Take a look at some of the home tubeless videos where they used a strap, rope, or zip ties to press the center tread downward, this may be necessary to get the intial seal.
If you need more air pressure, an auto tire shop may be able to help you out.
Don’t get impatient, it can be a pain to get the 36er to seal initially, but it’s well worth it once you’re there.
After you get a dry seal, carefully deflate the tire, then remove the valve core to add sealant, then pump it.
After pumping it to a fairly high pressure, say 30psi, swish the sealant around in the tire by spinning and “wobbling” the wheel, the idea is to coat the inside of the tire and rim.
Last, you need to fill your sink or tub with water and look for leaks. If you find a leak, then swish the fluid around the leaking area and recheck. You want all leaks to seal.
The next day swish the wheel around again.
The tire may lose a little pressure at first, but it should hold most pressure over night. If you ever lose pressure, consider the need to add fluid. If you add fluid, go ride or swich the wheel around.
@Nurse Ben, thanks a lot for all your help. It is most appreciated.
I decided to take no risk and do this process at my regular LBS which has experience in such conversions.
I just wanted to get an advice regarding one thing - should I use two layers of rim tape or one would be enough?
I saw on one of Stan’s clips that he recommends on using 2 layers.
Actually, I don’t think I have other options except 1 layer - as 10 Yards long won’t be enough for two layers.
Unless, maybe - I’m not sure if it’s a good plan, to use one layer of the two overlapping strips and a third strip only on the center of the rim width for reinforcement.
What do you think?
I don’t know how Ben did it, but on mine I just made sure my tape was centered in the rim to cover my spoke holes, then did my two wraps. I actually have one small section of rim (a foot or so) that only has a single layer of tape because I ran out after doing my 29er first.
I haven’t had problems with it, though I notice every other week or so I still need to add 5 or so psi before I go ride. Not really a problem, though I’m not sure why it’s losing air, I added some sealant not too long ago.
@Killian, thanks for sharing.
So if I understood correctly you had 1 layer of rim tape on the center of your rim to cover the spokes holes (which BTW I think should be enough IMHO) and then you had one extra layer that is made of two rim tapes overlapping each other in the middle (as @Ben instructed me to do - because of the rim width in comparison to the rim tape width).
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
No, I just had two layers of tape (one on top of the other) that were directly in the center of the rim to cover the spoke holes. My stealth rim wasn’t that much wider than the tape, so I wasn’t too worried about making sure the entire rim was covered, just the spoke holes.
@Killian and @Ben thanks a lot for all your help - but now I really need your advice quickly.
I just got back from the LBS and we couldn’t make it…
We started off with only the tape and then the LBS guy said ghetto tubeless is better - so we took 26" tube and put it on the rim, but that didn’t work either.
I remember your tips about pressing the center tread downward - we used an old electric wire to do that - but didn’t work either.
Now I’m stuck with a wheel that has some sealant left in its tire and I even went to a gas station and tried to use the pump with the mode of flat tire.
But no luck…
The bike shop you are using is not working out for this project, is there not another shop you can use??
Tape and valve is fine, no different than a ghetto tube, tape is lighter and reusable which is why I use it.
NOW, remove the tire and ghetto tube, clean up the rim and let it dry well, then retape, reinstall the valve WITHOUT the core, and reinstall the tire.
Go to a tire shop, talk with them about how to make the tire seal, MAYBE a motorcyle shop would be a better bet since they are used to dealing with smaller tires and challenging situations.
It can be done, but you need to understand how a tubeless system works.
DRY SEAL FIRST!
Use liberal amounts of soapy water, this will allow the tire bead to slide into place against the rim hook.
We did try dry seal at first - it just didn’t work.
Then we tried with the ghetto tube - dry seal again, no luck.
Only then we inserted the sealant which was of course not doing any good.
BTW - we even used a cartridge (balloon) of air that had a burst of ~150 PSI according to what I was told, but that didn’t work either.
These guys at the LBS have lots of experience with 26"/ 29" wheels for bikes.
I must tell you that I’m not sure I would find other LBS that would have patience to deal with this 36" tire of mine - it’s not profitable and takes a lot of handling.
Anyway, I went by myself later today to a gas station with soap water and tied a wire cable with a stick to tighten it up and I tried again to use the flat tire mode. It didn’t work either.
Is a TA 36" tire like I have ever been successfully inflated? Maybe that’s the problem?
Just a thought - but maybe both the LBS high pressure pump and the one on the gas station were not strong enough?
Is that possible?
Just to reiterate, make sure you get the dry seal first. If it won’t dry seal, you’re wasting your time putting sealant in.
Two things for you to try:
Remove the valve core to inflate. You can force more air faster into the tire without the valve core in. When/if the beads seat, take the pump off and quickly cover the valve stem with your finger, get the core ready to thread back in, and then hurry and screw it in.
Take out your valve for now, and wipe out all the sealant. Put your tire on with a tube in it. Inflate to 5 or 10 psi past the tires recommended pressure to ensure that the beads are well seated, maybe let it sit for a few minutes. Then slowly let the air out via the valve. Emphasis on slowly so you don’t unseat the beads. Then VERY CAREFULLY pop ONE bead and again VERY CAREFULLY remove the tube. Be careful not to pop the bead on the other side, or you will have to start over. Once the tube is out, CAREFULLY install your new valve, then pop your bead back into the rim. This way, when your trying to get the beads to seat, you’re only seating one bead instead of two. This is the only way I’ve been able to get my tire to go tubeless. YMMV.
The tube will seat your beads. If you can pull it out without unseating the other bead, you only have to seat one. The other bead will be good to go. It’s tricky, and may require a few attempts, but definitely doable.
Now I understand what you meant.
But how is the opposite bead (seating one) stays in place?
I would have to deflate the tube in order to take out the first bead. Can I deflate it to minimum or I should deflate it as less as possible?
Is it locked in any way? I’m sorry for the newbie like question but I’m trying to figure out how this works.
Thanks again.
You really fill me with hope and motivation to try again tomorrow after this day ended with a feeling of big missed opportunity…
I’ve done what Killian is suggesting with the tube before (on mountain bikes). My “undisturbed” bead wouldn’t stay in place at first, so I painted that edge of the rim with a thin bead of sealant, then mounted everything up with the tube in there. After waiting a few minutes for the sealant to get tacky/dry, then I deflated the tube and carefully pulled it out. The little bit of sealant on the other side held that bead nicely in place. Some people seem to have luck with their bead just staying there if they are careful. I did not.
The bead hook in your rim should keep it seated. Think: car tires. You’ll need to deflate the tube completely to get it out. The tube can be in there pretty good, but if you wrestle with it a bit, it’ll all come out.
Ubernerd’s suggestion with the sealant on one bead is a good one, Schwalbe actually makes a bead glue you can use.
Part of the problem is the tire, possibly the rim is also making it difficult, so if you try the one side seated system with a tube and you can’t get the remaining side to “stick”, then you probably need to “glue” your bead to the rim.
Try uber’s suggestion, glue one side of the tire bead, then inflate with a tube, let it dry over night, then deflate, see if your beads stay, then move on to pulling the tube. If one side won’t stay seated with some sealant painted on the tire/tube, then you may need to rethink the plan.
It is not easy to make your 36er tubeless, esp if you can’t get the tire to dry seal. Even with the Nimbus D2 and the Todd tire, it was still a struggle. This is why you need to get a dry seal, it’s the “test” to determine how tubeless will work on your tire and tube.
Hi @ubernerd and @Killian - I tried both methods (with and without the glue) - still failed to succeed.
I wanted to ask for your opinion regarding the famous movie in which a guy sprays a gas into a tomcar wheel tire and then set it on fire.
Could it work for me too? Seriously.
