Salsa Semi tubeless conversion

[gosurfariver]

I have a Salsa Semi wheelset and want to go tubeless.  I tried Ghetto tubeless with cut 24 inch tubes as a rim strip.  It worked for a minute.  I filled them with air they held at about 20 psi and then I pumped them up to around 40 (still doing a lot of road riding here due to snow) and boom.  Stans all over the ceiling, my dog still won't come near my bike and my wife just looks at me cross-eyed when I talk about trying again.  So I need some suggestions.  Should I even bother/trust it?  I know Salsa says don't do it, but I have read plenty of other forums that say they work?  What do you guys think?

[redtabby]

You don't mention what tires you are trying.  The bead of the tire can make all of the difference in the world.  On some DT swiss
rims I have, WTB nanoraptor, maxxis ardent and any specialized 2bliss branded tire inflate with a hand pump and seat well in a yellow tape,
no rim strip, stans sealant setup.

With continental mountain king tires, I could not achieve inflation even with a compressor and taking out the valve core.  Stans gurgling
out everywhere - a complete fiasco.   Lots of people have good luck with those tires, so it was probably the combination of the bead plus the
nuances of my particular rims. 

My experience with tubeless is that it requires a lot of experimentation to find what works, but then is worth it and not a lot of overhead unless
you want to mount different tires every week.   Keep at it,  you'll find the sweet spot.

[gosurfariver]

At the time I used WTB Vulpine tires.  Right now I have a Vulpine on the front and a Maxxis Aspen in the rear

[perdido]

I have a Salsa Semi wheelset and want to go tubeless.  I tried Ghetto tubeless with cut 24 inch tubes as a rim strip.  It worked for a minute.  I filled them with air they held at about 20 psi and then I pumped them up to around 40 (still doing a lot of road riding here due to snow) and boom.  Stans all over the ceiling, my dog still won't come near my bike and my wife just looks at me cross-eyed when I talk about trying again.  So I need some suggestions.  Should I even bother/trust it?  I know Salsa says don't do it, but I have read plenty of other forums that say they work?  What do you guys think?

I have converted my Salsa Semis to tubeless using this:
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=53312

Which is basically a nicer version of a ghetto tubeless system.

I did have to add a layer of regular cotton rimstrip under the rubber rimstrip with the presta valve in addition to the nylon plastic strip to "build up" the center section and thus getting the rubber rimstrip to cover the full width of the rim. Otherwise the rimstrip falls about 1mm too narrow because to the deep "valley" on Salsa semis.

 So in the end there are 3 layers of strips:

- Nylon-plastic strip directly on the rim (make sure the inside of the rim is clean, use rubbing alcohol let it dry and afterwards wipe the rims with a clean cotton rag)
- Regular cotton rimstrip (Velox fond de jante, Zéfal or similar)
- Rubber rimstrip with removable valve core

My rubber rimstrip did not go over the rim walls like in a ghetto set up but it hasn't been a problem so far.
I did have to use an air compressor to air up the first time and apply plenty of soapy water on the rim/tire bead area.
FWIW, my front tire was a fresh Geax Saguaro (the regular non-TNT version) and the rear was a used non-folding WTB Weirwolf 2.55

I have to admit that I have not ridden this wheelset much since going tubeless, but it has been holding air (>35 psi). YMMV

[howrad]

I spent 3 weeks experimenting with varying DIY conversions on my Semis. My goals were for the tires to seat easily with a floor/hand pump, and to be able to install and remove tires without levers. My thinking was that field repairs would be much easier if both requirements could be met.

In the end, I settled on one layer of Gorilla tape (ripped in half, so it's skinny) around the rim. Presta valve cut out of a spare tube. I used my hands to pull the bead into the rim edges, and it seated on the first pump. I found that the sweet spot for easy mounting was small, and adding more layers to take up room (as advised on many a MTBR thread) made mounting and seating very difficult. Once seated, I did the shake and twirl, and then laid each rim on each side for 24 hours to finish sealing small leaks. I was pretty frustrated by the time I ended up at the sweet spot, but now it feels worth the work. Wish I hadn't believed the hype about how crazy tight the tire mounting needs to be. Spent a lot of time and achy fingers trying to follow that method.

I've been running this way for 6 months, with 3 capfuls of Stan's in each tire. WTB 29 Weirwolf LT's, 18psi on trail, 40 on road, 13 in snow. No burps, no blowouts, haven't broken the bead since. I weigh 145.