This is what happened to my first tire! But the break was too big, so I needed to get a new tire. Like you, I took my Coker to a local bike shop, the guy has experiences using the Notube sealant on other tires and he told me(after my numerous failures) to try the weather-strip. At that point, I was so discouraged cause I thought it would be beyond my capability and I had gone through much grief and money spent. I was about to give up going tubeless, then I decided to give one more try. And it worked! WOOT WOOT!
At this point, because of the many failures I overcame and completed what I thought was impossible(at one point), I like my Coker the way it is. I donāt really care about the ādetailsā so much because I got it to WORK!
Wouldnāt it be possible to use a wider rim strip so that it did actually make contact with the tyre bead? This would mean requesting a specially wide rim strip from NoTubes, but these are made specially for 36" wheels anyway so its still a special request whether it be narrow or wide. Its quite possible that NoTubes is not actually aware how deep the Airfoil (and stock) Coker rims are, seeing as only a few tubeless 36" conversions have been done to date. I might have this totally wrong and it may be a stupid suggestion, but maybe the next rider to go tubeless (especially on a standard Coker rim) could make such a requestā¦
Well Tony, you have a valid idea. Yes I ordered the special 36" strip from Notubes, but it was still ātightā (had do some streching)and not āwideā enough for the tire bead to touch the strip without the weather-strip. When I called Notubes, I spoke to Stan(the inventor) himself who said the 36" strip should work. From what I understand, they lengthen the strip but I donāt think they can āwidenā the strip. Like you said the next person to call them should request if widening the strip is possible, then I think the weather-striping would not be necessary.
Itās been a full week since riding my Coker tubeless and itās GREAT! I can definately feel little more control cause of the less weight. I have the tire at 40psi now cause at 30psi I had to pump additional air in every day. But at 40psi, the air is now holding AND the tire is VERY firm. It feels like I have 60psi on it before when I used to ride it with the tube. Thanks again Gizmo for the idea!
Thatās odd- how much sealant did you put in the tyre? Iāve had my tubeless much lower than 30PSI without any problems.
John C- it sounds like there is indeed a good deal of variation in Coker tyres. I remember my first and second coker tyres to be extremely difficult to get onto the rim because of the tight steel bead. My current (defective) tyre was easy to get on, it must have had a weak spot on the steel wire which eventually snapped. So there is no way of getting it to go tubeless. In fact- it wonāt even take a tube anymore. I put a Coker tube in it this week and suffered a tyre blowout. The bead āpoppedā allowing the tube to come out of the tyre and blow up very spectacularly.
The unfortunate thing is that I was in Australia this weekend for a mountainbike race- the blowout happened when I was away from home and any spare parts. Needless to say it left me scratching my head trying to find a new Coker tyre in Toowomba on a Saturday. Luckily I survived the 100km Hidden Vale Epic the next day after reinforcing my inner tube with duct tape and supergluing the tyre bead to my Coker rim Whew!
So my feeling is that provided your Coker tyre is not a defective one, the tubeless conversion is worth the effort. If the tyre has a defective bead, it probably should not be used at all- even with an inner tube, because if the bead snaps, itās going to cause a blowout. Iāll post pics when I get home to NZ.
The latest batch of Coker tires seem far superior to all the others I have worked with. They are more supple and look better and have more consistent shape and color. I suspect that we have just cleared out a huge backlog of stored tires and that new ones from now on will be of higher quality because they are fresh.
The foam tape is actually to lift the center of the strip, not the edges. This is what Stanās recommended. My tire was flat when I got it new, meaning the beads were touching each other. When they are in the center of the rim, it is too deep to contact both pieces. With no tube, there is nothing to spread them and you canāt do it manuelly.
<threadjack>
I couldnāt find the 36" strip on that guys siteā¦did you need to e-mail him and order it specially?
or am I just not looking in the right place?
either way, how much did all of it cost?
Stans pretty good about emailing you back- I didnāt have any problems communicating with the chief guy at No-tubes.com
On another note, if you are after a wider rim strip, one possibility might be to use an old coker inner tube and just cutting it up in half, leaving a circular strip with a valve at the bottom- Iāve seen people doing that with smaller wheels when they convert to tubeless. You will still need the Stans sealant mix though.
Is this required for both the standard Coker rim and the Airfoil rim? JC commented above that the std rim is deeper than the Airfoil. And Ken didnāt need the foam tape on his Airfoil conversion, so I wonder if this is only necessary for std rim tubeless conversionsā¦
Good idea with the split inner tube, Ken - are you going to be the first to try it? Unicycle.co.nz has 36" tyres and tubes in stock!
Like you, I took my Coker to a local bike shop, the guy has experiences using the Notube sealant on other tires and he told me(after my numerous failures) to try the weather-strip. At that point, I was so discouraged cause I thought it would be beyond my capability and I had gone through much grief and money spent. 
