Rims suitable for going tubeless...

[nickjtc]

DIY or pay to play?

DIY. Still got a few weeks of long cold winter nights to kill at home, so might as well get my butt in gear and get cracking.

I've got a set of the new Tourance NEXT tyres ready to go,

http://www.canadasmotorcycle.ca/metzeler-tourance-next-rear-tire.html

plus the sealer stuff. Got myself a bead breaker off eBay, and snagged the tyre balancing stand a group of us bought as a co-op. All that is left is the centre stand I've got on order from Twisted Throttle which has been on back order since before Christmas. I probably will not wait for that to arrive if I can figure out a way to prop up the bike in the mean time.

Pics will follow.

[Mustang]

I probably will not wait for that to arrive if I can figure out a way to prop up the bike in the mean time.

Pics will follow.

[nickjtc]

I said prop it up, not build a freakin' railway trestle!! 

[Sin_Tiger]

I like bricks  if you have a garage that has rafters or roof trusses, jack it up and hang it.

Before I went with the tape kits I was going to use the self applied sealant method that I assume you are going with. One of my concerns was how to smooth out the sealant making sure the thickness was as consistent and even all the way around, two reasons:-

• I wanted to be sure I didn't go too thin anywhere, it's a bit hard to tell with opaque sealer if you get close to the wood.
• I also wanted as consistent a weight distribution to reduce any balance effect required, even if I was using Dynabeads, no point in adding more weight than is really necessary.

The solution I came up with, it's only a theory at this point as I never went all the way with it, was to trim a piece of plastic card, old credit / membership card is perfect, in the section profile shape of the rim, with a bit more removed in the gully enough so that if you hold the card reasonably perpendicular in the rim profile and turn the rim you will have a consistent bead all the way around. Just a suggestion 

The other point that was rattling around my brain was ensuring that the sealant did not sag as it cured, I was not prepared to sit rotating the rim for a couple of hours while it cured, even then I've seen supposedly cured sealant sag, I'd rather be sitting with my feet up and a malt in hand. I did a proof of concept with an old electric drill (lockable switch) with a small pulley in the chuck, a couple of plastic tubs that I used as a rough pulley for the hub and an old bit of shock cord that the casing braid had worn through with the ends knotted together, yes really. It worked well enough that I would have come up with something a bit more robust if I had gone that way.

Ful of bright ideas me  just need someone else to do the hard bit 

[nickjtc]

Orl righty then. Time to get derriere in gear and start doing the thing. Step 1 is to get all the bits and pieces together to be able to keep the momentum going.

Here is my workshop, cunningly disguised as a small bedroom in a house.

[nickjtc]

Next, all the bits and pieces to do the tube to tubeless thing. Descriptive to follow.

1. The goop that will be used to seal the nipples.
2. The replacement valve stems. Could not get angled ones so will use these.
3. Tyre removal stuff, part 1.
4. Tyre removal stuff, part deux. A bead breaker sourced from eBay. Inexpensive.

[nickjtc]

I'm starting with the front. The existing tyres on Stanley are old style Tourances. They still have a bit of tread, but because the front was made in the seventh week of 2004 it is well past its expiry date. You DO know how to date your tyres, of course....?? 

Using the new bead breaker and the tyre irons, with liberal use of Ruglyde, the tyre is off. Inspection of the rims is promising. For an old geezer 18 years old, with 76,000+kms under his wheels, the front rim is in good shape. The inside of the rim has been cleaned and de-greased and the bead surface examined for significant dings. Pic 1.

Pic 2 isn't too clear, but it shows that the rims have the little ridge just inboard like tubeless ones do. The serrations end in the region where the rim was welded; hopefully that will not be an issue.

Next was to make sure that the spokes all gave a satisfying ring-ting-kling-bing sound; any that were not adjusted would have had to be torqued up. The next picture (again, not too clear, sorry) was a check that the rim is true. I used the corner of the bead breaker up close to the rim and spun the rim on the balancer. All ok.

I have inserted the new valve stem (no modification needed to the hole) and put a smidge of sealant on the inside of the gasket to ensure a tight seal.

[nickjtc]

Just an observation. With the rim on the balancer I was curious to see where the heaviest place would be. Even without the valve stem in place the heaviest part is around the location of the hole for the valve stem, which is diametrically opposite where the 'join' in the rim is.

Continuing later.

[nickjtc]

Back at it. I've mounted the new front tyre. Just for s's and g's I'm doing an experiment. I've seated the bead with my trusty compressor and measured the pressure. I'll go back after an hour to see how much air is actually lost in an 'unsealed' rim. Watch this space.

[iansoady]

Looks good.

I don't think you need the gorilla tape. I didn't use anything like that (although I did use aircraft quality sealant ).

I did think of putting tape or similar but thought it would probably tear during tyre fitting and had no problems without it.

[nickjtc]

I don't think you need the gorilla tape.

Good point. My only reasoning for using it will be to 'protect' the globs of goop on the nipples since my tyre mounting skills are marginal and I do not want the risk of disturbing anything once it has all set up.

FWIW I did a bit of research on this whole process and came up with these as most interesting:

http://www.triumphrat.net/tiger-workshop-archive/46888-what-i-did-on-my-holidays-spoke-sealing.html  Thanks to Ian.

http://www.vtxcafe.com/showthread.php/50643-How-to-seal-a-Spoke-Rim

http://cyb.smugmug.com/gallery/7250813_ZxQA5#!i=465979306&k=6pKDBnG

I decided on the last one mainly because it did not involve filling the whole drop down and I like the idea that Seal All is a bit runnier so 'should' fill the holes efficiently. We'll see.

EDIT: Turns out that the Seal All is definitely not runnier and also has an unanticipated side effect as noted later.

[nickjtc]

Back at it this am. My un-scientific test to see how much pressure is lost in an un-sealed rim showed that, yes, there will be total loss of pressure eventually, but interestingly, after an hour the drop was only about 8psi.

So using my (perhaps flawed) logic... in the event of a catastrophic loss of pressure due to the process of sealing the rims you would still have time to deal with it. How many people have ridden with their tyres acutely under inflated, after all.

Tyre un-mounted again. That Ruglyde makes life very much easier! The process of putting the first 'layer' of sealant is time consuming because I do not want it running. I figure it will be about a four beverage du jour job.

[nickjtc]

A quick aside, re: tyre mounting. If I had not seen this I would not have believed it.

http://www.clarity.net/adam/images/bike/tirechange/install-tire.mov

Beyond my capability, I fear. 

[nickjtc]

Front wheel done, and holding air. A few observations about the process. The Seal All which I used as the first 'coat' cures by giving off gas which forms lots of minute bubbles in the gel. I was a bit concerned about this initially. The Goop for the final 'coat' cures without the bubbles forming. I'm thinking that when I do the rear I'll just use the Goop and see how it goes. It is, also, a lot nicer to use.

[nickjtc]

I put one strip of Gorilla tape over the sealed nipples, primarily to protect them from the ravages of tyre mounting as performed by me. Yes, I know that duct tape is a big no-no inside rims, but since there is no chance of moisture getting in I foresee no issues.