Tubeless Wheels : Commercial Tubeless Systems

Commercial Tubeless Bicycle Wheel Systems

There are a lot of commercial offerings for Tubeless Wheels. These are mostly aimed at Mountain Bikes but products aimed at Road cycling and Cyclocross are increasingly available. Here is a run-down of many of these - TubelessWheels.com doesn't endorse any of this stuff, it's just listed here so you know what's available and hopefully you'll find that useful. Let's take one more opportunity to state the aim of this website: Tubeless is A Good Thing. It's easy to do and it'll save you time and money in the long-term whilst making your riding much more enjoyable. There, got that? ;)

Mavic UST

UST stands for Mavic's patented concept "Universal System Tubeless". UST is the "classic" tubeless system, based on the design of tubeless car tyres with an air-tight rim and tyre sealed together. The valve is the other component, screwed tight onto the rim.
The United States Patent 6257676 is actually for the air-tight wheel rim design with hooked edges designed to mate with specially designed tyres. Mavic do make wheels - rims, spokes and hubs - but not tyres, so they've partnered with other companies who make UST-compatible tyres. Companies producing UST-compatible tyres include Maxxis, Continental, Schwalbe, Nokian, Specialized.
UST is a very successful system which is used by Professional riders as well as enthusiasts. However it reputedly suffers from "burping" where the tyre will let air escape under turning forces. Unlike car or motorcycle tyres, bicycle tyres are higher than they are wide and this enables turning forces to deform the tyre so that it burps. If that happens, it can mean a sudden and very unpleasant loss of traction just when you need it most! Although Mavic don't specify it, many riders add sealant to UST set-ups to avoid burps, but the lack of a pliant rim-strip as in most conversion systems means a burp is always a worry.

Bontrager

"Tubeless Ready tires offer a secure bead to rim interface like standard tubeless tires, but are 100 grams lighter per tire" (from Bontrager.com Tubeless Ready Technology). Bontrager also sell their own sealant called "Super Juice" which they recommend for use with their tyres. Super Juice is glycol-based, not latex-based and is reputed to last longer as a liquid without coagulating.

Stans No Tubes

It's a rim-strip including the valve, which you stretch over your rim and mount a standard tyre onto. Sealant is added and a really good result is obtained - relatively inexpensive using standard rims and tyres, with puncture-proofing and burp-proofing excellence.

The best known Tubeless Conversion Kit, Stan's is used successfully by many, many people. The company is increasingly well-known for it's extremely high-quality wheels as well. They even sell socks!
TubelessWheels.com likes Stans, except we balk at Stan's prices. We agree with Stan's design principles and we love their videos, but £25 per wheel doesn't seem right! That said, Stan's system works for most people who try it.

Eclipse

Eclipse is a company selling conversion kits as Stans does, based in Switzerland and otherwise quite similar. Interestingly Eclipse specify the use of double-sided tape to stick their rim-strip to the rim whilst Stan's don't.
Eclipse also sell kits to "improve" UST systems.

DT Swiss

This is a conversion kit specifically for DT Swiss rims. It consists of a moulded rim-strip and a separate valve stem along with a bottle of sealant, intended for use with UST Tyres. Because the rim-strip is not flexible this may burp quite easily, as demonstrated by Stan's Comparison Movie.

Shimano

Shimano Dura-Ace 7850-SL tubeless road wheelset. This is a top of the range Shimano wheel designed for use with the new Hutchinson Fusion 2 Tubeless Road Tyre. Hutchinson Fast Air is an aerosol can of air with foaming sealant which is recommended for inflation. These have received some great reviews but due to their cost TubelessWheels.com haven't got our hands on any yet! However as with most innovations from Shimano we expect to see this available on their lower-priced wheels in future.