AlexisSurRon said:
3DTOPO said:
Lelandjt said:
What pressures are you guys running in the stock tires for trail riding? My trails are a bit rocky and high speed so I'm around 23 rear, 21 front to avoid pinch flats and squirming. I want to try lower but worried about impacts.
I run around 12psi. With the FOC X Controller, it was tearing the valve stem so I switched to tubeless and haven't looked back.
I wouldn't go below 15psi without switching to tubeless.
Is this a common experience? I’m going through tubes and I can’t figure out why... is the acceleration that awesome? :lol:
I ride mainly city and love ripping it, what tire pressure do you suggest?
I have new tubes on the way right now...
It seems like I started getting torn valve stems on the back tubes only after I upgraded to the X Controller. I think if it has enough power to lift the front wheel off the ground, it has enough power to make the tire slip. Especially with lower amounts of pressure in the tube.
Before switching to tubeless, I had torn I think 4 valve stems on the back and only once on the the front (low tire pressure and braking hard coming down a steep mountain seemed to cause the front to fail).
BCTECH said:
Finer said:
I am also running M403's on both my Light Bees (with x controllers). After every 20 miles + trail rides, all four valve stems look like they are ready to rip off. I have been letting the air out, straighten them up and do it all over again. Tried running as high as 15 pounds and it didn't help (also bouncing all over the trail). Rims are clean but the most interesting thing is the direction the valve stems go every time. It's not from acceleration, it's from braking. Guess I'll try to make them tubeless. If it works, I can finally run properly low pressures.
have you tried using rim lock?
Personally I think tubeless is 110% the right way to go. Instead of adding (off center) rotating mass with a rim lock, you are considerably reducing rotating mass by removing the inner tube. I was running heavy duty tubes too, which were close to 2 pounds each. Compared to 4oz of sealant, thats a huge difference in rotating mass. And the sealant can swim around, so I don't really even consider it fixed rotating mass. So its like 4 pounds less rotating mass. What is that, like nearly 4% of the total vehicle weight?
Another advantage is you can run lower pressure with tubeless.
On top of that, punctures that would cause a flat are self-sealed with tubeless. It makes getting a flat nearly impossible.
And surprisingly, my tubeless set up holds air better than inner tubes did. I haven't had to fill them once since going tubeless, like 8 months ago.
So not only have I not gotten a single flat since going tubeless - I haven't even had to fill them up.
It's pretty cheap (compared to what 5+ inner-tubes I went through) and pretty fast. Just clean the rims and the bead of the tire with paper towels and rubbing alcohol. Next add gorilla tape around the rim (like a few inches past a single wrap) covering the spoke holes - rub on the tape real good. I used a razor blade to cut off the tape that was on the sides so it didn't mess with the seal. Then pop the stems though.
Last, I just put the tires on and filled with Stan's no-tubes. The whole thing probably takes about 30 minutes.
The hardest part is getting the air to fill fast enough for the bead to seal. The only way that I have been able to do to get it to seal is use a compression strap around the tire and fill with an air compressor. Can take a few tries.
Here is everything I used to convert:
Stan's NoTubes Tire Sealant $17:
https://amzn.to/2y0grDV
Injector $10:
https://amzn.to/2JR5D0s
Gorilla tape $8:
https://amzn.to/2XWyHgN
Stan's Valve Stems $16:
https://amzn.to/2Y7LLv8
If you don't have a strap:
Ratchet strap:
https://amzn.to/2Y9FsHf
I used M403 tires - not sure how well the stock tires will work - but I my guess is that they would.
M403 tires:
https://amzn.to/2Y98t5W
It also worked with a slightly wider Maxxis
Maxxis Maxxcross MX IT:
https://amzn.to/2Sw1pzg
Oh yeah, you will also need a tool to remove the valve core before filling it with the fluid then put them back on after filling with fluid. But the stem valve caps I have have the tool built in....