Anyone running these? Or have experience with them?
Yep. I’ve been running mousse on the 500 for about 5yrs
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I knew RichGPT would have the answer. They seem like a good investment especially to reduce required tools.
I’ll have to research more to figure out sizing. Mounting seems… fun
(I moved this to TECH & HOW-TO)
I run mousse balls on my 501, and have fallen in love with them for the type of riding I do (think BDR style stuff). I like the mousse ball option because as they wear, you can insert another one to take up space, and just keep going.
I was initially concerned about running them on pavement connections, but Mike at Taco Moto eventually convinced me that it’s never an issue if you’re keeping it below 60-65mph (which, with dirt tires is all I do), and as long as it isn’t 100+ degrees on pavement for long periods. He said he’s seen one mousse ball tire melt in Baja at 105º running pavement for like 1.5 hours, and otherwise never any sort of catastrophic issue.
The one downside is that now when I ride my other bike, I’m worried about flats a lot more than I used to be. 
That’s how I learned about them. Watched his lengthy Tire video. Good stuff. Thanks
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Freedom feels like not bringing any tire tools on your rides.
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Ok… deep breath john… 
Do you install your own balls, or shop? And anywhere local that sells such balls?
On my Taco Moto custom, they did the first round. I imagine when it’s time to change the rear tire for the first time, I’ll borrow @Rich_Strauss’s Rabaconda and put on the Long Way series, and give it a go myself… because I reckon Long Way Round/Down/Up/Home is how long it will take me. I think you can get at least a couple of tire changes worth of life, if not 3 or 4 on a single set.
I’d probably start by calling Elite to see if they can order Mr. Wolf mousse balls, and perhaps the BCADV discount might apply?
Yeah, was going to give them a buzz. Good stuff, thx
Mousse:
- Feels different than running a tube
- Very mentally freeing to know that you WILL NOT get a flat.
- When I wore out my first pair, I kept those, bought a second pair, and now I used the 1st pair to “refresh” the 2nd pair. That is, when the current set feels flatter than new, I open up the tire, cut a wedge from my “parts mousse” and insert this wedge into the tire. Similar to pumping some air in a tire to increase the stiffness.
- My experience with mileage, pavement, etc tracks with what Gino shared. The key is to keep them lubed. I imagine the balls are the same…need to keep 'em lubed…
- Installation isn’t “that” bad with a Rabaconda or other stand. Like anything else, there’s a technique.
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Fyi. Elite can order the nitro mousse stuff.
The hack is to order a bucket of Murphy’s Tire Lube and use that to lube the mouse, the bead to ease installation, etc. I keep the bucket by the bed for date nights.
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Then why are you bringing the bucket on the BDR trip?
Jeff sells the Mr.Wolf stuff: MrWolf's Mousse Balls - Slavens Racing
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Hoping to be the Big Spoon for a change
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I’ve been running a mouse in the front of my 300’s forever. As other have said, it’s a solid piece of mind to know that you can bash away on the front and not care. In fact, I treat my 300 like a bulldozer most days.
Mouse’s do take a couple rides to break in. They are typically stiff when new and then soften up. Some people say the feel “dead” on a front wheel. I really disagree and think a wider front tire feels worse than a mouse.
If you don’t already, give “Ready to Ride Rentals” a follow on FB or instagram. He runs a T7 on most of his guided rides and recently did a lengthy post about running a mouse in the front tire of that. What he’s found and what works. Great info from a “heavy” bike and a mouse application. I C&P’ed below if you are adverse to checking him out.
3 things I learned running Mousses on Tenere 700
After 30,000 miles of Nitro mousses on my t7, I threw away my tire repair kit
No more air compressor, nor 2,000 lbs in spare tubes, levers, patch kits
Running Light weight now!
I’ve learned the parameters of mousse life expectancies on a big bike, &plan my trips accordingly to their lifespan
For gnarly singletrack dirtbike trails,
Easily 100-150 engine hrs on one set of mousses
For Rough and rugged dual sport riding
3,500 miles
(Approximately 800-1,000 miles of asphalt and 2500 miles of dirt) street sections are usually only 30-60 miles at a time
**the rear always lasts this long, the front is hit and miss. I run a 1.85 front wheel, which is big
If I ran a 1.65 front then I think the mileage would be more consistent with the front mousse
3 things l’ve learned that’ll make or break the lifespan
-1) Fit the tire to the mousse, not the mousse to the tire. if you start off undersized, it’ll greatly shorten the lifespan by 30-50% (undersized squishes too much &creates a lot of heat/friction)
If your mousse is too small for tire, avoid cutting/stuffing till you have to. Buy a smaller tire
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2) mousse can handle long 100-200 mile interstate asphalts sections non stop, but only in emergency, if you do this often,it’ll shorten the lifespan by 50% really quickly. So don’t plan your rides like this, but also know you can do it in a pinch if needed
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3) hard adv tire carcass and mousse combined are a biatch to install. I tried this for one entire mousse lifespan thinking a hard adv tire would drastically increase mousse lifespan due to the tire sidewalls helping carry the weight of the bike, not solely relying on mousse for weight support, but I only got 10% more mileage& wasn’t worth the hard labor of installing So for my long mileage trips, l use dual sport or rally race tires made for lightweight bikes, like 130/140 Tusk Dsport rear &Pirelli Scorpion Rally race tire front.
For singletrack riding I use dirtbike tires
So in summary
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Use mousses for tough, rugged ADV traveling through remote lands *the traction and bump compliance gain is MASSIVE
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Use tubes for easy, long mileage, high speed, big distances in a single day
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Great info, Scott. I always laugh at the “it feels dead” comment. Anyone who has ever done highly technical 4x4 driving knows that you air down as low as you can get, precisely to get the tires to feel dead, have the tread move as much as possible over/around rocks, and maximize traction. This is precisely what mousse and mousse balls accomplish.
I’m by no means an advanced rider (I am average as they come), but this concept seems like an easy one to grasp! As yes, the traction and compliance on my 501 has no comparison to tubed bikes I’ve owned; totally different universe.
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My Kove 450 came with mousses and it’s hard to overstate the relief I feel at not having to worry about a pinch flat, or the need to bring tire change tools. Especially since I haven’t bought any luggage for the Kove. It feels totally steady at 70mph on the highway. Now I just have the much smaller worry about cooking the mousses on extended pavement sections, and how will I know they are ruined? Sudden instability? Spontaneous combustion?
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Swing by Rich’s for your 6 month lubing.
This just popped up in my feed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fMnH3l1-dk