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I spent a couple of hours trying in vain to get various tyres to bead on a rim without success. I could build an airshot out of a one way PET 30l beer keg , for around £10 but that would involve several hours of screwing around with jubillee clips, valves etc
In the corner of the garage I had a set of wheels and tyres stacked up. Not much difference between that and an airshot i thought to myself , and the bodging began
Firstly , a plan . Join the tyre shrader valve to the tubeless presta , safely and securely , with a length of tube and a valve . Had a root around in the toolbox and dug out one of those mini - cans of wheel jizz and CO2 with a 2 way adapter . Cup of hot water had the schrader connector and a short length of hose disconnected from the push fit on the aerosol . Then in my search I failed to find a presta connector that was not connected to my track pump.
Being a ham fisted ,impatient, neandathal man I then snapped the barbed flexi hose connector at the base of the tracky trying to pull the hose off the plastic fitting , that then got sent flying across the garage . Now to join the 2 peices of flexi together with a fitting safe enough to take say 40psi.
A road inner tube with a long valve stem that was waiting repair was dispatched to inner tube heaven as I cut the presta valve out and removed the innards . Screwed the 2 hoses over the valve body about half each and connected to the bike wheel rim. Then connected onto the car tyre and screwed it up tight .
I pathetic wheez came out and the bike tyre did not pop onto the rim like I was expecting. Using alot of my repetoire of 4 letters words I was off to Screwfix to buy a compressor . Then I had a moment that seperates dullards from the intelligent . I hadn't checked the pressure in the car tyre. It was flat .
Gathering up my ( now broken ) track pump to check the pressure I realised I dont have a sperate tyre pressure guage, into the box of random bike parts and the spare shock pump revealed wheel #2 was sporting a much more usable 2bar .
A quick reconnect and the satisfying hiss of high pressure air being released and the bike tyre ( Bontrager 29 x 2.35 ) inflated in about 2 seconds and almost beaded straight away . I then nearly died trying to seat the bead with a mini road pump which took alot of pumping . A quick Ebay session and 4mm - 4mm swaged brass hose joiner ' should' repair my now slightly bent track pump , and mean I can disconnect easily if I need to set more tyres . An inline valve would also be an asset.
Airshot is a no brainer, simple effective and just works.....
Also tyre lever method.
So,now you have a wotsit connected via an oogamiflip, air from a car tyre(?) via a banjongo and you can blow up yer tubeless tyre?? Genius! 🤓
Airshot and some soapy water on the rim beads. Works everytime
The Airshot is still just a bottle and a couple of hoses, fair play if you can’t be arsed making one but it really isn’t difficult.
Why spend £45 on something I can make out of bits and bobs and a £1.59 hose tail .?
Think of the environment , bank balance etc . Can I build something that does exactly what an airshot does, for free , out of a spare wheel ? Yes , I can . and I still have £43 in my bank account.
Might still build one out of a PET 30ltr beer keg and a Sankey S type connector , just for fun .
Can I have first dibs on your bikes, you know, if it all goes bang?
Why spend £45 on something I can make out of bits and bobs and a £1.59 hose tail .?
Because the people who have are out riding their bikes with inflated tubeless tyres 😉
Home made coke bottle here, entirely serviceable, parts freely available, environmentally friendly, and allows Mike to look down at us from his all knowing perch. 😂
Airshot. Because having the right tool for the job is the mark of a skilled mechanic. It. Just. Works. Yes you can make your own, but tools make that man.
LOL I just got on with getting rims that work with a track pump now 😉 Proper looking down!!
But if you are always going to make one then you probably never will 😉
🤣🤣😂
Because having the right tool for the job is the mark of a skilled mechanic.
Spoken like a true seat polisher! 🤣
7up bottle here. It’s to get air into tyres and do it fast. It cost exactly zero and has inflated probably 20 tyres.
Halfords special track pump and *loads* of soap bubbles.
I used to use CO2 but discovered adding a huge amount of soap bubbles around the rim covering every possible air spot, and then track pump, just works every time.
However I'm rarely using soap now. Latest wider rims and Maxxis tyres, the fit is more snug and just seems to pop on with just the track pump. Even without removing the valve core. Bit of a pain getting the tyre on/off the rim though.
Personally, I'm uncomfortable with any setup that doesn't go back up with a hand pump!
Strap around the centre line of the tyre to reduce its volume and a track pump. Bit of soapy water. Done.
Went tubeless for first time this week. Track pump, hand pump and car pump all failed but I was installing them dry as figured they seal better (no real idea why I thought that)...2 hours and total fail later, went to see a mate and they were both done in under 5 minutes total..air compressor won that!
I've just bought a <span class="il">Beto</span> Tubeless Air Tank Inflator.
Excellent bit of kit and also launches a bottle rocket really, really high 🙂
If based in Edinburgh you can borrow my airshot. Never gets used and just gathering dust, but bought as it's alot better than my coke bottle DIY effort.
Although even with the airshot and soapy water it takes a few goes to succeed usually
Out of interest does anyone know where to get an airshot schraeder adaptor without allowing Airshot themselves to charge me £4 postage for a tiny item ...it's such a f'in rip off and I just can't bring myself to pay it!
Coke bottle here too. Works perfectly.
I'm just interested in seeing the bottle rocket go really really high
Fire extinguisher , 4/5 years of regular use with no problems .
When I was a kid/ teenager living in the sticks with no access to garage air lines I stripped down an old soda stream and got the valve out then grafted (glued) an old foot pump hose to the delivery tube. It was sized so that the soda stream tube slipped inside nicely and fixed with a bit of glue or a jubilee clip. It was basically a massive co2 inflator. Used to do my tyres on mine and m6 mates bikes and it would also blow up the tyre on my mk 3escort when flat a few yrs later. I’m sure it would be super useful at seating tubeless tyres even if you had to refill them with air afterwards.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I used to use coke bottle boosters, and then the kids got me a beto booster from merlin for my birthday. I'm sorted for easy hassle free tubeless till the day I die I think. I didn't really mind my coke bottle efforts, but the beto makes it a piece of wazz. Just under £40 for 4 year's of hassle free tubeless, and it's such a solid unit I'll be passing it back to one of the kids when I kark it. I'm pretty much a bodger, but life is just too short. </span>
Frigging 'ell I'm not editing, my beto is easier than this chuffing forum.
I didn’t really mind my coke bottle efforts, but the beto makes it a piece of wazz
Granted, looks better and probably last longer, but in what way are these things actually better in use?....
For not much more than an Airshot, I bought a track pump that doubles up as a tubeless inflator. Flick a switch one way and it pressurises a wee tank in the pump up to 240 psi, flick the switch back and it dumps the air into the tyre. It generally needs two full tanks to properly seat the bead, but it's a complete doddle. When not in use as a tubeless installer, it's a very efficient track pump that works well on all my bikes. I use it all the time, it's brilliant. Not sure how a cola bottle could match up to it.
It generally needs two full tanks to properly seat the bead
Not sure how a cola bottle could match up to it.
Cola bottle does it in one.... 🙂
The coke bottle worked pretty much identically to the beto... just slightly more faff.
Slightly less faff is perhaps under-rated .... however I wouldn't trust a tyre that absolutely needed a compressor or airshot...
If you can't seat it with a decent sized pop bottle (perhaps with some faff) either you are doing it wrong or the rim/tyre combo is just unreliable in my experience. Mostly even if possibly more faff a half decent track pump does the job.
Reading internet tubeless woes this nearly always seems to be not doing it properly or hundreds (or lots) of half hearted goes. "I thought I'd try with the valve core in" or "I thought I'd try without washing up liquid" or "I thought I'd try the damaged tyre first and see if it works" etc.
Once you've done it 10 times you get the knack ... know what you can skip on that tyre and that rim etc.
The hardest I ever did was a Maxxis wire bead on 24" rims.... which I did during this winters cold snap...
After keeping the wheel inside overnight with a tube in and warming it with a hair drier and getting inks out of the bead it went up... and is subsequently easy to reseat.
I've been very lucky and managed with a track pump. Think I'd just buy an airshot and be done with it if I encountered problems. Was looking at the Milkit system until they recalled them.