Putting a new Maxxis Assegai on the front of my E Bike, after a monumental battle to remove the old Butcher where the bead had glued itself to part of the rim tape I thought it would be plain sailing 🤔 Hah ! Tyre on and seated all's well with the world . Had a look yesterday morning , flat ! Decided it was probably a dodgy valve , scrounged one from my mate all sorted did a 11 mile mixed ride yesterday put the bike away fine .
This morning off to the Quantocks being picked up early checked bike tyre flat again 🙄 As I didn't want any faff pumped it up left it and took my hardtail instead . Just got home from 15 miles huffing and puffing, tyres still up , ho hum!
Tubeless is great on the whole it's just sometimes things happen that make no logical sense !
All new rim tape , new valve and new tyre yet the part worn Magic Mary I borrowed for the back went up first time and has stayed up?
It can depend on the tyre. I've had some that hold air, even without sealant, from the off & others that that loose air consistently and take several days of sealing before they work.
A good example would be Vitoria Terreno XCs. In 'all black' TNT they held air straight away, whilst the same tyre in amber walled TLR flavour would be flat as a pancake the next morning (and continued to loose air for several days). It took lots of sloshing the sealant about to seal the sidewalls over a few days. Once they had sealed they were fine.
I've had some tubeless related misery lately with a new Specialized and Butcher tyres.
Switched to Kryptotal's and normal service has resumed.
Ive had nothing but misery from attempts at tubeless, most recently Butcher and Rocket Ron
you really need to ride them to be "sure" of a good seal. Just pumping, even with waggling, doesn't really do it
Tyre on and seated all's well with the world . Had a look yesterday morning , flat
It's the mistake everyone seems to make, yes it goes up, pops on the bead and you spin the wheel a few timesand all is good.....then you put it away.
Always, always take it for a couple of spins around the block. (especially if you have riding plans the next day) Nothing disperses the sealant better than a ride. Just local so in the event of a catastrophe You're near home but12+ years of using tubeless that has never happened
@rocketdog that's exactly what I did , local 11 mile ride on Saturday flat on Sunday, it's in my post .
Flat again this morning 🙄 bead still in place , more investigation later I guess , deep joy 🙄
Lifted tape/damaged tape when replacing tyre then I reckon
It'll be the tape, I had similar with a new set of hope wheels. Even though I cleaned the rims properly the supplied tape didn't seem to stick that well when applying, but went up ok and thought all was good, but had the same issues where they would slowly leak air. I eventually retaped them and no issues at all since.
The mystery undetectable go-flat tends to prompt one of two things with me. If I'm feeling lazy it is the whack more sealant in through the valve stem and try again approach. If not, it is strip the whole thing down and start again. I feel loathe to waste more sealant if I'm chasing a lost cause and I don’t like the notion of sealant being required for the initial seal. But recently I had a devil of a job getting my winter tyre (used last year) back and and sealed. In the end it seems to be the sidewalls losing air, so more sealant actually was the answer.
The trouble is that there are so many variables. Having an Airshot at least allows relatively quick and easy re-inflation if numerous attempts are needed.
You have my sympathy.
I'm having one of my worst tubeless experiences at the moment. I've built up 2 new wheels with the same type of new rim. I'm having real difficulty getting the bead of the tyre to stay in the rim after I deflate them to put sealant in. On inflation the tyres look to push fully in place but there is no "pop" so they don't stay locked in. On the front I put about 5 wraps of tape in and finally got a pop and the tyre has stayed in place. I think I'm on about 6 wraps on the rear and no joy at all. I've tried about 5 different tyres!
Any thoughts from the vast STW experience?
As I said , new tape , put on at the same time as the rear , that's still fine with a part used Magic Mary . Going to try putting some more sealant in , pump it up and ride it .
That's the point I was trying to make, that mine was new tape too, the rear had no issues but the front did until I retaped it. Sometimes it just doesn't stick down properly or when you fit the tyre you damage/move the tape.
@muggomagic yeah I'll check it out as well.
On inflation the tyres look to push fully in place but there is no "pop" so they don't stay locked in.
The (ridiculously tight) Kryptotal DH that I recently fitted to Roval carbon rims did this - the wire bead just forced itself back into the channel. Still, they pumped up ok and stayed up.
Having resisted tubeless forever, I'm a recent convert and have been lucky so far. Two sets of Hutchinson Griffus - one set on NP Horizon Pro alloys and one on Hunt Proven Carbon Trail went up straight away and stayed up.
The Kryptotals I mentioned, I had to retape the rear due to a spoke replacement. I gave up with tape that didn't want to stick and went with insulation tape and gaffer tape - so far so good
Sometimes it just doesn't stick down properly
It may not be popular any more but I always put a tube in overnight to get the tape properly stuck
Some rim & tyre combinations are just cursed - no amount of goat sacrifices will help.
After the first fill of air I always squirt everything with soapy water so I can see where air is leaking out. Spoke holes is bad tape job, beading is often tyre defects, rim defects or dirt causing it to not seat tightly enough, valve hole is always tape/valve seating related and I usually dribble some sealant around the outside of the valve to trickle down and seal up the tiny gaps between the valve and tape which once done usually lasts until the next time you have the valve out.
I always pump up to 40-45 psi after the first fill as well though, tip I got from my LBS that seems to help
Sometimes it just doesn't stick down properly
It may not be popular any more but I always put a tube in overnight to get the tape properly stuck
I was just going to ask that. It's something I've never done in all my years of using tubeless (about 15 years). I do sometimes get a tyre that goes soft occasionally, but it isn't a major issue as I just pump it up before going out. I've often wondered whether using a tube to make sure the tape is super stuck would solve that.
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It may not be popular any more but I always put a tube in overnight to get the tape properly stuck
I did this and the tubes still in there 3 months later!! haha - i cant be arsed with teh faff
My first suspect is always the valve. It's the obvious place that air can leak.
Why not use water to detect the leak? 13 years of hassle free tubeless. Perhaps I was lucky. But there are a few steps that make life easier, all of which mentioned in different posts in this thread. You can't skip any if those steps though. Also Tesa tape helps, so cheap you can have a new one every time if need be.
Lifted tape/damaged tape when replacing tyre then I reckon
This is the bane of my life with my wheels.
Seems to happen almost every time I swap a tyre over now. Especially when it's been welded to the rim, as in the OP.
Bring back UST!
Bring back UST!
The mavic crossmax on my Mondraker Raze are UST, so they are still making them. They've been bloody good wheels so far too.
ive been wrestling with a tyre that just wouldnt seat on one side. always ended up going down, always had hop on one side showing it hadnt "popped" up.
got annoyed at it over the weekend, so set my battery inflator to 100psi, turned it on and hid in the house waiting for a big bang.
seems to have gone up this time.
Well this is timely... I've just spent a couple of hours fighting tubeless during a 'quick top up'. The rear was fine. I broke the bead, splashed in some jizz, wanged up the compressor and it took longer to write this than do (almost).
The front, jeez. Same process but it would not reseat - whatever I tried. I now had a load of fresh jizz in a non sealing tyre which is always messy. Full clean out and repeat, no joy. Retaped and repeat, no joy. Just hours of pissing about. Then for no apparent reason, it seated. It's at 70psi now to fully seat before I add the jizz - via the valve this time. Just in case.
Always do the water test , 👍 brand new valve 👍squirted some more jazz in this morning and did a local ride . Still up ATM 🤞
On inflation the tyres look to push fully in place but there is no "pop" so they don't stay locked in.
...The Kryptotals I mentioned, I had to retape the rear due to a spoke replacement. I gave up with tape that didn't want to stick and went with insulation tape and gaffer tape - so far so good
When I replace a spoke I normally cut a small hole and then tape over the top again. Saves a lot of time and tape.
via the valve this time
What bizarre reason led you to not employ this method the first time?
It's normally quicker to just splosh some jizz in and give it a blast to reseat (IME). I've never had an issue with reseating before. This one was a bastard of the highest order. I think the issue was dried jizz sticking the side walls together so the tyre was losing its flexibility and ability to seat into the rim bed/hooks. That's perhaps why thorough cleaning had an effect - eventually.