Rant: rim strips

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bunnyman666

bunnyman666

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I just picked up a mid-school 48 spoke Alex rim, NOS with shop scratches. Great hub, bloody darned near indestructible rim. $50 was pretty good price.

Bought some of the rim strips that are the best of the day. Hmmmm. Let’s just say the super tall rim is giving me fits with the installation. This rim, let’s say it’s TWICE as tall as a regular rim. Combined with the lack of flexibility of the rim strip, installation is very difficult! I never thought I would need a pair of tyre levers to install a rim strip! I am *this* close to cutting the bloody thing, spraying some 3M adhesive onto the strip and laying it on like tape! This is a bear of a time! The other option is to find a 1.75” wide Velox rim strip, as it is self-adhesive.

What happened to the rim strips that are a by-product of making inner tubes? Flexible, stays over the valve hole and just stretches. I imagine some of the tricks on these bikes were making regular rubber rim strips get shredded and cause puncture flats from the sharp spoke edges, and there are 49 round, sharp holes on this rim!

If this is the biggest problem of the day, it is a GREAT day, I realise!
45D49D40-ACCF-4F40-9D0E-703F6F10D72B.jpeg
 
Last edited:
MattiThundrrr said:
I have a solution, but it's probably not for those beautiful rims! I just use electrical tape, it's tough and cheap.
Click to expand...
I am almost there!
Nobody sees rim strips! I would probably go 2-3 times around. I did have a bad experience with electrical tape, but that was likely due to not wrapping 2-3 times around, and also leaving the hole exposed for the valve. I may just wrap 2-3 times and cut a slightly smaller hole for the valve.

Thanks for the idea!
 
Starnger said:
I always use adhesive rim tape from Schwalbe.
SCHWALBE-SAMOPRZYLEPNA-OPASKA-OCHRONNA-50M-x-15mm

It's just way easier then stocking for different size strips. With all those weird wide rims we deal that's the best option.
Click to expand...
Guess I am back to the LBS today!

Never saw that stuff, and it certainly is cheaper than the plethora of individually packaged boxes of Velox! I wrenched professionally in the 90s and only would sub out to build a frame when I didn’t have the tools (like facing BB and head tubes).
 
The bike shop had none, said they just use black electrical tape.
So that's what I've been using, two layers thick.
 
I like the fabric adhesive rim tape, it's less prone to movement and corrosion from retained moisture than the rubber strips.
 
I never get flats. Not sure if it's the rim tape or how I ride, but I use the Velox cloth or old tube cut into strips and taped over with electrical tape. Use the good electrical tape (3M, maybe others)—there is a wide difference in quality. What I never tried, but I bet would work well, would be to cut an old tube and just use patch glue to stick the ends together.
 
Well- not only did the rim strip prove wonky, but so did installing a non-folding tyre! I ended up carefully using a flat screw driver (not my preferred method, BTW).

Plastic tyre levers STINK on these rims; any links to metal tyre levers that won’t puncture?
 

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