[N8 v2.0]

I talked to several 29er riders at a recent race and most are not but about 5% were.

I've heard that there is no true tubeless tire made for the 29 and if run without tubes you risk rolling your tire off the rim.

However, that doesn't stop everyone from trying it.


So, what's your tire/rim choice.

 

[Angus]

I have never ran tubeless 26 or 29, Being a Singlespeeder I prefer reliability over weight weenism, I have done some reading on the subject, and it seems that Stan's would be the way to go if one were inclined.

 

[cmh]

I talked to several 29er riders at a recent race and most are not but about 5% were.

I've heard that there is no true tubeless tire made for the 29 and if run without tubes you risk rolling your tire off the rim.

However, that doesn't stop everyone from trying it.


So, what's your tire/rim choice.

Tubeless made a huge difference on my Karate Monkey. Running Salsa Delgado cross rims (460g my ass, try 540g) with Maxxis TS 26A2 rim strips -- designed for 26" rims but I cut the sidewall "wings" off and they make a nice, cheap niner tubeless rimstrip. I run WTB wire-bead ExiWolfs with Stan's goop and the difference to the ride quality was pretty stunning.

MunkeeHucker - with 540g rims and 820g+ tires, I wouldn't call it a weightweenie mod, although I did lose <i>some</I> weight with the conversion. I think the reliability is actually higher. My experience with tubeless on 26ers has been excellent, with no problems on anything short of a sidewall tear. (that's gonna screw you no matter what) This is even in a thorny park which is usually good for 2-3 flats with tubes.

Running tubeless on my niner I've found that silly-low pressures work amazingly well. The KM frame is not designed to be light, so it rides a bit harsh, but running the ExiWolfs at ~15psi, (not sure exact pressure since my pump only starts to register!) the bike is smooooth. Sounds like way too low but I've had *zero* problems with burping and I only get rimstrikes when I get lazy and don't ride proper, and I don't have to worry about pinchflats. This is a fully rigid KM at that.

Supposedly none of the currently available kevlar-beaded 29er tires are strong enough to run tubeless, except for Stan's Crow. Maybe if you ran them with Stan's rims, I dunno. Wire bead tires work fine for me, although they are heavy chevy.