I decided to go tubeless (which is a first for me) with this setup for two reasons:
1) to save weight
2) to be able to run slightly lower pressures
I did a fair amount of reading online forums before embarking on this seemingly arduous hit-or-miss task.
Of course I tried to use my track pump to seat the bead and
of course that didn't work.
I don't know how or why I was
somehow expecting it to work, because deep down I knew it wouldn't.
Even taking the valve cores out "to increase flow", I must have looked like a right jackass pumping and not getting anywhere.
I must have wasted 20 minutes doing this. Unless you have the right pump, I suggest not to even waste 2 minutes on it.
Despite pulling the [Joe's] tubeless tape pretty hard, I still ended up with some longitudinal air bubbles in the centre channel of the rim.
I considered buying a tube and installing that to flatten everything out...
But I'm not a great fan of my lbs so that would mean waiting days on end for an online purchase.
Read somewhere else that pressure is pressure, installing a tube is just one extra unnecessary step, just install the thing as is, the bubbles will flatten out anyway.
So that's what I did. I decided to take it to a service station and stop all the guessing. The first servo was busy so on to the second one.
Meanwhile, the soapy water I had applied was fast drying out (I'm not taking an open bucket of soapy water in the car okay, couldn't find a spray bottle).
At first I tried to seat the bead sans sealant.
It sorta worked so I unscrewed the presta-to-schraeder adapter & squeezed a little bottle of Stan's in there
(no syringe needed, saving $20 right there, win)
This took about 5 or 10 minutes, which is acceptable enough I suppose.
I'm not keen on going to by lbs or getting a compressor, so for the time being, that's the method.
I'll no doubt have to buy a spare tube anyway as I don't completely trust this system yet.
I'm definitely not going to bother with tubeless on my road bikes (the rims aren't compatible anyway).
I won't bother with tubeless on my main mtb steed either (again, rims are oldschool).
Weight savings not significant I think over tubolitos.
I may convert my hybrid training bike however as it comes with tubeless ready rims and those tubes are fairly heavy for what they are.