 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I am a big fan of tubeless and run it all of my (too many) mountain bikes.
The only tubed wheel I have left belong to my commuter road bike.
It has superstar rims and 23c Continental Grand Prix folding tyres.
I did try ghetto tubeless before with a different set of tyres - unsuccessfully - the bead interface wasn't tight enough to hold air for more than a few minutes. Iv not tried with the current tyres.
I have managed ghetto tubeless on many mountain bike wheels although I prefer proper tubeless rims as they work much better.
Although I like to pamper my mtb's I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to my road bike. I can see why ghetto would be less effective on a road bike with lower volumes and higher pressures. Should I try again with my latest tyres or do I need tubeless tyres / tubeless rims or both?
What is the cheapest path to a workable solution?
Wouldn't fancy a full tubeless bodge on the road - just the high pressures involved and the consequences of the tyre coming off the rim could be serious. Half-bodge worth trying IMHO - tubeless tyres on a normal rim - good tubeless bead might go well with some rims.
Wouldn't go near normal tyres tubeless on any rim for road use at high pressures.
I'm in a similar position - tubeless on my other bikes, but not on the road one for the reasons above.
All the other stuff I read concurs with what's above as well - rims aren't really the key thing, it's more the tyres.
I've got some Aksiums on mine that I'm going to stick some tubeless tyres on and give that a go I think.
OK Il have a go with some tubeless tyres
Are their any that you can recommend for reasonable money?
I would like to go up to 25c tyres but looking at the clearance Im not sure they would fit - is this a common thing with road bikes?
Its a Carrera ...something, cheapest carbon racer they do - or did 4 years back.
Virago by the looks of things
Schwalbe do 23mm tubeless. Older road bikes do tend to have less clearance - it was before 25mm became fashionable. Not to say they don't handle nicely.
Be aware that the Schwalbes come up big: my 25s were actually 28. Nice summer tyres but poor in the wet and cold.
A-cycles still have some Hutchinson tubeless in 23 at a good discount
Hutchinson tubeless in 23 at a good discount
Hutchinson Fusion 5 in 25 is narrower than Pro One 25. They look more like my old 23mm GP4000.