Going tubeless - Getting there

Hodders

Hodders

Hodders

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Riding my bike
Last winter I put some sealant into both my inner tubes by removing the valve body. Brilliant, no punctures for ages.

Out on a ride today and I got a puncture - no biggy.

Hoped it would seal but no joy, tyre was slowly going down.

Took the tube out and found a razor sharp flint shard was the culprit, also found 3 other thorns that had sealed fine. Checked the tyre for thorns and fitted my spare inner tube.

Which got me to thinking - had I been able to find and remove the flint shard, the tyre would have sealed. Even tubeless, the worst case would be what I did today anyway.

So, I want to go tubeless. My wheels are tubeless ready as are my tyres. So my questions:

1) I will need rim tape and new tubeless valves (I've got sealant). Does using old inner tube valves (plus a bit of inner tube left attached) actually work?

2) Will the fact that my tyres have already got some puncture holes matter at all? I don't think they have any big punctures, would a puncture repair patch bond to the inside of the tyre?

3) I have a floor pump, but not one with a reservoir. Does the 4 litre fizzy pop bottle hack work, or is it easier just to buy a pump up reservoir?

4) Any suggestions on brands of rim tape and valves?

Cheer all....
 
My rims are marked TR. There is some kind of rim tape, will if deffo be tubeless (given the TR label) or will it just be the usual covering tape all rims have?

Is there any way of telling for sure?
 
It's a smooth tape like insulating tape - I'm guessing it's tubeless.

Built myself a air reservoir today! Used an old helium cylinder I had from one of the kids birthdays - added some old fuel pipe and a valve. I can inflate it and use the cylinder valve to control the release. Cylinder rated for 13 bar, but is nice and big, so should easily do the job at less pressure....

Got another length of fuel pipe to connect the reservoir to the valve on the wheel.

Tires turning up on Monday.....

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I can put 80psi in the tank. I'm not going to go above the tire's rated pressure 60psi as with the tank volume it could end up over pressurising.

Looking forward to meeting around with all this....
 
Well, all the bits arrived today.

I had cleaned both rims yesterday so they were ready for the tape today.

Went with one layer of electrical tape first and then the rim tape over that. All went well nice smooth tape application. Valves fitted no problem.

Put the first tire on and went round the rims with some soapy water. Hooked up to my cylinder and got a semi satisfying crack. Quickly fitted the valve body and then pumped up to 60psi (max rating for the tire).

Repeated for the other tire. Only issue was a stubborn slow leak from the tire bead where the rim join was.

Left both for a little time and then let the air out and put the sealant in through the valve.

Pumped both back up with the track pump to 60psi and did the sealant dance. That seemed to stop the slow leak as well.

O1LWcri.jpg

Can't hear any air escaping, will check pressures tomorrow....

Fingers crossed.
 
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Well both tires had gone down from 60 to 40psi overnight.

Went for a quick 20 minute ride at lunch, will see if that has done anything.

I put about 80ml of sealant in both tires (29x2.25), so I might add a little bit more (through the valve stem) if they still go down a bit.

To be fair if they only lose pressure slowly, I can always inflate them before a ride - even on a longish 3 hour ride, the pressure won't drop that much.

Any other top tips?
 
From lunchtime today rear had gone from 40to 20 and front from 40 to 30.

Added another 80ml of sealant to both, reinflated to 60psi and shock them around again.

Let's see where we are tomorrow. Might get a bowl of water and try to see where the air is coming from if they still leak.
 
Had a look at them this morning - both down to about 25psi (from 60psi) at 10pm.

They are not going down fast enough to cause an issue riding on them, but something is still not right.

I'd be surprised if *both* valves (muc-off) had a failure, I installed the valve rings about as tight as I could do by fingers. Maybe a little more.

When I installed the rim tape, I ran a layer of electrical tape around the base channel of the rim over the spoke holes (starting just before the valve and finishing just after - so the valve area had two layers and everywhere else had one. Then did the same with the actual rim tape. As a result the valve is sitting on two layers of rim tape over two layers of elec tape.

I think I might simply pump them up this evening, go for a ride and hope splashing the sealant (Caffelatex Effetto Mariposa) around will help.
 
@robj20 Followed some gmbn video suggesting elec tape under rim tape, seemed to make sense. The rim tape I used went on clean and I checked for air bubbles etc, I then went round each rim a few times with a clean cloth making sure it was firmly seated. I was pleased with that element.

I'm optimistic that a decent ride will sort it out. There are a fair few forum threads that suggest riding on them will usually sort out slow leaks. If it doesn't I'll get a big bowl of water!

If that doesn't work, I'll use it as justification with my wife for a new bike :-)
 
Well, done about 40 miles now. Can't really say I can feel much difference.

Hoping that the puncture resistance will be worth it. Although to be fair, sealant filled inner tubes worked pretty well over the last year. Last tube I changed had 3 or 4 self sealed thorns etc.
 
Normally mid 30s. Most of the stuff I cycle on is bridleways, farm tracks and stuff. There's a lot of flint around here so I've tended to favour slightly higher pressures to add a bit of extra puncture protection.
 
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