tubeless tyres with light weight tube with schrader valves

[strictnaturist]

Hi all
Just purchased my new red Mercury 650 B with 50mm tubeless tyres. All looking great.
In conversation with Thorn regarding the build, lightweight tubes were suggested as an intro to my first tubeless tyres.

Visited  my local bike today to purchase a couple of spare tubes for the road and he was surprised to see the tubes had schrader valves? My first bike will schrader valves for years. He couldn't understand why, and how the lube gets in the tube as the schrader valve doesn't have a removable core.
All new technology to me. Does the valve come out?
I assume the valve hole in the rim is too big now for presta?
Any thoughts?
Looking forward to some dry, wind free days to get out for a real test on the bike.
many thanks
Eddie

[JimK]

Schraeder valves have removable cores too. I was just in a bike shop talking about that. My wife just got a new electric bike with schraeder valves and the mechanic added sealant to the tubes. Goathead thorns are rampant here in Utah!

[strictnaturist]

thanks for your swift reply Jim
I should purchase the same tubes as Thorn fitted and have a valve inspection when they arrive.
all the best from Scotland
Eddie

[mickeg]

Agree with JimK, Shrader cores removable, but only some Presta cores are.

When I worked in the bike shop decades ago, some brands of tubes can with a valve cap that had a built in core removal tool, but have not seen one of those since the last millennium.

[John Saxby]

Eddie,  this Park valve core tool is your friend:

https://www.mec.ca/en/search?org_text=Park%20valve%20tool&text=Park%20valve%20tool

[lewis noble]

Yes, that ParK Tool tool will deal with both Presta (where cores removable - they can work loose or get unscrewed by some pump fittings) or Schrader.  In UK, the valve caps with a Schrader core gozmo are still available, in car accessory shops.

Lewis

[strictnaturist]

Thanks Lewis and John
I'll look out for one of these tools and purchase the same tubes that Thorn fitted to make sure the valve core is removable.
cheers everyone

[PH]

OK, at the risk of being stupid, will someone put me out of my ignorance and explain what's going on here!
I understood the advantage of tubeless was two fold:
1) Less rotational weight due to the lack of a tube
2) Could be run at lower pressures as the risk of a pinch flat is eliminated
Surely running a tube with gunk in it is going to make it heavier than a standard setup, even with a lightweight tube.  And however light or gunk filled the tube, it'll still need to be run at the same pressure or get snake bites which the gunk is unlikely to be able to seal. So what am I missing?

I run lightweight tubes, I'm probably kidding myself that they make any difference, but apart from needing topping up more frequently they've proved no less durable than standard ones.  I haven't had a pinch flat in years, probably decades.  I can't see me changing any of my bikes or wheels anytime soon, though I am curious to give wide 650 tubeless a go. 

strictnaturist - Bike sounds great, lets see some photos 

[Danneaux]

OK, at the risk of being stupid, will someone put me out of my ignorance and explain what's going on here!

On the rims I converted from tubed to tubeless for friends, they have been able to run tubeless with no problem after with a couple of exceptions.

I made sure they also carried a spare tube or two (and a tire boot) in case of:
a) a puncture too large for the sealant to heal (or in case the sealant had dried and was no longer liquid, a problem easily fixed with periodic refreshes)...
...or...
b) in case their inflated tire had gone down and they were unable to reseat it in the field with the pump they carried. I've had good luck seating tubeless tires with ordinary floor pumps but it can sometimes be a different story in the field with, say, a mini-pump.

Depending on the state of the sealant, a field swap to tubes can be messy or inconvenient.

While running with the tubes in place, the usual cautions about proper inflation apply as running inadequate pressure can result in a pinch-flat.

For either of these occasions, a spare tube can make for a quick and relatively easy bailout option as a temporary measure. You do of course have to remove the tubeless valve in order to make the switch. 

Some people in areas with goathead thorns run ordinary tubes filled with sealant. Of course, this is not a tubeless system, but a self-sealing solution. These tubes would need to have removable valves to allow filling with sealant.

Best,

Dan.

[JimK]

I've had pretty good luck running Marathon Plus tires here in goathead country, with plain regular tubes. Any lesser tire and you'll really want sealant in there, tubes or no.

[geocycle]

Hi all
Just purchased my new red Mercury 650 B with 50mm tubeless tyres. All looking great.
In conversation with Thorn regarding the build, lightweight tubes were suggested as an intro to my first tubeless tyres.

Love to see some pictures!  I'm also a bit confused at Thorn's advice.  Is the idea to have a spare tube as Dan implies otherwise you'd be fitting a tube to a tubless system which is counterintuitive....

[strictnaturist]

Hi Geocycle
Thanks for your comment. Hopefully some photos soon.
Just humming and hawing about the stem angle/ amount of spacers etc.
I'm 6' 2'' and with the 17 degree stem at the horizontal angle as supplied( which looks great from the riders point of view)  will have about 5" of spacers. Which I think distracts from the over all look? I'm open to comments here obviously. I'm sure there must be some :-)
Will run it for a bit before cutting the steerer  ( umbilical chord)
I reckon the tube and tubeless is another Thorn belt and braces situation. Possibly for ease of  switching tyres? Say, for example, for a week of rougher tracks or more off road. Possibly the sealant in the tube makes a tyre switch over easier. The sealant stays in the tube, rather than on you?
Hopefully?
All new to me.
Now back to staring at the steerer
cheers
Eddie

[mickeg]

I have only cut the steerer tube on my Nomad, not on any other bikes.  On my Nomad, I cut it because I pack that bike into an S&S case, thus I wanted it shorter.  But other bikes, if in the rare case that I chose to sell the bike to someone else, a longer steerer tube can make it more saleable.

When I cut it on the Nomad, I did not cut it as short as I thought I might want it because you really do not want to cut it too short, thus I ended up cutting it a few times.  And I would do that again.

I use a second stem on some bikes, the Thorn Accessory T Bar on some other bikes to hold the handlebar bag mounting, that makes a tall stack of spacers less obvious, but I still have quite a few spacers on a few bikes.

That said, i have seen some bikes with a steerer tube quite a bit higher than the top of the stem, sometimes that looks just a bit too odd, maybe in some of those cases cutting it makes sense.

First photo, my Nomad with the cut steerer, and my rando bike (non-Thorn) with a tall stack of spacers.

[geocycle]

Cutting the steerer is nerve wracking!.  I've done three now.  On my Raven Sports Tour I have a healthy pile of spacers and a horizontal stem.  On my old Raven Tour I started with a horizontal stem then when I knew the height was OK I flipped it and lowered it keeping the bars the same height.  After a few months I then cut it.  Having a cm above the stem is also prudent if you are not sure and to my eye looks ok.