Tubeless with non tubeless rims

nbuuifx

I've been here before but it was quite a while ago.

Originally a friend gave me a spare set of wheels which had been set up for tubeless. They were a set of Alex Rims with a conversion kit fitted which covered the spoke holes and gave a valve.

At the time, I took them to a local bike shop, they put some fluid in, pumped them up and sent me off. I used them for a while but kept losing pressure and the tyres never felt safe. This put me off.

Now with the above the rims were not tubeless rims and neither were the tyres. What worried me the most is that I can take those tyres off and on without tools.

I'm putting a new set of tyres on and these new ones are tubeless ready, so I'm thinking they might be better.

Now I have a few issues.

One, I removed the conversion kt and put rim tape on. Can I reuse the conversion kit? Do I need to remove the rim tape first? Or just leave it in place?

What fluid is best and how much should I put in? I was going to go with Stans.

Finally would anyone recommend forgetting this idea and just put tubes in? Perhaps using some slime or similar in the tubes to stop punctures.

JBA

Remove the rim tape. Replace it with tubeless tape (Stan’s or Gorilla tape for example), fit tubeless valves and fit tyres.
Pump the tyres up (use a track pump, ghetto inflator or booster) to seat the beads.
Once the tyre is seated properly remove the valve core, add sealant, replace valve core and re-inflate tyre.

There are plenty of guides and videos on line to follow.

nbuuifx

Thanks, do you think the existing conversion kit would be no good, it was basically a rubber band with the valve fitted, it went round where the rim tape was and obviously provided the valve.

I've got a compressor too, so can seat the bead easy enough with that.

JBA

Try it and see if it works. No reason it shouldn't if it the correct size for the rim.