Some of the new NoTubes rims (Crest, Alpine and Podium) have the “2nd generation bead socket” and are designed to be a tighter fit to the tyre. This improves tubeless performance but it means you’ll struggle to get UST tyres on – and with the Podium, it’s impossible.

The 2.35 single ply went onto Flow rims easily

Most tyres fitted easily to the Flow – the 14mm wide central channel easily accomodates both beads of the tyre when you’re trying to fit it. Most of the other rims have an 11mm channel, while the Alpine’s 10mm channel makes it just that bit harder to fit the tyre, especially as it’s combined with the new bead socket design.

Anyway, here are the results. The numbers show how hard it was to fit the tyre to the rim, as judged by me, using the best technique I could muster. All are High Roller, 60 to 70A compounds.

1: easy hand fit, 2: medium hand fit, 3: difficult hand fit
4: easy with tyre lever, 5: medium with tyre lever, 6: hard even with a tyre lever
X: did not fit.

Remember that an easy fit is not necessarily good. For tyres to work well tubeless, they need to be a reasonably tight fit.

“Now we are even!

After having my arse handed to me last year by a big pointy rock garden I was back with a rather large amount of trepidation to tackle the endurance DH on Saturday. I managed 13 laps and came 13th overall (out of 130, results here) and even though I was a passenger a few times I stayed on and bike and body sort of survived. It is an epic event, so hard on the body it is untrue. I need to get my lap times under 7 mins though if I am to do any better but after last years efforts I’ll take walking away without crutches as a result ;-) Oh and the 785mm bars did the trick, I might have to cut them down now for normal use as I still have a sore shoulder from hitting trees at Innerleithen last time out.”

Bit more of an update soon…maybe some pictures too.

New Exo sidewalls (July 2010)
Ardent 2.25 Exo 60a Maxxpro – 675-685g (2 weighed) average of 680g
Ardent 2.4 Exo 60a Maxxpro -794 -814g (2 weighed) average of 804g
Minion front 2.5 Exo 60a Maxxpro – 846-849g (2 weighed) average of 845g
Ignitor 29er 2.1 Exo eXCeption 62a 593-607g (2 weighed) average of 600g
Ignitor 2.35 Exo 70a 767-785g (2 weighed) average of  776g

All tyres are single-ply wall thickness & 60a MaxxPro rubber compound unless stated:

Advantage 2.25 Wire – 740-770g (2 weighed) average of 755g
Advantage 2.25 Kevlar – 664-687g (10 weighed) average of 662g
Advantage 2.4 – 821-857g (5 weighed) average of 828g

Ardent 2.25 kevlar 70a – 621g – 658g (8 weighed) average of 642g
Ardent 2.4 wire SPC – 930 -950g (2 weighed) average of 940g
Ardent 2.4 kevlar 60a 838 – 854g (2 weighed) average of 846g

High Roller 2.35 Kevlar – 621-657g (5 weighed) average of 646g
High Roller Wire 2.35 60a – 735-780g (6 weighed) average of 758g
High Roller Wire 2.35 42a – 840-860g (4 weighed) average of 845g
High Roller UST 2.35 42a - 930-950g (2 weighed) average of 940g
High Roller 2.5 Wire – 870- 890g (2 weighed) average of 880g

Ignitor Exception 62a 2.35 – 579- 598g (2 weighed) average of 589g
Ignitor Exception 2.35 LUST – 823 -830g (2 weighed) average of 827g

Larsen TT 2.35 – 595- 607g (2 weighed) average of 601g

Minion Kevlar 2.35 Kevlar fr – 741-757g (2 weighed) average of 749g
Minion Kevlar 2.35 Kevlar rr – 731g
Minion Wire 2.35 fr – 810g
Minion Wire 2.35 rr – 810g
Minion Wire 2.35 42a rr – 870g
Minion Wire 2.5 fr - 860-870g (3 weighed) average of 867g
Minion Wire 2.5 rr – 900g
*Disclaimer: These are some weights of tyres that we’ve got in stock today (5 December 07, updated 4 April 2008/ 6 September 2008) and should be used as a rough guide only as tyre weights will vary from batch to batch.

Movie not embedded? Click here to view on YouTube.

Despite all the work that’s gone in to the road rims it’s cyclocross riders who’ve been pestering us the most about these rims. The ability to reliably run normal CX tyres tyres as tubeless is something of a holy grail for ‘crossers and that’s where our test set of Alpha road rims will be heading – offroad.

We’ve built some onto some American Classic 105 and 205 hubs with Aerolite spokes and I’ll be fitting them with some Maxxis Raze CX tyres to start with. Price of wheelsets comes in at £637.20 with the American Classic Micro 58 front hub, or £677.70 with the 105 front hubs as shown here.

The samples we’ve weighed come in at just 357g each on average (4 weighed, 352g to 366g). The braking surfaces are machined flat for consistent braking and they’re tubeless compatible by running two layers of Stan’s 21mm yellow tape round and fitting the dedicated Alpha valve stem.

Seb uses the American Classic hubs and NoTubes Flow rims, has earned his Expert category race licence and he also runs rootsandrain.co.uk. Embedded movie not showing above? Click here to view on YouTube.