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Attempting tubeless on a Smart Sam Tyre

Beekeeper

🍯Honey Monster🍯
Aug 6, 2019
1,751
2,197
Surrey hills
My rims are tubeless ready but ordered cheapish Smart Sam tyres 29 x 2.6
Not sure these are suitable for tubeless setup but what is likely to go wrong if I were to try?
 

Beekeeper

🍯Honey Monster🍯
Aug 6, 2019
1,751
2,197
Surrey hills
How did this end? Just ordered a set and thinking about teting the same.

The new Smart Sams are Double Defence. Heavier than my original Nobby Nics but presumably more puncture proof. I removed the Tannus Armour inserts and just put the old tubes back in. Saved a bit of weight overall. Interestingly the new tyres are foldable and much easier to take on and off compared to the original wired tyre.
 

steve_sordy

Wedding Crasher
Nov 5, 2018
9,004
9,423
Lincolnshire, UK
The new Smart Sams are Double Defence. Heavier than my original Nobby Nics but presumably more puncture proof. I removed the Tannus Armour inserts and just put the old tubes back in. Saved a bit of weight overall. Interestingly the new tyres are foldable and much easier to take on and off compared to the original wired tyre.
I have never bought a wired tyre. What are the advantages of a wired tyre?
 

arTNC

Member
Feb 1, 2024
240
281
Texas
I was an early adopter of the roll-yer-own MTB tubeless many years ago, and as long as you used a good, quality, folding tire with a decent carcass and a decent rim, tubeless setup worked really well. Wire bead models just weren't reliable at all for the most part. Heck, we didn't even have tubeless rims back then. Using the "ghetto" method of sealing the rim was the absolute most reliable method over the tape method. We had to mix our own sealant with latex and other experiments like some corn meal, etc. With some good, beefy tires and home latex mix, I had great results even in harsh terrain like Moab and such.

OP, you would probably be just fine with those tires on tubeless rims, but with the tire not being tubeless at the bead, I'd be tempted to still apply the ghetto rim seal for absolute best reliability. I've done tubeless tires on good, quality, non-tubeless rims with the ghetto method but never the other way around. Without both tire and rim being true tubeless, I'm a little reluctant to abandon the ghetto method. I hate ending a ride early because of a big burp or even worse a fast deflation on a rough trail. Some of this may depend a bit on how aggressive you ride and the nature of the terrain you're riding on.
 

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