[Bruce in SoCal]

I rode my bike in the Camarillo (Southern California) area. I thought I got a flat tire. I at a stop, I heard the unmistakable hiss of escaping air. I decided to call it a day and limped 1/4 mile back to the car. However, when I got home, I discovered that I was mistaken. I had two flat tires. I removed the front one to patch it and discovered 7 -- count them 7 -- holes in the tube. It is toast -- or more accurately Swiss cheese. Tomorrow, I go tubeless.

Does anyone know if Rapid Robs are suitable for a tubeless conversion?

 

[El_Duderino]

I am very happy I went tubeless did it years ago.
Not so sure about Rapid Robs being tubeless compatible....are they wire bead?
I have not heard of anyone going tubeless on a wire bead tire. I could be wrong.

 

[Burt4x4]

I'm a fan now, of tubeless. If a tire is tubeless ready it useualy says so on the sidewall somewere..duno about that one. MY Schwalbe Thunder Burt has the sidewal stamp for tubeless ready..go for it!

 

[Sevenrats]

I had Rapid Robs on my HT when I bought it. On the suggestion of the LBS I went tubeless using Stans No tubes kit. The rims on my bike were not tubeless ready rims (Maddux) so they needed the rim strip not just tape. To start off I will say that once the tires were seated on the rim I had no issues and no flats all last season….However!

Every time I had to add sealant it was a royal #%%$$^^%%^% biotch to get the tires to reseat even with a 5 gallon compressor set wide open even with the valve cores removed. Then after riding all winter with Ice spikers (also tubeless but they are officially tubeless ready) and trying to put the the Rapid Robs back on they absolutely would not seat. So at that point I said screw this crap and put a tube in there so I could go ride. Ready for this? 20 minutes after I inflated the tire the tire blew off the rim!!!! At least I wasn't riding. I think that the combination of the sealant and the tires not having the proper side-wall for tubeless destroyed the sidewalls.

Anyway, the whole tubeless thing is a P I T A. Sealant everywhere, seating issues and really if you cut the sidewall you'll still get a flat, maybe even a catastrophic blow out and you still need to carry replacement tubes just in case. I've been riding the last two months with tubes in Conti X-kings (which are way better than the Rapid Robs were, awesome) and no flats and even if I did, I can change a flat in 5 minutes. If I were you I would ditch the Rapid Robs and buy some good tires with Protection treads and use tubes.

The only way I go tubeless again is with tubeless ready rims and tires. Maybe. No Bullcrap kits.

 

[Iamrockandroll13]

A true tubeless system is a must IMO. Trying to ghetto tubeless convert something that is not made for it results in a royal trail-side PITA 9 out of 10 times. I had a set of wheels I converted to tubeless that were not designed for it and I struggled and fought with them constantly to get them to hold air and not leak sealant everywhere, and if they ever went flat on the trail, you needed CO2 or you weren't getting them reseated, or you needed to throw a tube in.

Then I built a set of Stan's Crest rims up and they worked like a charm right out of the gate, I can seat the bead and get them to hold air with a hand pump. They work awesome and I regret not going to them sooner. I was using them with Continental RaceKing 2.2's protection and Continental X-King 2.2 and 2.4 protections and they worked great. I love the tires, but I'm not sure how much of the improvement is from the tires and how much is from the fact that I can run much lower pressures now and not have to worry about pinch flats.

 

[FullBladdy]

I have set up a number of non tubeless rims and tires and have had minimal issues. From ghetto to stan's rims. A few times it took some work to get the bead to seal but for the most part it was not an issue. I have a compressor now but did a number of non tubeless setups with just a floor pump. ymmv but tubeless is a standard part of my mountain bike setup as is pretty much every one I know.

 

[Bruce in SoCal]

As I said, 7 holes in the front.

Then I checked the rear -- 6 there. Had I repaired and kept riding, I'd probably not have gotten too far or would have ended up walking a long way home. I can't be prepared for that many thorns except as tubeless.

 

[Mr_Clean]

I am very happy I went tubeless did it years ago.
Not so sure about Rapid Robs being tubeless compatible....are they wire bead?
I have not heard of anyone going tubeless on a wire bead tire. I could be wrong.

If it matters, I run ZTR Crests on another bike. Many tires have blown off those rims while sitting at home. As an experiment, I tried setting up wire bead tires tubeless (I had a pair of WTB Nine Line from a Cannondale built bike lying around). Well, I've been using them for months now. I know it's not ideal, but it worked!

 

[Zowie]

I had no issues with wire beads, but only did a couple.

Only done about ten tires, but the first time I had issues with TL conversion was with an expensive Schwalbe "TL-ready" tire.

 

[Sevenrats]

I have set up a number of non tubeless rims and tires and have had minimal issues. From ghetto to stan's rims. A few times it took some work to get the bead to seal but for the most part it was not an issue. I have a compressor now but did a number of non tubeless setups with just a floor pump. ymmv but tubeless is a standard part of my mountain bike setup as is pretty much every one I know.

There is no way that those Rapid Robs would have seated on the Maddux rims without a compressor ever. The bike shop guys had issues doing it with their compressor as well. It's totallly going to depend on the tire and rim combo you have.

Once seated the tubeless worked as it should, low pressures and no flats.

I hope it works for the OP. Good luck.