The Outex Tubeless Kit, which converts a tube-type rim to tubeless, is a DIY project that requires patience and attention to detail. You know you did it correctly when your tires hold air and made a mistake when they leak.
The benefit of the tubeless conversion is being able to fix a puncture flat with a tire plugging kit. The alternative repair is replacing or patching a tube. One is a few-minutes repair, and the other is 30 minutes or hoofing it out of the woods.
I heard about the Outex Tubeless Kit for the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike when I had a set of Heidenau K60 Scout tires, which have stiff sidewalls, coming in for review. It is easy to break the bead and swap tubes using my Rabaconda Street Tire Changer in the comfort of my garage. However, the thought of trying to do that on the trail, in the rain, with darkness coming, motivated me to go tubeless.
Outex, based in Kaizuka, a suburb of Osaka, is an oft-mentioned tubeless kit manufacturer on adventure bike forums. The company has an excellent reputation and claims to have sold over 52,000 kits since its introduction in 2006. Regardless, I was apprehensive about taking on the project, as I had read some accounts of unstoppable air leakage.
The bike-specific kits come with the following:
- Front and rear seal tape rolls of appropriate length and width
- Front and rear protection tape rolls of appropriate length and width
- Front and rear metal valve stems
- Nipple covers
- A pair of white smoothing gloves
- Two Outex hologram stickers
- Instruction sheet (the Outex website has many installation videos, including one specific to the Ténéré 700 rear wheel)
The tools needed for kit installation include:
- Tire balancer mount, or a way to spin the wheel smoothly
- Angle grinder with a metal grinding blade
- Dremel with a grinding stone
- Fine grit sandpaper
- Heat gun or hairdryer
- Acetone
- Lint-free rags
Every failure report I have studied had one thing in common—the installers did not shave the tops of the spoke nipples. So, I put the front wheel on my balancer and slowly and carefully ground the tops of all the spoke nipples flat—a half-hour job. Next, I used the Dremel stone to smooth all the roughness from the grinding process; that took about 10 minutes. I followed that up with high-pressure air to blow all the grinding dust out from all the crevices around each nipple.
Out in the open air, I used acetone and lint-free rags to fully clean the entire interior surface of the wheel. The sealing tape makes a better bond when warm, so Outex recommends heating the rim. I moved the acetone and used rags far away from the heat gun spark source before heating the rim. I got it warm to the touch by spinning the rim and pointing the heat gun at it from the spoke side.
With the rim warm, I put a nipple cover on top of each nipple. The nipple covers protect the seal tape from any abrasion from the bare metal nipple, while allowing a bit of movement for spoke adjustment.
On go the provided white gloves for precision laying of the sealing begins.
The sealing tape has a protective layer over it because it is double-sided. Peel off the protective layer of the seal tape. With a sharp knife, exactly clear the valve hole. The protective layer tape has a precut hole for the temporary insertion of the valve for positioning.
Make sure the end of the protective layer is on the opposite side of the valve from the connection seam of the sealing tape. Alignment care is mandatory as these tapes cannot be repositioned at all. Patiently apply the protective layer. Keeping the seal tape in the rim’s center, you have to smooth the tape up against the remains of the nipples as you stick it down, starting a few nipples from the valve hole and carefully pushing it smooth as you work around the wheel. Do not create wrinkles or bubbles—slow and steady, all the way around. Go around the wheel smoothing and pushing down on all the tape to ensure a good seal.
When you reach the protective layer starting point, slice off and butt the ends. The instructions call for a one-to-two-inch patch of sealing tape and protective tape over the protective tape butt ends. The Outex Hologram sticker goes between the layers of the patch, presumably for marketing purposes.
After the wheel was prepared for taping, my total time was about an hour. I took my time, being extra fastidious about laying the tapes. The Ténéré 700 front wheel is described as a WM rim, meaning it does not have a bead hump like a wheel made for tubeless tires. The rear wheel on the Ténéré 700 has that hump and is called an MT wheel.
Outex provides an air valve for the front WM wheel and a different air valve for the rear MT wheel.
After the correct valve is installed and the tire carefully mounted, it is inflation time. This requires a high-pressure compressor to seat the bead. There is no way to seat a new bead with a trail compressor or hand pump.
As you get over 35 psi, you will hear the distinct pop of the bead seating. Let the air out and refill to your desired pressure—mine is 32 PSI for the front and 36 PSI for the rear.
Because the front wheel of the Ténéré 700 was not designed for use as a tubeless wheel, out of concern for safety, Outex recommends that you do not air it down for extra traction unless absolutely necessary. Outex says that 32 psi will keep the bead firmly seated, even when hitting rocks and potholes.
Before putting the wheel back on the motorcycle, Outex recommends leaving the tire overnight to determine if it will hold pressure. Remember that tire pressure goes down about a pound for every 10 degrees that the temperature drops.
The Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike has the FOBO Bike 2 tire pressure monitoring system on both tires, which reports temperature and pressure. The pressure on the front tire started dropping about one psi per minute almost immediately. Using a TPS to monitor pressure gives more accuracy on pressure loss because you will lose a bit of pressure when checking it with a handheld gauge.
I put the wheel in the bathtub, located the bubble stream, and marked the leaking spoke. I unmounted the tire and found I had errantly slid a tire spoon too deep during the mounting process and cut the protective and sealing tapes—great for a review, though bad for my ego.
I sliced out a two-inch section, heated the rim in that spot, laid the sealing tape and protective tape, and remounted the tire—more carefully this time. For the repair, I used the Outex repair kit ($20) that I ordered at the same time as the tubeless kit.
Since the fine-tuning of the installation of the Outex Tubeless Kit, neither tire has lost a single psi in three weeks.
Out on the trail or road, if you get a slice flat or one that is not repairable with a temporary plug, you can install a tube—that is why Outex added the protective tape layer. Outex recommends only using a tube to get to a safe place to repair or replace your tire; using a tube for too long can affect the airtight seal, requiring the purchase of a new Outex kit to return to a good seal. I continue to carry a 21-inch tube and tire-changing tools because I am a belt-and-suspenders kind of adventure rider. However, I am confident I will use them to help a stranded rider rather than for the Ténéré.
I was a little nervous my first few miles, wondering if my installation was correct and if the tire would hold pressure the first time I hit a pothole. Fortunately, the Outex Tubeless Kit works as designed for the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike. My handiwork on the front and rear wheels is holding air after 500 miles, sans tubes, under tubeless designed tires.
The Outex Tubeless Kit for the Ultimate Motorcycling Yamaha Ténéré 700 Project Bike’s front and rear wheels runs $130 MSRP—a single wheel kit is $70. When installed per the manufacturer’s instructions and informative videos, a three-hour job per wheel, you will have the peace of mind that comes with knowing a puncture requires only a quick plug repair.
Outex Tubeless Kit Review Photo Gallery
