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Wifes bike has tubeless tyres with sealant. I'm old school and have inners and therfore no experience of tubeless!
I've never added any more sealant since we got the bike (a few years ago).
Do i just add the required ammount and let is slush around with the old sealant still in the tyre or should i remove the tyres and scrape out the old stuff? Im not even sure what state the old sealant will be in as shes not had a puncture that we are aware off.
Ive got a normal track pump and im concerned that if i remove the tyres to clean out, i might not be able to easily re-inflate at home as i believe i need a pump with a booster chamber, or is this just marketing?
There probably isn't any liquid sealant left in the tyre as it just drys out.
I would remove the valve core and then you can put the sealant through the valve stem before replacing the core and inflating.
You can buy an injector but I just use one of these and keep the bottle for next time.
After a few years it's almost guaranteed that the old sealant has dried out. As you're not experienced with tubeless tyres, removing the tyre will just create more hassle if you can't easily get it back on. I would remove the valve core and squirt some more sealant in. You can buy an injector or just use a narrow tip syringe otherwise Stan's do a small bottle that can poke into the valve core.
Road or MTB? Existing sealant has probably all dried out and if the tyres still have plenty of life in them and aren’t losing pressure significantly then you could just add more sealant. Best way is through the valve core as others have said, via a syringe with a bit of tubing that will fit over the valve. Practically zero mess that way.
Thanks for the responses. Sorry, should have said it was a mountain bike.
I'll get a valve core remover, new sealant and a syringe.
Going to have to get used to tubeless as daughter has a new bike incoming which we are going to convert to tubeless either by dealer or i save some cash and do it myself.
One bit of advice of offer is that to get the sealant distributed well, take the bike for a bit of a ride once the tyre is inflated.
Never done it previously. I've just done the 'spin the wheel and give it a wobble' method I've watched on YouTube.
I got that advice from a post on here, and it worked nicely. Don't be worried if the tyre deflates overnight, just pump it up again and have another little ride.
Oh, and I always put more sealant in than recommended. By about 50%.
Also, I've always been lucky enough to get my tyres seated with a track pump, but I got an airshot for Christmas, and it makes life much, much easier when changing tyres.
If you can't remove the valve cores then pop only a short section of bead off. Reseating will be easier than a complete pop off the bead job.
Don't be surprised if you have to top up the tyre with air a couple of times after if you broke the seal.
Second both that you should use 50% more sealant than the bottle says for the tyre size and that there's no better way to spread the sealant than a bit of a pedal about.
Just out of interest, is there a genuine reason why you should put more than the recommended amount in? Surely if that was better the manufacturer’s recommended amount would be more, after all it would mean more sealant sales!
@oceanskipper - given the different sizes of tyre, 27.5 and 29 and 700c, and widths skinny gravel tyres to 2.6 (or more!) the amount of fluid is probably a bit of guesswork. Never seen a tyre size vs fluid amount chart anywhere, but there probably is one on the bits of paper that come with the fluid that I rarely read. 🙂
I use Stan's and they recommend 4 fluid oz per tyre, but I usually put in a splash more for luck, after all you can lose a bit as the tyre seals and had what seems quite lot spray out when a puncture seals. Better to have a little more than a little less I think.