Last year I bought a set of Stan's ZTT355 rims plus a tubeless kit. The kit consisted of a rim strip plus sealant. Boy was that hard to fit, and a real faff to fix when you did rip a sidewall out on the trail. But when it worked it was very good indeed; my front tyre was fitted for a year without incident - I never even had to add more fluid. However, the mud of this year prompted me to change it. Well nightmare began. The tyre was glued on and I destroyed the rim strip taking the tyre off. £20 down the pan. So I looked at Stan's website, and they do a revised system that does not use the strip. You just apply an air tight rim strip, plug a valve in and away you go. But my first valve blew out. Put another in, couldn't get the tyre to seal.
£100 apparently wasted.
However, I bought a set of Bontrager Mud X tyres, new valves and tried again.
Took ten minutes to remove the old tyres, fit the new ones, pour in sealant and re-affix back to the bike. £100 not wasted - just £27; £20 for the old ghetto strip and £7 for the valve. I can live with that.
Ten minutes. Things have moved on in the tubeless world; each tyre back in the day could take well over an hour to fit, if it fitted. Now I'm happy again. Means I can swop out tyres real fast, which I like to do. Why use the same tyre all year round? Obviously the [my] problem lay in the ghetto system that Stan originally used. This new refined system, plus using tubeless specific tyres, is way better. Easy, quick and clean. Like it. A lot.
[Question: how long has Stan been using the valved system? Probably more than a year, so why was the ghetto system the only one I could get or saw advertised??]
Now what to do with all my old tyres?
Oh and the big upshot? My bike now weighs a full kilogram less than it did with the original system and heavy downhill tyres fitted. Feels like a different machine. Can't wait to try the Mud X tyres - any bets that now the trails will dry out?
£100 apparently wasted.
However, I bought a set of Bontrager Mud X tyres, new valves and tried again.
Took ten minutes to remove the old tyres, fit the new ones, pour in sealant and re-affix back to the bike. £100 not wasted - just £27; £20 for the old ghetto strip and £7 for the valve. I can live with that.
Ten minutes. Things have moved on in the tubeless world; each tyre back in the day could take well over an hour to fit, if it fitted. Now I'm happy again. Means I can swop out tyres real fast, which I like to do. Why use the same tyre all year round? Obviously the [my] problem lay in the ghetto system that Stan originally used. This new refined system, plus using tubeless specific tyres, is way better. Easy, quick and clean. Like it. A lot.
[Question: how long has Stan been using the valved system? Probably more than a year, so why was the ghetto system the only one I could get or saw advertised??]
Now what to do with all my old tyres?
Oh and the big upshot? My bike now weighs a full kilogram less than it did with the original system and heavy downhill tyres fitted. Feels like a different machine. Can't wait to try the Mud X tyres - any bets that now the trails will dry out?
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