Do i trust my tape?

I'd have thought a liberal application of sealant will seal whatever leaks are there - that is why it is used. So why not stick some in, get the rim coated with it and see how it goes?

I dont want to faff with the sealant mess till i know tyres are on and sorted and staying firm

er… standard procedure is whack in sealant, inflate, take it for a ride to distribute. I wouldn’t be expecting a tyre to stay up without sealant.

I normally do that…then find its gone flat again next morning!

Allergic to faff so torn on whether to do that or just quit and go strips that are heavier but go on and work first time withor without sealant. I know sealant is meant to sort the last few leaks etc but trying to avoid the mess of tyre off, preserve sealant and so on.

is a 30psi overnight loss without sealant normal? Or indicative of problems to come?

Personally I'm only happy when a set up is able to hold air without the need of sealant.

I'll save the moan of why I think having to use sticky tape is something that should of been resolved years ago and yes I do favour the mavic fore technology

Anyhow having built up an crc vitus bargain I got a pair of ns enigma rock and roll

Used some peatys tape cheap valves and they have sat inflated for over 2 weeks with magic mary hutchinson griffus only loosing 2-3 psi in that time .

I then add the sealant before it's maiden voyage

Using sealant to to plug any short comings of the fitting is only going to cause issues further down the line

I know some tyres wtb etc do require sealant to actually help seal the sidewall which I think is ridiculous but that's the only scenario where you should make allowances

Some rims can leak from the joint regardless of pinned bonded or welded and can be resolved with tape

If your loosing 30psi over night you must be able to see a bubble when submerged in water even a bubble every few seconds is enough to deflate a tyre overnight .

If it's leaking from the valve it's often not the valve that's the issue but air getting under the tape down a spoke hole and back out under the valve hole .

Imo stick to what your confident with

I’m with you on sticky tape but i guess it keeps down wheel building costs.

Think you just confirmed what i’m thinking.

Rim strips it is for my skinny wheels.

Not all tyres are properly tubeless from the word go, some hold pressure for weeks without sealant and others are more porous from new. Sealant in and you should be fine

It it’s sealing well enough to only lose 30PSI the you’ve only got some very small leaks. The whole point of sealant is to seal leaks like that that so I personally would go for it with the sealant.

If you inject it through the valve using a metal nosed syringe then you don’t need to u seat the tyre which will minimise mess. Make sure you do the Stans dance throughly and fingers crossed it’ll seal OK. Sometimes a ride is needed as well to thoroughly distribute.

I'm with the Op, not wanting to waste sealant on flawed set ups. If in doubt I add another layer of Tesa tape.

I've always used Gorilla tape on MTB wheels and never had issues, tried yellow TESA tape once and it was worse than useless. But, the easiest solution I've ever used was the Joe's Rim Strips on a pair of old Hope built 26" Mavic wheels, it just worked instantly, no faff.

I've always found Specialized tyres leak a bit through the sidewalls if left unridden for a while, particularly in the lighter carcass options.

Quite a few high end tyres have porous sidewalls, helps with the suppleness or “souplesse” and makes them more comfortable, some need a particular sealant too, Orange or Panaracer Smart Seal for example….

Which tape are you using?

I had contant issues with the tessa equivalent of Stans yellow tape on my gravel bike wheels. Couldn't get it to confirm to the rim properly & it would lift slightly letting air and sealant into the spoke holes and the air would make its way out of the valve hole.

Changing to multiple wraps of a thinner tape & blowing all the residual sealant out of the rim with an air line sorted things out and the tyres finally stayed up.

I’m starting to wonder if its tape now tesa is being mentioned. I’m using the tesa black version.  Switched to it years ago when i made the fleet tubless as 60m for the price of 10 seemed a no brainer!

On the road bikes I did have a brief spell with muc-off. Dont remember quite as much faff but I do remember road pressures plus muc-off changing recipe I got spoke hole blow outs too frequently. With their change in recipe I found sealant clogs after 2 weeks, sits in the depressions that start to form making them bigger which collects more sealant clog. 6 mths and the tape blows through.

Switched back to Tesa and the valve area never sealing was the final nail for tape so I switched to tubeless strips.

I virtually certain its the valve seal and not tape coming up as I can influence the air leakage tinkering with the valve. Even when its cranked down as much as fingers can do.

So why not let the sealant do its job? Chuck some sealant in and leave it valve down so the sealant plugs it all...then top up sealant and off you go...

2 reasons:

1) past valve experience says If its flawed at the outset then sealant wont work. The bikes parked up at work and it gets to the point I cant do a day without pumping up the tyres.
2) despite what everyone says in 10yrs of being tubeless I’ve never ever had sealant seal a puncture out on trail or road. I’m totally skeptical of it!

So many people say “should go up stay up without sealant” i don't know whether 30psi loss without sealant is indicative of sealant will sort or its not working. And redoing it after just putting in fresh sealant……total PITA.

Doubts set in and I have trust issues!  Wasted too much of my life mucking around with tubeless so tubeless strips just ordered.  I know they’re foolproof!  For a little weight penalty I’ll take that over continual mucking around and mess.

Sounds like going back to inner tubes would sort most of those concerns out.

I'm a total tubeless sceptic - despite running it for about 7 years now. I've been lucky enough not to have to repair a tyre out on the trail, but I'm sure when that happens I'll be back to tubes.

Stans sealant seems to work very well - bottle needs a real good shake before using and I've found adding it via the valve with the valve core removed easier than trying to add it before finishing getting the tyre on the rim.

I'm not a serial tyre changer so the faff of set up is once every 12 months or so, but I've got a system that works first time every time - inflated and pops on the rim and stays on the rim. I then removed the valve core, add sealant, put valve core back in and inflate. Spin the wheel round on both sides and then vertically.

Reinstall wheel and off I go...or if in the evening, leave it until morning and check it is good.

Only tyre I've had issues with was a specialized one and that appeared to fail to seal...finally discovered the rim tape was folding as tyre was going on (it was a real tight fit) so the air got under the tape...the sealant was working but it took a whole bottle of Stans before I discovered the tape folded...got it all sorted and a week later my mate decided he didn't like the tyre anyway so removed it!

@DickBarton

Despite my post I do love tubeless for puncture simplicity!

Too many sub 5c dark commutes home through a 5 ml section that just eats tyres with all the crap that gets washed onto it. Tubless is dynaplug, bit of air and go and dont even need to take gloves off!  The days of frozen fingers fighting with tight tyres and tubes to find i didnt clear all the glass or nicked the tube putting it back in to have to repeat again.

Tubeless strips all the way now I think. just the latest tyre swap brought out that irrational man feeling of “I’m not a proper man if i cant get tubeless tape set up”….

On gravel or road wheels I used electrical tape just wide enough to cover spoke holes then a run of Tesa just wide enough to cover the rim well leaving the shoulders free. Not had any issues over many wheel sets with this but rim prep and tape application are key. No residue on the rim and no air under the tape. I usually inflate and seat tyre first and add sealant via the valve. Whether it stays up without sealant depends on the sidewall and every tyre is different. The most important thing is to add sealant and then do a few laps around the block to disperse it effectively.

People's main objection to Gorilla tape is it leaving sticky residue on the wheel rim and being a pain to replace - but I've never had to replace it. It's thick so spoke holes don't affect it, it's sticky AF, and you can make a really neat hole for the valve to go through.

I usually tape up, put valves in, seat tyre, inflate with track pump, then they always lose a bit of air, but once I'm happy it seals well enough to inflate and air isn't pouring out anywhere I add sealant (Stans) via the valve and re-inflate. Then ride the bike or give the wheels a good spin and job done.

I've seen the sealant work on multiple thorn punctures, once I hear a hiss I stop and pull the thorn out then watch the sealant plug the hole or ride off and it just does it's thing.

Road tyres especially often aren't intended to be airtight without sealant. I've had some *very* leaky tyres before.

I have ditched Tesa tape for Polyimide/ heat proof tape as it's a bit more flexible, it's thin and needs 2 wraps but it's still a good price and is available in a range of widths. Seems to do the job nicely

Well to answer my own question NO I DONT!!

Effetto tubeless strips fitted - quicker than tape.

track pump - no airshot needed and my pirelli’s are holding 80psi virtually before i’ve even thought about sealant and setting correct pressure

thats the way it should be. As someone said above, why we’re we’re still having to put up with tape is beyond me. Especially given all the other “advances” and continually changing standards we have to put up with!