OK, so I bought myself a Stans 29'er conversion kit yesterday and after watching the video, started eagerly and with much confidence. I left my existing rim strip on, and installed Stans rim strip by stretching it evenly as per video. At this stage I noticed there were several narrow spots, but I couldn’t get it much better and continued mounting the tire and adding soapy water. I then pumped frantically (using a foot pomp), but with no success. I dismounted everything and after replacing, pumped even harder. Also tried a 16g CO2 bomb in the process. An hour later… At this stage I knew it must be the narrow spots that is causing the problem, so I took of my existing rim strip, added two layers of tape (that came with the kit), added back my existing rim strip and on top of that Stans rim strip. This did help a lot in getting rid of the narrow spots, and I regained some confidence. But alas, with tire back on and with soapy water, I couldn’t inflate it to as much as 0.1 psi. I went back re-doing everything a number of times. An hour later… I threw everything in the back of my car and raced to the nearest petrol station. With the air compressor I was able to inflate the tire somewhat, but as soon as I stopped inflating all the air was gone within a split second. An hour later… I went to bed highly irritated and wondering what else I can try. And to add salt to the wounds, Mrs MTB said softly “I told you it was not going to work”. Help needed: You will notice that I have not yet added any sealant – according to the video, you should at least be able to inflate the tire without sealant after which it will gradually lose air. I have therefore resisted adding the sealant as I believe the tire needs to seal better than what it currently does. Is this correct? Is there anything else I can try? I don’t really want to take it to a bike shop as I would like to see how it is done.
