I stretched some Gorilla Tape over my rim, wrapped some weather strip over that, poked a hole through which I stuck the valve off that wrecked 29er tube, which I then gorilla taped down. The valve was a bit wobbly still, so I stuck some of the weather strip on the outside (around the valve) and put the valve bolt thingy over it (The bolt is too small for the hole in my rim).
The tyre was an absolute beast to mount. Took me like half an hour of tyre lever wrestling. Eventually it went on - I crossed my fingers, stuck the floor pump on, and went at it. It seated almost instantly, the rest of my pumps were just giving it pressure, and it held air perfectly despite me having punctured it a few times (Maybe if I’d left it a bit longer that’d be a different story).
Popped the valve core out (The thing pinged across the kitchen… Note to self, do it slowly next time) and the tyre stayed seated. Poured my Stans in and pumped back up… None squirted out of the beads, and it all seems fine, though I swished it around the tyre and shook it up just to make sure. Went for a quick (read - up my street and back a few times) and nothing disastrous happened. I’ll go for a proper ride later on tonight and reserve judgement! The wheel certainly feels lighter but not by a huge amount (Probably the weather strip I used - it was really thick!) and I’m only running at 35PSI happily (Which is crazy for me - I’m usually not satisfied with anything under 50), so I guess that’s good
UVcycle - THANKYOU! Your solution was exactly what I needed. Here’s to a hopefully puncture-free year
Hi Piece Maker and Yuval,
I haven’t been here for a while and luckily I just saw your post, pretty late though… 
I’m glad you got it to work for you with the weather strip - I remember the moment it worked out for me; there’s only one word to describe it: “Epic”.
I’ve had my 2 years of puncture free with ~5 km on my TA.
About 2 months ago it blew up during maintenance. I’m waiting to get my new 36" nightrider soon…
Have fun!
Unfortunately I spoke far too soon - I’m getting leakage around the valve! 
That is to say, it’s coming out of the valve-hole on the side of the valve. Not sure what to do about this - I’ve got another valve that’s got rubber all round it that might seal better against the hole, or I could just use my existing one and tape over the inside a bit better. Thoughts?
