We often get asked what tyres fit easily onto the NoTubes rims, and there are some combinations which just won’t work together. So we got together a big pile of NoTubes rims and Maxxis High Roller tyres, and spent an afternoon fitting and removing tyres.

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.

We often get asked tyre weights around the mid-weight tyres where people don’t want to be dragging round a Dual Ply Maxxis DH tyre (always over 1kg) and are looking for something quicker for all-day use but still able to handle some rocky stuff.*

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.

Finally we’ve got round to weighing the Maxxis XC tyres.

Maxxis Advantage

Advantage 2.1 Kevlar 70a : average weight 624g
Advantage 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 548g

Aspen 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 478g
Aspen 2.25 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 591g

Crossmark 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a: average weight 650g
Crossmark 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 569g
Crossmark 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 479g
Crossmark 2.1 UST tubeless: average weight TBA

High roller 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a: average weight 550g
High roller 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 514g
High roller 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 481g

Ignitor 2.1 Kevlar 70a rubber: average weight 580g
Ignitor 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 480g

Larsen Mimo 2.0 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXC: average weight 484g

Larsen TT 2.0 Kevlar 70a rubber: average weight 568g
Larsen TT 2.0 Kevlar 120tpi 62a eXCeption: average weight 496g
Larsen TT 2.0 LUST tubeless: average weight 679g

Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 559g
Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 502g
Monorail 2.1 LUST tubeless: average weight 657g

Medusa 1.8 Kevlar 70a: average weight 489g
Medusa 1.8 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 491g
Medusa 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 531g
Medusa 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 482g
Medusa 2.1 LUST tubeless: average weight TBA

Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 70a: average weight 557g
Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC: average weight 481g

Singletrack magazine

Tubeless stuff is obviously very close to our hearts and so it was good to see a load of tubeless products featured in the latest issue of Singletrack. While they made a lot of good points and said some nice things about products we sell, and they actually tested the products for a good length of time unlike some other “reviews” we’ve seen recently, there are a couple of points where they went off the tracks a bit. So we don’t have to spend the next week answering questions on the phone “but in Singletrack they said this…”  here are some comments.

1. Stan’s kits aren’t available in just ‘narrow’ and ‘wide’ versions. In fact there are 9 different rimstrips available if you count the road version, all varying in either material thickness or strip length to get just the right fit on virtually any rim.

2. “There is no grippy mid-weight tyre on the market so I’m sticking with thick-walled tyres and inner tubes for now”, well OK but why not use that thick-walled tyre tubeless? The conversion kits open up virtually the whole world of 26″ rubber for use as tubeless tyres so if there’s nothing there to suit then you’re being too fussy. Here are some examples of what we use at JRA, all tubeless: Maxxis High Roller LUST 2.35, Maxxis Ardent 2.4 dual ply, Maxxis ADvantage 2.25 and 2.4 single plys, Maxxis Minion, Maxxis Swamp thing (2.35 SPC to 2.5 DPC).

3. We’d like a definition of “All Mountain” please…

We could go on; but won’t. If you want to purchase your own copy of Singletrack don’t forget we sell it in the shop!

Rendez 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a – 665g
Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 70a – 540-590g (2 weighed) average of 565g
Rendez 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC – 469-464g (2 weighed) average of 467g

Monorail 2.1 wire bead, SPC, 70a – 605-615g (2 weighed) average of 610g
Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 70a 567-571g (2 weighed) average of 569g
Monorail 2.1 Kevlar 120tpi 62A eXC – 510-512g (2 weighed) average of 511g
Monorail 2.1 LUST tubeless – 643-670g (2 weighed) average of 657g

Ardent 2.25 kevlar 70a 640-641g (2 weighed) average of 649g

Ridgeline 2.1 wire bead SPC 70a – 605-615g (2 weighed) average of 610g
Ridgeline 2.1 Kevlar 70a – 545-569g (2 weighed) average of 557g