I remember when Stan's was first coming out/gaining popularity the rep came by the shop and set up a whole bunch of old rims tubeless. These were just any old rims kicking around the back. As mentioned the tape prevents air loss through the spoke drilling. Modern rims and tires have a much better or secure fit out the box, but again, this can be fudged with additional tape to build the "shelf". People have great luck with Gorilla tape as a cheaper alternative. I think it's good to play around with the system to help demystify the workings. Worse case it isn't for you on you need to clean a bit of tape glue.
As someone without an air compressor, a helpful trick I use is to seat the majority of the tire on the rim before inflating. You are essentially using a tire lever to pretend to pull the tire out of the rim while using your thumb behind it to prevent it from actually popping off, therefore pulling the bead into the shelf or hook. Say the valve is at 12 o'clock, start at maybe 2 and go clockwise until at least 2/3rds of the tire is seated. The 1/3rd of the tire near the valve will be "loose" and sitting in the channel of the rim while the rest of the tire be fully set in the rim hook. I've had luck setting up tubeless with a hand pump using this method. I'm guessing you aren't using the hunk for bike park riding or aggressive low psi road ride descending. It should be fine for most riding or at least until new rims arrive. Buuuut I'm giving advice over the internet, so I'll add; maybe or who knows?? On Friday, August 4, 2023 at 9:56:53 PM UTC-7 Jay Lonner wrote: > My Big Bens are nearing end of life and I’m curious about setting up my > Hunq tubeless. But I have Atlas rims, which Velocity says is a no-go. > However if you scroll through the comments on this article, John Watson > from the Radavist says they set up nicely: > > https://theradavist.com/rivendell-hunqapillar-review/ > > So why would I want to do this? Mostly to get experience working with > tubeless setups. My full-squish MTB and gravel/bikepacking rig are > tubeless, and if/when I encounter issues with either of them (esp. if I’m > in a remote locale) I’d like to have some hands-on knowledge with > troubleshooting tubeless systems. I already have an air compressor, so > basically for the cost of some tape and sealant I’d be good to go. > > Anybody have experience with making non-tubeless rims play nicely > tubeless? Tips or tricks to share? Or is it just a bad idea, and should I > resign myself to getting some new wheels built with Cliffhangers? I’d hate > to have the Hunq out of commission that long, but if I timed it to coincide > with out-of-town travel it probably wouldn’t be that big a deal. > > One last question — Cliffhangers are wider than Atlases by about 4.6 mm. > How would that affect fender clearance? My intuition is that wider rims > should result in a flatter tire arc, and potentially make it possible to go > slightly wider if I wanted to. I have 50s now, and would like to be able to > move up to 55s or even 60s. > > Jay Lonner > Bellingham, WA > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/975cd1f9-7d49-4f41-bab7-2ba9f4c0d934n%40googlegroups.com.
