26 Inch MTB/DH Tubeless Tyres
Tubeless tyres are designed to enable the rider to run varying amounts of pressure in the tyre for different conditions and so avoiding needless inner tube punctures. In place of the tube found in a normal tyre, the tyre and the rim of the wheel form an air container. In order to ’seal in the air’, the inner wall of the tyre is thoroughly lined with an impermeable, air-tight membrane. This performs, in essence, the important task of substantially reducing the air leaking, compared to the natural rubber inner liner on a normal tyre. A tubeless tyre also comes with a soft rubber chaffer, which works as an all-round air seal between the tyre and rim. Special tyre sealants can also be purchased to improve the seal and are applied inside the tyre when installing onto the rim.
Installing Tubeless Tyres
The rims need to be specifically designed to take a tubeless tyre, so be sure that your wheel is compatible before attempting to run tubeless. As there is no tube and therefore no tube valve, a specialised valve is used for increasing/reducing the air pressure. The valve sits on the tyre rim and is sealed by a large high quality rubber seal which is easy to mount. From the performance point of view, tubeless tyres are hard to beat. These tyres don’t pinch flat, which means they let you run lower pressures. Lower tyre pressure is the best way to improve contact with the ground which, in turn should better the bike’s performance. The only down side is that they can be tricky to install, however the performance benefits should far out way this. Please refer to our buyers guide or contact the AW Cycles team for more information.
