Originally Posted by
staehpj1
I am curious what rims and tires you tour on and what size tires you use. Do you use rims designed for tubeless of some type of conversion with a regular rim. Also do you use tires designated as tubeless? If so which ones?
I have considered trying tubeless, but have not yet bit the bullet. I'd would be more likely to try it if I didn't need to build up new wheels.
My main touring setup used non-tubeless tires and rims last year. This year I tried tubeless ready tires on the non-tubeless rims. Both setups have been 100% reliable. I'm building up new touring wheels this fall that will use tubeless designed rims.
My commuter road bike [which I would tour on if I was going to do a 100% road tour] uses tubeless designed rims [Velocity Blunt SL] with non-tubeless tires [32mm Compass Bicycle tires - don't recall model name].
I can go into all the details if you like, but I'm mostly touring on dirt and mountain bike trails so my setups are specialized and won't have wide applicability outside those uses.
To answer your second question you most definitely do not need new equipment to try tubeless. You don't need tubeless specific rims and tires. That's not to say every combination of rims and tires will work either. In addition to the rims and tires you have to consider the tubeless setup method. There are a number of options and depending on what rims and tires you have I would suggest one or the other.
You will learn what works for you and what doesn't. There will be a period of adjustment and you will have some hiccups. On the positive side more and more rims and tires and being designed to run tubeless. Setup is getting easier and easier.
I have yet to have a situation where I could not setup tires/rims tubeless, but I have had situations where I needed to try a few different setups before I got to the point I was satisfied. Once you get things sorted for a specific rim and tire you don't need to go through all that again. You'll know what works and you'll just get the tire mounted quickly.
If you want to get into the specifics of how to setup your tires/rims tubeless lets start a new thread and we can tackle those details there.