Csm’s Maintenance Monday: Stan’s NoTubes Tubeless Conversion Kit

I know this is a little late, but this is a perfect post for cyclocross season! Stan’s No Tubes has a wide variety of tubeless conversion kits that take a lot of the guess work out of setting up your tubeless tires with non-UST rims. Here’s a quick run-through on how to set your wheels up.

Tools you’ll need for this job:

• Some “skinny” tire levers
• Hands
• Stan’s NoTubes Tubeless conversion kit
• Patience
• Air compressor, CO2 pump or floor pump

First step:
Pull your old tires and rim strip off your wheels and make sure the rim is clean of any dirt. If it’s dirty, clean it up using a clean rag with some rubbing alcohol on it and strip any residue off the rim. Apply the Stan’s rim tape to cover up the spoke holes before adding the rubber valve strip.
Second step:
Put the first half of your tire on the bead. It will be really tight because of the rubber rim strip, so it will probably be necessary to use your tire lever to get the last bit of the tire over the rim. Once you have the first half of the tire over the rim, start putting the second half of the bead over the rim starting at the opposite side from the valve.
Once you get to the last bit of the tire, add your sealant into the tire. Carefully let the sealant slide around to the other side of the tire that is already on the bead so it doesn’t spill while you work the last part of the tire over the rim. Again, this could be pretty tight, so use a couple of “skinny” tire levers and be sure to exercise your patience here! I found out the hard way that skinny levers are WAY easier to work with than fatter ones.
Third step:
Once you have the tire completely on the wheel, you need to pump up the tire. I recently used a floor pump and found that it worked just fine. So I would try that first, and if that doesn’t work, use either your air compressor or CO2 cartridge.
Fill it up to the maximum PSI for the tire and work the bead around the tire to set into the rim. While you’re doing this, shake the tire around to let the Stan’s seal around the bead. You will usually need to pump your tire up a few times and shake the sealant around for a couple of minutes before it completely seals. Once it is all sealed up, take your bike for a quick spin, keeping an eye on the tire pressure. If it loses pressure, pump it back up and continue spinning around ’til it stops losing pressure!
After doing these steps, you should have a good seal and be ready to rip the trails or race some ‘cross!

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