After a year of back-and-forth on whether to go tubeless. I even got as far as building up a Mavic XM819 UST onto a Hope Pro 2 hub, but even after a year I never got round to getting a UST tyre, partly through lack of choice, and partly due to doubts about benefits gained vs. weight gained.

So in an effort to shift weight from the bike, and to get some tubeless on the go, I ordered a set of American Classic hubs/Stans ZTR Olympic rims/DT Swiss Revolution spoked wheels from JustRidingAlong (Thanks very much to Jon for his patient communication regarding stock, spokes, and flooding).

The parcel man arrived on thursday, just in time for 10 At Kirroughtree at the weekend. I didn’t have time to set them up tubeless, so put one of my new Maxxis CrossMark tyres on the rear, and my favourite wet tyre, the IRC Mibro on the front. 300g saved in wheels alone!

Unsurprisingly, the wheels worked faultlessly over the weekend, not even slightly out of true when I checked them on the wheelstand today.

To go tubeless I needed a compressor, as mounting the tyres with a track-pump was hopeless. I was just using the yellow spoke tape inside the rims, no rim strip. The rear CrossMark went on almost instantly, almost completely sealing without any sealant in. The front took a bit more work, and eventually a small amount of sealant before it got a grip on the bead.

So far I have only ridden them around town, but they seem pretty solidly on the bead. Running a non-UST tyre tubeless feels slightly odd. Very supple, yet really fast too. Maybe a UST tyre would feel the same.

They’ll get a good testing in Poland, and if I do have any trouble, they come of with just your hands, so getting a tube in should be no bother.