A common complaint about 29'er wheels is that tires fit too loosely. Loose enough that at times, it can be difficult to mount a tire because as you're mounting the second bead the tire falls off the other side. I've had this happen several times to me with my Salsa Delgado Disc rims. Freaking frustrating and would be even worse in a race. Also, because of this looseness, they are very sketchy to mount up tubeless with the Stans system (or any other for that matter) because without a good bead seat its only a matter of time before the tire rolls off the rim. Because of this I decided to go with Stan's new Arch 29'er rim for my race wheels this year. The Stans rims are sized slightly larger to actually work with the current tires. After getting the wheels ready this weekend I can attest to the tightness of the rim to tire fit with the new Stan's rim. I struggled for about an hour trying to mount the tires up to no avail. They recommend first mounting with tubes to properly seat the rim strip but I found it impossible to get the tire on with the tube in there (I was using a somewhat small 26'er tube though. I suspect if I had a 29'er tube that it would have worked fine). It was so difficult that I actually broke two tire levers. TWO! I even had blisters on my fingers by the time I gave up.
The next day I figured I'd tackle it again. This time I was smart enough to pull out the tubes and use a soapy rinse to lube up the tire beads. Having done that everything came together nicely and now I have successfully mounted and aired up tubeless 29'er wheels. Wednesday I'll be taking them out to pre-ride the course for this weekend's first race, the Maine Sport Mayhem. Its a tight, twisty, rooty mess so I'll find out quickly how well the tires will hold up tubeless.
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