American company Stan’s NoTubes specialises in lightweight mountain bike components, including tubeless tyre systems, tyres, wheels, rims, sealant, hub parts and rotors. Based in the aptly-named Big Flats, New York, it was founded in 2001 by Stan Koziatek, who was looking for a solution to the age-old problem of flat tyres.
The NoTubes sealing system, which removed the traditional tube and replaced it with a molded rubber rim strip and a liquid tyre sealant, has since become the preferred way of converting an existing mountain bike rim and tyre to tubeless use. Another of Stan’s innovations was the tubeless rim with short side walls and Bead Socket Technology (BST), meaning decreased chances of pinch flatting.
Such is Stan’s influence, that he was named by Velo News magazine in 2012 as one of the seven people whose vision and dedication have most fundamentally reshaped the cycling landscape. He was also named as one of the 25 most influential people in mountain biking by Mountain Biking Action magazine in 2011, for his unwavering drive to innovate, his influence on the development of mountain bikes, and the quality of his products.
Mountain bikes equipped with Stan’s NoTubes products have been ridden to an Olympic gold medal victory (by German XC star Sabine Spitz in Beijing in 2008) and have won many epic races including the TransAlp Challenge, TransRockies Challenge, and La Ruta de los Conquistadores, often described as the toughest mountain bike race on the planet.