I bought a set of Racing Ralph CX clinchers a couple of weeks ago. I was going to put them on my single speed mountain bike and try it for cyclocross. I decided against that and, late last week, mounted them on my cross training wheels. I mounted them ghetto tubeless on Mavic Open 4 rims. They are predecessors to the Open Pro rims. I used Stan's yellow tape and a cut up 26" tube with Stan's sealant. They aired up and sealed easily. I raced them yesterday in the second Klamath Falls race. It was a perfect test for them. Lillian, the race promoter, had told me that the course would be flat and fast. It was neither. It was rocky and hard dirt with a lot of loose sand 
on the surface. There was one section that was about 20 yards of big, loose rocks. Rocks 4 or 5 inches in diameter. It scared me but I figured out just go pretty fast and hang on. There were a lot of barriers. Some of them led to slightly uphill sections with loose dirt. It was a physically demanding course. I ran the tires at 40 psi. They survived the banging through the rock section and provided traction in the loose sections. And they held air the whole race. A lot of people flatted on tires with tubes.Oh, by the way, I put the hurt on Vern.
3 comments:
I've considered the same thing...run Mavic Open Pro tubeless for CX. Could you share some of the setup details (i.e. use of 26in tube)?
Thanks,
Paul
If you Google "ghetto tubeless" you will find a You Tube video that shows how to do it. I removed the regular rim strip and used Stan's yellow tape to seal the spoke holes. I tried to use strapping tape but couldn't find any narrow enough to fit the rim. I inflated a 26" tube and installed on the rim then cut along the seam opposite the valve and washed off the powder that's inside the tube. Then install the tire on the rim inside the tube that is in the rim and overlapping the sides. Put the Stan's sealant in either through the valve or in the tire before the final installation of one side. Soap it up and inflate, a compressor works best. The video on You Tube shows all this. The most important part is to do the shake and lay flat as show on the Stan's No Tube web site. Basically you shake the wheel to spread the sealant and lay it flat for 5 minutes and then do the other side. I repeat this process for about an hour or until the small leaks stop. You can see the leaks by the soap bubbles. My tires are holding air better than some of the tires I have with tubes in them.
Thanks Dave. I'll have to test it out the next couple weeks before I try it at a race, but it sounds promising. I race out of the Portland area...hopefully I'll run into you during the CX season.
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