Stan’s No Tubes on the Past, Present, & Future of Tubeless Tech (Ep.91)

Sealant-based tubeless systems are now ubiquitous on mountain bikes, but how did we get here? On our latest episode of Bikes & Big Ideas we sat down with Mike Bush, the President of Stan’s, to talk about the early days of tubeless development; why we still use rim tape and sealant; rim profiles; tire inserts; sealant formulation and how it actually works; and a whole lot more. Check it out wherever you get your podcasts, or on our site.

Sealant-based tubeless systems are now ubiquitous on mountain bikes, but how did we get here? We sat down with Mike Bush, the President of Stan’s, to talk about the early days of tubeless development; why we still use rim tape and sealant; rim profiles; tire inserts; sealant formulation and how it actually works; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

  • Origins of Stan’s No Tubes (1:18)
  • UST vs. tape and sealant (4:03)
  • Tubeless rim stips & why Stan’s dropped them (6:04)
  • How does sealant work? (13:06)
  • Tradeoffs in sealant design (20:19)
  • Rim design for tubeless (24:19)
  • Tire inserts (30:10)
  • What’s next for tubeless systems? (33:34)
  • Mike’s Big Idea (38:53)

RELATED LINKS:

Leave a Comment