 Travers Bikes are now offering hand built 29+ wheels.
We have collected together all of the 29+ rims available on the market the market leader Surly’s Rabbit hole, schlickcycles’s Northpaw 29 and the new Kid on the block (available from mid december) the Velocity Dually 29 You have a choice of 2 hubs currently the quality Stans 3.30 and the exquisite Chris King ISO (these will be available from 0212/13). All built with double butted Halo spoke and the choice of aluminum or Brass nipples.
0 Comments
 The new 15mm thru axle 29er Travers Carbon forks will be in stock soon. They are just entering the paint and graphics stage.
The 29er forks are designed to work with both the Rudy 29er frame and the Rudy Fat 29+ frame easily taking the extra wide 3" tyres with mud room to spare. The subtle stealth look will continue and the 15mm axle versions will come with a gloss UD carbon finish. They will be available in standard QR as well in both gloss and matte finishes. The fork will retail for £249 or can be bought as part of a rolling chassis deal. The next batch of "Rudy Fat" 29+ and "Rudy" 29er frames are available for pre order and will be ready for delivery mid-late January.
The frames can be bought on their own or as part of a "Rolling Chassis" bundle The sizes available are: Rudy Fat: Small Medium Large Extra Large Rudy: Small Medium Large Extra Large The frame sizes in red have only 1 frame left, I will keep the list updated The "Rudy Fat" 29+ is off on review. Check out the initial report.
Just been sent these pictures from a customer of a Rudy Fat 29+ with a Lefty fork. The Fat Race is featured on Bike Radars "this week’s best new bike gear"...the correct web address is www.traversbikes.com 
Kit needed to ghetto convert your Northpaw 29+ (29er Plus, 29er+) rims to tubeless with Surly Knard 27tpi tyres. I forgot to include a cloth in this picture to wipe the powder from inside the split tube. The Wheel goo was sent to me to test in this set up 
First off remove the tyre and tube and make sure the rim tape is seated properly. Give the rim a quick clean to make sure the tape will stick then run a layer of duct tape around the inside of the rim, the 45mm wide roll works perfectly without any cutting. I only did one layer but it hardly weighs anything, so 2 layers if you like the extra security. 
Measure and cut the foam. I used pipe insulation as it was closed cell and quite firm. To get the right size I simply laid the foam into the cavity in the rim and marked it with a pen and then cut it with a craft knife and metal ruler. The foam is used to stop the tyre dropping down into the gap in the center of the rim and create a better seal. I wasn't sure which way was best to lay the foam. I went for the middle strip facing up so the concave bit was looking out when it was wrapped around the rim 
Rap the foam around the rim, I only secured it with tape at either end...starting from the valve. I left a small gap of about 1cm around the valve with no foam to allow the valve stem to seat squarely. As you can see the foam fits quite nicely. 
The next step is to cut the inner tube. If you slightly inflate the inner tube it is easier to push the scissors into. Obviously take care not to go right through! I am using a 24" inner tube on this 29+ rim as its is quite tight and hold in place well when mounting the tyre. 
The inside of the inner tube has a fine dust in it to prevent the insides from sticking together. Wipe this off with a damp cloth. 
The next job is to place the split inner tube over the rim, I found the easiest way was to put the valve in then pull the split tube over the rim on the opposite side to the valve and work the tube on from both sides at the same time. As you can see its quite tight allow the split tube to hang over the edge of the rim and make sure its centered all the way around. Also its a good idea to make sure the foam hasn't moved at this point before mounting the tyre. 
The Surly Knard 29x3 27tpi tyre is quite floppy, Spray or brush on a soapy mixture to help the tyre seat. It took a couple of minutes to work out the best method to get it back on the 29+ Northpaw rim. The method that seemed to work best was to sit the rim in the middle of the tyre between the 2 beads then work one side on at a time. Go round and pull the tyre to the edge of the rim as best you can. Then being the impatient type I had to see if it would seal without sealant...it did with a track pump. It was leaking a little but it inflated up to pressure. I then it it down and poured in three quarters of the Wheel goo sealant (the wheel goo clearly says that it isn't designed to be used tubeless but for tubes only) and re-inflated the tyre. I could still here a slight hiss. As it was quite cold outside I took the wheel into the warm. I left it for half an hour came back and the hissing had stopped and the tyre was still inflated to the pressure I had set it at. (18psi) Success! 
All that's left to do is to cut the excess inner tube off that is hanging over the edge of the rim.
As the title suggest I have managed to convert the Nothpaw rims to a tubeless setup using Knard 29×3 tyres. The pictures below are work in progress, this is my first successful conversions and obviously still need trimming but first a little history: I have read a couple of blogs and web forums about converting Fat Bike/29+ tyres to tubeless but wasn’t able to find anything specific about the Northpaw rims. I decided to try the the ghetto split tube method….it didn’t work. As soon as I took the tube out and remounted the tyre I realised that it was going to need some tweaking, the tyre simply feel off, it was too loose on the rim. A bit more research and I found the solution, foam placed down the center of the rim to stop the tyre dropping in. I found that pipe insulation works well as its quite firm and naturally rounded so it pushes the tyre out towards the edge of the rim (I taped this in place). Okay as I said before this is work in progress, I only had a 26″ tube so split this and placed it over the rim (covering the foam and flowing over the rim sides). Mounting the tyre was hard as there was now no central channel but it was still possible with just my thumbs…with a little patience! The tyre didn’t sit perfectly on the rim initially but I decided to see if it would inflate anyway (I hadn’t put any sealant in) and it did! The tyre inflate straight away, after a couple of pumps the tyre bead fell into place on the rim and popped into place once I got to about 10psi. Now I know this method works I can do it properly, I have ordered some 24″ inner tubes and Wheelgoo are sending me some sealant. I will post a better “how to guide” with pictures in a week or so once I get the bits and some spare time! Quick run down of method:
I am working on some new chassis deals which will include the Northpaw 29+ rims and New Velocity Dually 29+ and 26" rims (all 32 hole)
|
TRAVERS BIKES
HAND BUILT TITANIUM FRAMES. Archives
December 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed