Tubeless set up does my head in. Yeah yeah, it’s dead good once it’s working and things are so much better than riding a bike with inner tubes….but I often find myself with a tyre that won’t seal on a rim or with a valve that leaks air faster than I can put it in while creating several large puddles of liquid latex on the kitchen floor. I’ll not go into the time when the cat walked it all over the carpet. Occasionally it ‘just works’ but invariably it’s a right faff.

I noticed that Mount Zoom were doing some universal valves. I must admit I was a bit sceptical about the ‘universal’ bit but Ant sent some over for me to try. Enough valves for a couple bikes.

First I tried them on some Syncros rims on the Scott Genius. Tubes out, screw valves into rim – they come with a rubber ‘O’ ring on each screw-down collar that’s there to improve the seal and lets you get things really tight. A couple of splashes of Squirt sealant (good stuff, easily as good as anything else I’ve used), remount the tyre and re-inflated first time with a track pump.

Ten minutes, no massive puddle of sealant, no tantrums, everyone’s happy.

If you prefer to mount the tyre first and then put the sealant in, each pair of valves comes with a handy valve core remover.

After the positive experience with the Syncros rims I got cocky and tried the other pair of valves on my freshly-built Strathpuffer Racy Singlespeed – this time a pair of Stans 355 rims and a pair of non-tubeless ready tyres. I had to pump a bit faster with the trackpump and I have to admit I did break a sweat at this point (but there was no way I was going to waste a C02– I think I also used a bit more sealant than I did with the proper tubeless tyres but once again the valves didn’t leak, all the air went in, the tyres did that satisfying-but-also-a-bit-scary BANG as the bead was pushed into place. No leaks from the bead/rim interface, so the Squirt sealant did its job perfectly.

I’m impressed. I wasn’t sure that the valves would ‘just work’, especially with two different rims but I spent a total of 30 minutes on this. What’s more I sort of ‘won’ four inner tubes.

Available in black or red, get your Mount Zoom valves from the XC Racer Shop. While you’re there, don’t forget your Squirt sealant.