Or: A Message To MG
Or: Guitar Ted's Lab Adventures Continue...
Last night I decided to take another crack at it. I wasn't about to let this get me down, or get the best of me. I'd come too far now. So I opened the door to the lab and descended down the creaky stairs to tackle the task once more.....
It all started when I was battling the tubeless system that was "supposed to work", but was causing me to suffer failure after failure. People were commenting online that they couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I was getting pretty discouraged, but then I discovered a couple key things I was doing wrong, and I turned the corner. I got some help in overcoming the tubeless beast and one of those good folks was Matt Gersib. (Thanks Brother!) One of those good guys in the world that make you have hope for humanity, anyway......
"MG", as he's referred to on these "inner-web-o-spheres", didn't just help me, he shared a recipe for a sure fire "ghetto" tubeless system. After my success with "approved" tubeless systems I wanted to take the next diabolical step towards tubeless tire domination. To be able to set up any rim and tire tubeless.......yeah! That was my goal.
So MG set me up with a tub-o-latex goodness and I got all the other "ingredients" necessary to convert my first tube tire and wheel set to tubeless. I chose my subject: Industry 9 single speed wheels using DT Swiss TK 7.1D rims. The tire was the WTB Vulpine. I set to work making the rim tubeless compatible. Tape, sticky, sticky tape, then lots of prodding into place. Inspection showed me that I was doing well. Add the tubeless valve stems, yes.......good! It was late by this time, so I hit the hay.
Sometime later I gave it a shot by mounting the tires and mixing up my first batch of latex "goo". I had developed a way to introduce the liquid into the valve stem by using an old plastic Coke bottle with a "V" brake noodle out the top and a short piece of clear vinyl tubing over the end of that noodle to the valve stem. It worked a charm.......on the first wheel! The second wheel didn't go as planned. Something went wrong, either a chunk of latex clogged the tubing, or back pressure in the rim cavity, I don't know, but the next thing I knew, I had white liquid squirting all over. I lost a significant amount of the precious liquid on the floor. I remixed a smaller amount to put in, and as I did, I realized that I had done the measuring wrong on the first wheel. I had about half the latex I should have had in the wheel.
After the mess was cleaned up, and I had the wheels finished off, I pumped them up. The first wheel went up fine with a floor pump. The second one I couldn't air up. I tried in vain until I was a sweaty mess. I got pretty frustrated and retired (retreated is more like it) for the night. I returned the next night and fiddled with the bead interface and finally got the wheel to air up. Okay, good. Now would they hold air? I did all the Stan's prescribed "shaky-shake" maneuvers, all the checks. So far so good. Now to wait till morning to see the results.
The next morning? Not good. The tires were flat. I got frustrated again because I had been planning to attend an event and wanted to use these wheels. They weren't working, so I abandoned them to the dark corners of the shop. Eventually, the event didn't happen for me due to lack of fitness/training. All efforts in vain, or so it would seem.
Well, eventually I got to thinking about these wheels and tires again, which leads us back to the opening paragraph. Where I go back down into the Lab for another stab at it....
Well, I remixed an entirely new batch of "goo", this time using correct measurements. I introduced the "goo" using my contraption, which worked flawlessly this time, and aired up the tires. This morning? Success!
After our morning showers roll through, I'll put them on a rig for a short ride. Report to follow.....
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