Popped across to my friends house to mount up my tyres on the tried and tested ghetto tubeless system (gorilla tape and old inner tube valves…) and for some reason, this time they’re really slowly leaking air. I’ve wet all the tyres to try see where it’s coming from and it looks like the bead…

I’ve ran ghetto tubeless before without any issues, but this time can’t seem to get them to seal properly. Overnight they’re losing about 15-20 psi.

Any thoughts about how to stop/slow it down? Wondering if trying to get sealant on the rim hook before hand might try curb it a little… but as they’re currently inflated… I’m a little hesitant to let all the air out!

more sealant and roll the tyre round to get the sealant on the bead.

more sealant normally does it. i put double the recommended stand dose in to get one sealed once. you could probably lose a bit after it sealed up if you wanted to

Bit more sealant and go for a ride.

Well that sounds pretty conclusive at least… Just means I gotta try get a bit of the tyre off the bead without ‘hopefully’ dismounting the whole thing!

Once the sealants in and it’s pumped up. I hold the wheel horizontally and kinda shake it about a bit. Put on the floor and spin and repeat. Usually gets the sealant around the rim.

Fundamentally though, you’re trying to polish a turd.

Fundamentally though, you’re trying to polish a turd.

My ghetto setup has been fine – it can go months without pumping up. I’ve just had to replace the sealant in one tyre after two years!

Yeah I get that… I’m taking something essentially not intended to work tubeless, both rims and tyres, and trying to get them to work in a way they weren’t designed for…

That being said, I’ve got another set of wheels that I set up ghetto tubeless ages ago (funnly enough… exactly the same rims) and they seem to lose a bit of pressure down to about 25psi then don’t lose any more and they’ve been like that for almost a year and through winter.

Just seems like I’ve done something different this time.

I’ve found that I’ve got better at getting the tyre on the rim properly to mount up a proper tubeless setup, and I translated that over to the ghetto tubeless and they inflated VERY easily with a compressor. Wondered if all the struggling I did last time got the sealant in all the nooks and crannies whereas this time it inflated straight away so the juice is all where it ‘should’ be

Are the tyres brand new?

Ive had UST tyres which I’ve somehow damaged the bead on during riding that did exactly the same afterwards.

On the last one the fault when I finaly gave up trying to fix it looks like someone has shaved the edge wth a razor and taken about a half a mm of rubber off in an inch ish long strip (which is still attahed at one end, were it not i wouldn’t have found it), refuses to seal now even aftr my best attempts at fixing it. Still no idea how i did it without priducing some more visible external damage to the tyre.

Maybe nicked it with a tyre lever with a sharp edge? Sound like a very weird bit of damage. The tyres are definitely not new, but two of the three tyres had been used on previously as tubeless so there’s no air escaping from the carcass at least. This morning I managed to get enough of the bead off to squeeze a bit more sealant in and get it reinflated with track pump (JUST!).

I used to hold it horizontally and shake but thought holding it vertically so the sealant pools in the bottom might spread a bit more onto the bead from shaking and rotating around. We’ll see how this one goes. It’s in a hot garage today so will check it when I’m home

Update: Success! When I got a bit of the tyre off (managing to keep one whole size in the bead) all the tyres had pretty much drank the sealant, obviously it’s been doing its job and sealing up all the small holes etc, but I either didn’t put enough in, or they just needed a top up. Haven’t got a pressure gauge on them yet, but I stuck 30psi in all the wheels and to the touch, it feels like they’re holding!

Use a syringe to put sealant in the valve (with removable core) so you don’t have to disturb the bead. To remove/check the quantity fit a narrow tube to the syringe and stand the wheel with the valve at the bottom and draw up the sealant and measure with the graduations on the syringe.

Luckily didn’t have to do all that. It was easy enough to take part of the bead off. With my tubeless wheels once I take the bead off, the whole side basically ‘explodes’ off, as these aren’t officially tubeless, I can take just a little bit off (albeit carefully). Worked a dream