I know, I go on an on about these like a shill, lol.
I guess I originally used them for ghetto tubeless, as it ensures the tire will not burp or lose air. It kinda takes a tubeless tire and converts it into a tubular tire. Its a great safety factor if my rim/tire combo is questionable. This is becoming less of an issue these days though.
They are cheap enough that I just keep a pack in my toolkit.
If you have a good solid tire/rim combo, it doesn't really provide much advantage, but it IMHO is a safety thing if tires are not up to the latest 2021.5 tubeless safety standard (which by definition, nothing we have is - well, it could be, but there is no way to know).
For a decent tubeless wheel/tire combo, it has
- helped if the rim tape has gotten damaged from mounting new tires
- helped get the tire to seal and inflate by hand.
- helps ensure there are no air leaks around valve, damaged tape, burping, or most anything.
1) I don't change anything on the rim when I use these. If it has tape, I leave the tape. It has very little thickness, so I wouldn't use it to replace rim tape, but it might be better than using a second layer of tape.
2) yes, you trim after install. If the tire has a very tight bead on the rim, I don't think there is much point in using these. I didn't use them with my 32mm GP5000, because that tire is a PITA to install, and I barely got it on the rim in the first place. I did use them with my terraspeeds. So no, I do not use them on tires that are difficult to install because they are so tight (and like you say, it would be hard to do without tearing the strip anyway).
3) yep, one time use. Although if the tire doesn't fit super tight, I have rotated tires front to back without taking the strip off or without exposing the sealant to open air or spillage.
4) yes, I think it would be good to solve rim related air leaks (just not sidewall/tread related ones! ;-) )
Originally Posted by
msu2001la
I've seen a few posts about this product and have questions:
1. You still use regular rim tape and then use the skinny stripper on top of it?
2. It's 75mm wide, and I think the idea is that you install the tire on the wider strip and then trim it after install? Does this make getting the tire on the rim more difficult? I've had some serious wrestling matches with some tires on my current tubeless wheels, so I'm having a hard time adding even more material in there and then needing to use levers to pry the beads up over the rim edge without damaging the strip. Any thoughts?
3. I'm assuming since it's latex and bonds to the tire, this is a one-time use product? So each tire install would require a new set of skinny strippers + trimming?
I have a set of tubeless wheels that I've had to re-tape 3x in the last year due to air leaks. This could be an indictment of my taping skills, but something like this product seems like it would solve that.
Thanks!