After the first ride I knew I had to change some things, namely switching to tubeless and swapping out the handlebars. I tried a different kind of tape which was a major failure and eventually ended up using Gorilla Tape.
I have my trail bosses and dude I’m running tubeless with the stock tires. All i did was use helicopter tape and sanded the aluminum just a little for good measure.
lovely colour -- I have the yellow and blue version. Only just got it and on checking the head bearings were under greased and I noticed when your forks dropped your bearings also looked lacking. Happy riding
How did the new stem & bars feel? I have the same bike in an XL. I’m 6’2”, 245. Sometimes my hands get a little numb on long rides. I’m in East Texas so we ride Tyler, Longview sandy soils.
New bars and stem felt perfect. The backsweep of the bars combined with slightly longer stem put me in exactly the position I wanted. The bars are cut down to 740mm which is perfect for all the tree gates in Texas.
What did you dislike about the handlebars? And did you get a flat before converting? I'm sitting in my car at the Trailhead after walking my Xtrada back quite a good distance.
I felt your frustration on that one. Any particular reason you use Gorilla tape over actual rim tape. I used to use gorilla but absolutely hated cleaning all the residue of the rims every time I changed the tape out.
I’ve tried other actual rim tapes and they’re so inflexible that it’s very hard to apply them correctly. And they’re so overpriced for what they are. I feel the same with the gorilla tape. It’s easy to apply but god forbid you have to change a tire or rewrap the tape 😡
Many non tubeless tires can work just fine if the rims are tubeless ready. Even non tubeless ready rims can work if you use TLR tires. Basically as long as one of the two components is TLR it’ll most likely work
We were out in Rockwall a few weeks ago on Friday after a hard Thursday rain. Trails were definitely closed! You will destroy the trails & that black gumbo is a B to get off your bike!
Having the tape go up the sides prevents it from getting messed up when you remove the tire. General practice is the get tape 3mm wider than the inner rim.
