Tubeless...

Stans rims are not UST compliant. The bead hook is different. UST has a more solid seal. I think you are less likely to roll UST tyres off the rim than with Stans. Unless you use Schwalbe tyres. :P

I have Stans and UST too. I would go UST every time.

weescott wrote:

I have Stans and UST too. I would go UST every time.

UST tyres seem to be about 50% more expensive than non-UST, if there is no benefit (when using Stans rims) why would you want to pay the extra?

Over the last 10 years I've used:

- UST tyres on UST rims
- normal tyres on UST rims
- normal tyres (tubeless) on converted Mavic rims (Eclipse and Stan's conversions)
- normal tyres (tubeless) on Stan's rims

UST is heavy and expensive. When it first existed it was good (except there were only 2 tyres to choose from!), but there were no alternatives, when sealant use became widespread you could save 500g on tyres, add 100g of sealant and have a more reliable set up, if you could get them to inflate on UST rims with the exaggerated 'well' in the middle of the rim.

Stan's rims make inflation easy, and have all the weight benefits, IMO it's far and away the best system.

The trouble with new Stan's rims (Podium and Crest certainly, not sure about Flow) is that they made them slightly bigger to make tyre inflation easier. At the same time, many brands started doing 'tubeless ready' tyres with a smaller bead, to aid inflation. The result is that some combinations which outwardly should be perfectly compatible (for example 2011 Schwalbes) end up being phenomenally tight and not really workable.

To be fair, Stan's do say that UST tyres may be too tight to fit.

Best tyres on Stan's rims are conventional ones which hold air, people say good things about Maxxis, personally I use 2010 Schwalbes, such as those being knocked out cheap by On One, Action Sports etc. Had at least 10 pairs, all of which have inflated with a track pump and held air perfectly.

njee20 wrote:

Over the last 10 years I've used:

- UST tyres on UST rims
- normal tyres on UST rims
- normal tyres (tubeless) on converted Mavic rims (Eclipse and Stan's conversions)
- normal tyres (tubeless) on Stan's rims

UST is heavy and expensive. When it first existed it was good (except there were only 2 tyres to choose from!), but there were no alternatives, when sealant use became widespread you could save 500g on tyres, add 100g of sealant and have a more reliable set up, if you could get them to inflate on UST rims with the exaggerated 'well' in the middle of the rim.

Stan's rims make inflation easy, and have all the weight benefits, IMO it's far and away the best system.

The trouble with new Stan's rims (Podium and Crest certainly, not sure about Flow) is that they made them slightly bigger to make tyre inflation easier. At the same time, many brands started doing 'tubeless ready' tyres with a smaller bead, to aid inflation. The result is that some combinations which outwardly should be perfectly compatible (for example 2011 Schwalbes) end up being phenomenally tight and not really workable.

To be fair, Stan's do say that UST tyres may be too tight to fit.

Best tyres on Stan's rims are conventional ones which hold air, people say good things about Maxxis, personally I use 2010 Schwalbes, such as those being knocked out cheap by On One, Action Sports etc. Had at least 10 pairs, all of which have inflated with a track pump and held air perfectly.

I thought the 2011 Schwalbe tyres used a tighter bead hook as the early 2010's had problems with Stans and folding off the rim?

That's the problem with Stans. You either need to do a lot of research on the internet to see what tyres work and what don't, or put up with a lot of experimentation. UST rims and UST tyres just work.

I'm running some TL Schwalbes just now on the XC bike which didn't need much sealing which was reasuring. But for the AM bike I would more aprehensive about experimenting with Stans as the AM bike takes a lot more abuse....funnily enough.


Also of note is that UST tyres have thicker side walls than conventional tyres so give a different ride and provide more protection over TL or single ply tyres. There are so many variables with Stans, that's why UST is more apealing to me.