Morning! I’ve got my first tubeless failure after riding my Whyte 129 for over a year. Squidgy rear tyre at the end of last night’s ride, pumped up but squidgy again after a pint, and flat this morning. I can’t find any evidence of a hole or tear in the tyre, or any obvious rim damage, having taken it off the rim today.
Is the sealant likely to be beyond it’s effective life? I’ve never put sealant in since I bought the bike, which came set up tubeless for me, and have never changed the tyre so this tubeless malarkey is a bit of a dark art for me.
Is the sealant likely to be beyond it’s effective life?
That would be my guess.
Probably needs the sealant replacing after that long, likely only a small hole somewhere but the sealant isn't working.
So, next q, sealant recommendations please, and best way to get rid of the old stuff? Sorry- clueless with tubeless!
If there's no obvious sounds of sloshing, it could be the sealant had dried up.
Take the valve core out and inject some more sealant in.Refit valve core, pump up and slosh around, should find and plug the leak.
Maybe check where you got the bike from as to which sealant they use to set up with, good chance its Stans.
Some brands don't like if you mix with others.
As per peaski.... .just lob some in through valve core hole.... pump it up, away you go.
You'll need a syringe obviously... Ebay is your friend.
I've used Stans which works really well. Only issue I've ever had is over time the clogging particles stick together to form a solid lump which rattles within the tyre. You then need to dismount 1 side to pull it out.
Had one almost as big as my fist come out of a fatbike tyre.
Currently using Effetto Caffelatex. Still sloshing around in a fatbike tyre from January with no top ups.
How effective at sealing punctures I couldn't say as so far I've not seen any
Even the best sealants on the market tend to last 6-8 months max, I suppose your tyre is dry inside. Add sealant, put some air, spin your wheel and see what happens 😉
There shouldn't be any such thing as a slow puncture if sealant's doing it's job. Then again it could be a sidewall, or valve leakage...
You could always pump the tyre up and try the old method of sticking it in a bath of water until you can see where the air is coming out. Then remove the tyre and patch in the inside (or other plug method if desired.)
the tape can lift up over time too, the only way to guarantee effectiveness is to take the tyre off, inspect it, strip off the tape and redo it all,
personally i'd bung some more sealant in and see how it goes.. :0)
make sure you use the same sealant as mixing different brands (effective ingredients) may not work well
Thanks all, some Stans from KMB and a bit of swearing getting the bead re-seated seems to have done the trick. Found a tiny hole that wasn’t sealing with the old jizz but all good now.
It's worth topping up sealant about every 6months and replacing valves every year or so too.
Eventually the screw threads on the valve (presta) gum up with sealant and you find you've accidentally unscrewed the valve core instead. This only happens on a cold wet night when you quickly dropped off the back of a group to top up a squashy tyre in an area you don't know so well...
^^^ or just unscrew the cores and give them a wee scrub in hot water, good as new.
