Which tyres?

joebristol

If that’s a performance Nobby Nic on the front it’d probably be passable in the summer - it was in the winter I found them sketchy. My Boardman Pro fs came with them (2015). I upgraded at the time to Continental Mountain King 2 - 2.4 protection black chillis. They were a massive upgrade. Running on 19mm internal diameter Mavic x319 rims. They fitted fine through the Boardman frame and the Rockshox revelations.

Neither as good as my Maxxis Tyres on the big bike.

mark_fogel

Joebristol wrote:

If that’s a performance Nobby Nic on the front it’d probably be passable in the summer - it was in the winter I found them sketchy. My Boardman Pro fs came with them (2015). I upgraded at the time to Continental Mountain King 2 - 2.4 protection black chillis. They were a massive upgrade. Running on 19mm internal diameter Mavic x319 rims. They fitted fine through the Boardman frame and the Rockshox revelations.

Neither as good as my Maxxis Tyres on the big bike.

I had the same bike a while back, loved it and tried a few different tyres on it too... I was running Trail King protection which were good but not as amazing, then changed to Geax Goma which seemed to perform better. I must say that personally I prefer the tread pattern of Shwalbe over Continental. Nobby Nic even in Performance flavour works better for me even in the wet due to the bigger side nobs on the Nic. I am actually running NNs on my 150mm Zesty with Trailstar on front and Pacestar rear and these work very well. I love the feel of the lightweight rubber, the rear popped now when I came down through through sharp rocks and wouldn't seal anymore. I have to run it with tubes now which is a little annoying.
On my HT 29er I tried out the Mountain King in 2.4 which looks massive on 27mm rim, works well too but wish it had bigger side nobs for better cornering traction. Ended up swapping back to 2.25 NNs as I use the 29er for longer XC rides now and it just rolls better than the 2.4 MK.
I guess everything is a compromise and there is no such thing as a perfect tyre?

The Rookie

Joebristol wrote:

Running on 19mm internal diameter .

Those tiny wheels must make going over, well anything, kind of hard?

joebristol

They were 650b wheels with just the 19mm internal diameter. The 2.4’s were fine on there - maybe a little rounded but no problem at all. Why would they make it difficult to go over stuff? I smashed it down uplift days at BPW and Flyup 417 with no issues. Think I had s couple of punch punctures over a couple of years running tubes but since going tubeless I’ve had none at all, running lower pressures. Much better.

JBA

Joebristol wrote:

They were 650b wheels with just the 19mm internal diameter. The 2.4’s were fine on there - maybe a little rounded but no problem at all. Why would they make it difficult to go over stuff? I smashed it down uplift days at BPW and Flyup 417 with no issues. Think I had s couple of punch punctures over a couple of years running tubes but since going tubeless I’ve had none at all, running lower pressures. Much better.

I think you mean 19mm width.

billycool

Back in the good old days 19mm was fairly standard. You maxed out at 2.1 tyres.

My HT has 19mm width rims with tubelss 2.1's. It's been down BPW and Cwmcarn. Was a bit bumpy but the flowing blues were fine. Not all MTB is big hits/drops/jumps.

My FS has 24mm rims with tubeless 2.25s. They are quite high volume but I run my setup quite firm anyway. Not a big fan of super soft anything.

It does seem to be that people want wider and softer tyres. They do work in the right places but on good old XC, 19mm still has its uses.

JBA

My Trance OEM rims were 19mm internal width and I ran Nobby Nic 2.35 on the front and 2.25 on the rear without any problem. Tubeless I had to take care not to drop the pressure too much or I got a bit of tyre squirm on hard cornering, but otherwise they were fine.

geomickb

Just ordered the Nobby Nics, I will see how I get on but will probably try the On Ones for winter

Thanks for all the advice.

PaullyS

Hi, sorry to hijack this thread, but I've just got some new (to me) wheels, which are tubeless ready, but I've tried 3 different tyres on them and they're all too loose to get the tyre to seat. Can anyone recommend a good, tight-fitting tyre? I'm after a 29x2.2.i managed to get the front wheel to work after a lot of trying but the rear just will not work. I've got pacentti dl31 rims and have tried nobby nick, high rollers and panaracer driver. Many thanks in advance.

mark_fogel

PaullyS wrote:

Hi, sorry to hijack this thread, but I've just got some new (to me) wheels, which are tubeless ready, but I've tried 3 different tyres on them and they're all too loose to get the tyre to seat. Can anyone recommend a good, tight-fitting tyre? I'm after a 29x2.2.i managed to get the front wheel to work after a lot of trying but the rear just will not work. I've got pacentti dl31 rims and have tried nobby nick, high rollers and panaracer driver. Many thanks in advance.

Do they fail to inflate or burp and lose pressure? If you struggling to inflate just add more tape to the rim to make a tighter fit.

billycool

How are you trying to inflate them?

steve_sordy

PaullyS wrote:

......... I've just got some new (to me) wheels, which are tubeless ready, but I've tried 3 different tyres on them and they're all too loose to get the tyre to seat. Can anyone recommend a good, tight-fitting tyre? ............

That is the standard problem with going tubeless, so you don't need a tight-fitting tyre. What you need is a fast inflow of air and something to reduce the outflow of air around the tyre beads.

Remove the valve core first. OK, you'll lose most of the air again when you put it back in, but by that time, the beads will be engaged on the rim. Use a track pump as a minimum, not a mini-pump. For preference use one of the blasters that surge the air in at a high flow rate. Examples would include an Airshot, but people have made one from a garden sprayer and even a 3 litre coke bottle! (Google it).

Many recommend the use of a thick soapy solution applied liberally to the beads and rim. That does two things; first it lubricates the bead and allows it to move quickly towards the rim; and secondly it reduces the volume of air leaking between the bead and the wheel.

Some have success from tying string around the periphery of the tyre to press the beads onto the rim (to reduce air leakage). It has never worked for me, but you'll try anything when the tyre will not inflate!

You have some learning to do and experience to gain. But you do not need tubeless tyres and you do not need tight-fitting ones either. You do however need the spoke holes around the rim to have been sealed. Do not assume that the rim tape that is there is OK. I had a brand new "tubeless ready" wheel fail in that respect. If in any doubt remove the old tape and use two layers of Gorilla tape.

When you finally have the tyre engaged on the wheel, add a sealant of your choice. If your tyre is not a proper tubeless tyre, then I 100% recommend that you use a latex sealant. They go "off" after six months or so and have to be replaced, so they are not a perfect sealant, but they do seal the tyre carcass very well indeed. Latex is a must on a non-tubeless tyre. If the tyre is a tubeless tyre, you can use any sealant you like, one of the non-latex ones that do not go off for example.

geomickb

The tyres turned up and are actually 27.5. Seems like CRC have a problem and they aren't sure if they have any.

I'm ordering the On-Ones!

PaullyS

Using a floor pump, which I seem to have knackered trying to push air through it as fast as I could! Will need a new one of them now! I'll try the extra tape thing and as I need a new pump I'll get one with the air chamber. Thinking of a Jo Blow Booster. Hopefully that'll help. Back to tubes for now so I can ride tomorrow.

I have done tubeless before on my old Gary Fisher 26er with Stans ZTR rims. All tyres were super tight on them and it was really easy to inflate, hence the original question. Like, so tight I had to use levers every time! On three different sets of tyres.

JGTR

Just stick a tube in to seat the tyre then take it out

PaullyS

Yeah I've heard people say that before but doesn't at least half of the tyre unseat when you take half of it off to remove the tube?

billycool

PaullyS wrote:

Yeah I've heard people say that before but doesn't at least half of the tyre unseat when you take half of it off to remove the tube?

It does help by at least sealing one side of the tyre and stopping air from getting out.

Personally, I've never had success with a track pump and I'm fortunate enough to have a compressor. Even with that, some floopy tyres were an @rse to fit until I used an inner tube to get one side seated. I've also used o2 inflators with some success.

JGTR

PaullyS wrote:

Yeah I've heard people say that before but doesn't at least half of the tyre unseat when you take half of it off to remove the tube?

Yes, but you have half of the tyre seated so easier to inflate.

I used a track pump on 29 x 2.3 tyres and although it worked it took a while. Since going to 2.4 (& 2.6 on my 2nd Bike) I’ve had to buy a track pump with a tubeless air tank - worth it’s weight in gold, don’t dik about, get a proper tubeless inflator.

steve_sordy

JGTR wrote:

............, don’t dik about, get a proper tubeless inflator.

I 100% recommend the Airshot.

PaullyS

Just bought a bontrager tlr flash charger on ebay. And will carefully remove the tube to try to keep one side seated and maybe remove the valve core. Fingers crossed! Most expensive tubeless attempt ever! Damn this hobby!

JBA

Definitely remove the valve core. The less restriction to the flow of air in to the tyre the better.

PaullyS

Update: Tlr, one side of the tyre seated, removed valve core. Still failed. Will try a different tyre later. But f*ck this is annoying.

steve_sordy

PaullyS wrote:

Update: Tlr, one side of the tyre seated, removed valve core. Still failed. Will try a different tyre later. But f*ck this is annoying.

After years of successfully inflating tyres tubeless, I almost met my match with a brand new bike that had tubeless ready wheels and tyres. One tyre went straight up, one didn't. Because of my previous experience, I know many wrinkles and tips to get a result, so I was puzzled by my failure.

Just as I was getting into the "f*ck this is annoying" phase, I noticed some sealant oozing from the drain hole in the rim. The brand new rim tape on the brand new wheels was dodgy. Some new rim tape restored success. The tyre went up at the first attempt.

PaullyS

Finally! Got the Nobby Nic to seat... I had to abandon the Panaracer Drivers. Frustrating as they're really nice, lightweight tyres, but it just seems impossible to get them to work tubeless. Victory felt sweet though! Thanks for all the tips.

slc123

I originally had a Minion DHF front and DHRII back, the DHRII had to come off as it was starting to wear. I've put the DHF rear and put a Shorty up front. Amazing grip, but extremely hard work through the winter slogs. What are people running on muddy rides with a fair bit of climbing!

swod1

slc123 wrote:

I originally had a Minion DHF front and DHRII back, the DHRII had to come off as it was starting to wear. I've put the DHF rear and put a Shorty up front. Amazing grip, but extremely hard work through the winter slogs. What are people running on muddy rides with a fair bit of climbing!

Still minions on my bike but might need to change them up as back on a hardtail for the moment, my old nukeproof mega the frame has cracked.

Would a high roller 2 work any better as a rear tyre?

geomickb

In the end I got the recommended Planet X ones, they fitted OK.

swod1

geomickb wrote:

In the end I got the recommended Planet X ones, they fitted OK.

Great glad you got it sorted.

Never had any of the issues people have had in this thread, maybe I'm lucky as my mavic wheels are already ust tubeless so no rim tape needed etc.

Also just make sure the tubeless valve lock ring is done up tight otherwise you'll get an air leak around there.

JBA

High Roller II is a great tyre, front or back.
The Nobby Nic in the rear of my Trance is wearing out and will be replaced with an HR II.

swod1

JBA wrote:

High Roller II is a great tyre, front or back.
The Nobby Nic in the rear of my Trance is wearing out and will be replaced with an HR II.

Didn't think it was suitable for a rear tyre as usually people have them up front and ardent at back.

I'm looking at trying a maxxis aggressor on the rear of my bike with minion dhf front.