Ghetto Tubeless Walk-through

What is this ghetto tubeless thing anyway?

So, normal bike tyres use a rubber inner tube, the inner tube sits inside the tyre and is a cheap and easy way to keep air inside your tyres (you know this already). A ghetto tubeless setup does away with the regular inner tube, instead relying on the tyre itself to hold air, and a narrow strip of a BMX inner tube to seal the rim. Being ghetto, this is of course done at minimal cost and with your existing hardware.

You can buy ready-to-go rims ("UST") which are airtight (and expensive) and tyres that work on these rims without sealant (heavy, also expensive)... but then why would you be reading this guide to doing it on the cheap?

Look how happy the Michelin Man is with his tubeless tyre.

Regular tubes vs ghetto tubeless

Regular inner tubes work ok. For road bikes they work pretty good. On a mountain bike you have less pressure in the tyres, and as a result you are much more likely to have pinch flats ("snakebites") where the tube is cut by the rim itself as the rim bangs up against something solid. Plus, you tend to ride over rough ground in the great outdoors - with a lot of spiky stones and thorns and other sharp things. Result = punctures.

A ghetto tubeless setup relies on having liquid latex sealant slosh around inside the tyres. When you get a puncture from a thorn or (small!) stone the latex sealant will be able to seal the puncture, a lot of times without you even noticing. Instantly, 90% of your previous puncture problems vanish. That's the promise, anyway.

There are also other benefits. As the tyre doesn't have an inner tube pressing against it, it becomes more pliant, which means you should get better grip, as the tyre can bend around stones and tree roots easier. Plus you can run much lower air pressure (no danger of snakebites) - again, better grip. Come on, admit it, it sounds good.

On the downside, you have to use magic goop to make this work. And setting this up can be a bit hit and miss – it all depends on your tyre/rim combination whether it works or not. Some tyres will just go straight on and inflate first try, no fuss… and others will be a complete pain to get inflated. But there are some tricks to get around this. Its not as bad as some people make out.

If you get a huge tear in your tyre you also end up spraying out goop over any nearby innocent bystanders. This is officially not cool.

So.

For: less puncture problems, more grip.

Against: Setup hassles.

Costs & materials.

It needn't cost very much to do this at all. In fact, it shouldn't. The conversion usus two BMX inner tubes and a bottle of sealant, on top of your existing tyres & rims.

Last time I did this, I paid £2.00 per tube from EBay (schrader/car valve type - they have removable valve cores) and £13 for a pint of sealant. If I'd bought the two pint tub of Stans it was £20 and that does you eight tyres - a big whole £5 / pair. Plus tubes = £9.

So what do I need?

Ready to start... Panaracer CG AM + Funn (Sun) Xlrater rims

Sealant, syringe, tubes, tape & levers.

• A nice shiny pair of wheels, of course.
• Two tyres (you can use old tyres if you like... good luck... this really is asking for trouble).
• Latex sealant. I used Stans - the internet forum talk says its the best.
• Two BMX inner tubes. Yes, the small 20” wheel ones. They need to be small so they sit tight on your 26” MTB rim. I highly recommend getting schrader (car valve) tubes so the valve core can be removed to add the sealant. If you can find them, I guess Presta valves with a removable core are also fine.
• Tools: scissors, a sharp knife or scalpel, soapy water & sponge, tyre levers. A synringe helps to get the latex through the valve. Maybe some fresh rim tape.

Step by step…

Preparation:

1. Get your wheel and tyre, and give it a wash down to remove any dirt and crud from the rim. Make sure your rim is taped up and the tape is in good condition. 
2. If your tyre is brand new, mount it on the rim, pop a normal tube in, inflate it, and leave it overnight. This makes it much easier to mount when you do the tubeless conversion for real.

The main event:

• Take your BMX tube, give it a wash off to remove any of the powdery release agent, and inflate it a bit.

20" BMX inner tubes inflated...

• Now pop the tube on the rim. 

...and stretched tight onto the rims.

• Make sure the tube is not twisted. They often have a mold line which can be used to straighten the tube up. Slice your tube all the way around, and fold the tube back over the rim. 

BMX inner tube sliced in half and folded back. That little hole is the valve.

• Wash off any remaining chalky stuff from the exposed inside of the tube.
• Now go ahead and mount your tyre OVER the bmx inner tube. We're trying to get the tyre on top of the BMX inner tube, so that the inner tube is sandwiched between rim and tyre. The remains of the inner tube form a nice rubber strip that completely seals the rim. 

Tyre sits on top of BMX tube. 

• Now for the trickiest bit: we have to get an initial seal between the remains of the BMX inner tube, and the tyre... Now this might be real easy (if your tyre sits nicely on the rim) or almost impossible (if it doesn't). This bit is made considerably easier if you have access to an air compressor. If not, get ready to pump like crazy on a track pump. If the air is just coming straight out around the tyre, try wiping round the inner tube/tyre joint with soapy water, or pinching the tyre near the valve. Mainly what helps at this point is having a huge amount of air whizzed into the tyre as fast as possible - which is why a compressor helps. There are some tricks to help here at the end of this article. Get the tyre up to around 40psi and it should pop onto the rim nicely. Easy! Well, hopefully it was…



Check out the air seeping out between tyre & inner tube (that's just soapy water foaming up).

• Ok, your tyre is on, it has air in... and you can hear the air hissing out all over the place. Relax - this is where the latex goop comes in. At this point you can either do it the easy way (remove valve core, syringe or pour in sealant, replace valve core, reinflate) or the hard way (take one side of the tyre off the rim, pour in sealant, remount tyre). It is so much easier to just remove the valve core if you can, because the tyre is already mounted and you don't have to go through the hard work of getting that initial seal again. Having a removable core also makes life easy in a years time when you have to replenish the sealant.

Time for the intravenous injection of latex milk, nurse.

• How much sealant? About 1/5 pint or 100ml, for a 26 x 2" tyre. A bit more for a chunky 2.5" tyre (1/4 pint). And less for a skinny tyre. 
• Re-inflate your tyre. 
• Now you have to distribute the sealant around the inside of the tyre. Grab the wheel, hold it almost horizontal, and shake it back and forward. Rotate it round a few degrees, and shake again. Repeat... until you've rotated the wheel all the way around. With a bit of luck, this will step will fill up most of the leaks between the tyre and the tube... on one side. 
• Flip it up the other way, and do the shakey manoevers again.
• Now lay it flat. Leave well alone for a few minutes. This bit will seal up the sidewall of the tyre, which can be a bit leaky. 
• Flip it up the other way. Leave it for a few minutes. 
• Now find any remaining leaks (wipe soapy water everywhere, look for bubbles) and try and cover them in sealant by tipping/shaking the wheel. 
• Finally, trim the excess inner tube off, using your nice sharp knife. Leave a few mm of tube outside the tyre – it’ll help when you finally swap tyres.

Slicing off the excess inner tube. A responsible adult is required for this bit.

• That's it, you're done. Go for a 10 minute ride and keep an eye on the tyre pressure. My experience is that tyres don't always hold pressure that great immediately after setup, but a day or two and a few short rides later, it’s all gravy.

Looks just like a normal wheel to me...

So, is it worth it?<

Yes. Cost difference to regular tube setup is minimal. You remove 90% of your puncture problems in one step. It can be a bit of a faff to set up, but with the right tools you can have a wheel done in the space of 30 minutes. You get to ride lower pressures for extra grip.

Maintenance?

You need to top up the sealant - it eventually dries out. In a cold wet climate (UK) probably once a year. In the middle of the nevada desert, every couple of weeks... maybe only hours... minutes...

Can I make my own sealant?

Possibly. But Stans sealant is damn good and allegedly doesn't cost that much more than getting the ingredients for a home brew mix.


I've scored a huge hole in my tyre and its gone flat


Just pop in a normal tube. It's not the end of the world, just a bit messier than your usual puncture stop.

Its impossible getting the f*&!#&g tyre inflated!

Yeah, that happens. Things you can do to make this bit easier:

• Pump faster! Ok, not funny...
• Wipe round the inner tube / tyre joint, with soapy water.
• Find a 26" inner tube and stretch it round the outside of the tyre. That squashes the tyre down onto the rim and presses the bead outward.
• Build up the centre well of the rim, with foam tape. Stops the bead dropping down into the middle. Practically guaranteed to get the seal, but can make mounting the tyre difficult.
• If you're feeling particularly scrapheap challenge, make an inflator using an old coke bottle: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-total-cost-9p 
• Or one that fits onto another tyre:  http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesday-Make-a-Ghetto-Tubeless-Tire-Inflator.html
• Drive to a garage and use the tyre inflator.

The tyres (Panaracer Gracia AM) & rims (Funn XLrater / Sun SOS) in the photos here were a bit of a pain to get inflated. Some manic pumping coupled with the soapy water trick, got the initial seal going. So far, I've never had to do anything other than that.