Any tips to help seal a new tubeless setup?

I finally ventured into the world of tubeless. Brand new wheels and tyres, Hope 35Ws and Maxxis HR2’s.

Gorilla taped the rims, tubeless valves in. Tyres pop on a treat with the compressor. Got the recommended 100ml of fluid in there. Pumped up to 60PSI and left. This morning came to check them and they’re pretty much flat.

Have pumped them up again and given them both another good old spin to distribute the fluid. But is there anything I’m missing (other than going back to tubes!)? There are no visible leaks where I can see fluid, maybe I’ll stick them in the bath to look for bubbles, but right now I’m at a loss as to where the air is escaping from.

Any suggestions?
Cheers

Pump up tyres and take it for a ride..

Pump up tyres and take it for a ride..

+1

Helps the sealant to get to all the little pores it needs to to properly seal

Do you have a penguin?

(Old in joke is old)

Failing that second layer of tape although if you’d had them seal they shouldn’t need it really.

Pump up tyres and take it for a ride..

This.

And if that really doesn’t work, I once had the same problem with a pair of Continental Trail Kings. Scrubbing the inside of the tyre with tyre sealant and a stiff-bristled brush did the trick (sealed any micro sized holes).

Pump up the tyres, damp soapy watered cloth around the bead/rims, leave and look for fine bubbles forming. Then rotate wheel so fluid covers this spot. If you don’t see any bubbles, blame the valve not seating/being tight enough.

It’s been the valve for me initially, but I have some road tyres that won’t properly seat on my tubeless Giant rims (no popping under the bead).

I did wonder about popping them off the rim, brushing a tiny bit of sealant around the bead and then reinflating them to help the process along.
That’s me assuming that it’s the bead that’s leaking although I don’t have any proof.
I’ve got a 20 miler planned tomorrow and didn’t really want to be stopping to add air on the ride.

Take bike for a 10 minute spin this evening.. Should do the trick

Use to have that on a regular basis when we first started to go tubeless. Now I inflate the tyre till it pops and then let out the air to the desired tyre pressure usually 20 to 22 psi. I then shake the tyre in a figure of eight motion and then lay the tyre and rim on its side on a bucket for 30 mins. I then shake it again and lay it on the other side for 30mins. Never had a problem with one after following the process.

I use a similar technique to Tracey: after inflating the tyre I hold it almost horizontal in front of me, with a slight downward incline towards me, so the sealant sits at my end of the tyre. Then shake the whole wheel forwards/backwards, tipping the far end up and down (does that make sense?). Shake a few times, then rotate about 1/8 turn in your hands and repeat the shake. When you’ve gone round once, flip the wheel over and repeat. This ensures sealant covers pretty much every part of the tyre and rim, sealing any holes.

Usually fixes any leaks. But the valve seating is, in my experience, the most common problem. I use a dab of rubber solution in the split I make for the valve nowadays to help seal it.

No better fix than a quick ride, 5 minutes seems to be all it takes to get them most of the way there, then 1 or 2 proper rides settles pretty much anything (if it’s not airtight after that, it never will be). I don’t expect my tyres to say up til they’ve been ridden in.

Remember going down overnight isn’t a problem- you don’t want it to be like that always but for that first ride it only has to stay up for a few hours.

I always find it happens with new tyres, takes a couple of inflations before they don’t lose any air. Ride might help distribute as others have said.

Sounds like a faff. Not sure I want to give up on tubes despite the benefits of tubeless.

As above. I always find that a proper ride out does the trick if a new tubeless setup leaks.

Sounds like a faff. Not sure I want to give up on tubes despite the benefits of tubeless.

Faff is changing a tube in the dark, rain and or freezing cold. Tubeless has a few little quirks but is simple really..

Oh I am sure I’ll eventually convert but you know resistance to change, fear of the unknown etc…

Faff in the garage > faff on the hill.

I always think of my long history with tubeless when i see a post like that.

Sometimes it is a total shit (won’t seal, tight beads, leaky sidewalls etc.)
– this pretty much exclusively occurs AT HOME

I have only have to put a tube into a tubeless system once or twice a year at most.
– this job sucks as there is green gunk everywhere and on UST rims the tyre never sits that well with a tube in.

When i remove a tubeless tyre (I’m a fit and forget person) i usually find a dozen or more brambles, little bits of debris etc that would have flattened a tubed tyre. The law of puncture states that 93.4% of punctures occur when it’s lashing it down, cold and of those 64% happen when it is dark too and never at home.

You’ve got the best tips above. If it’s still leaky there is always the ghetto tube method, which as a lard ass i find quite reliable.

+1 short bumpy ride. Plus shake and level bucket trick from above.

I always put double the amount of sealant in, but then i tend to only ever top-up about once a year anyway once I’ve gotten rid of the stanimal that inevitably forms 🙂

Do you have a penguin?

I got mine from Oliver’s Yes-Penguins before Picolax was even invented. DPM plastic sheeting, some Picolax, jumpers for goalposts, a few happy penguins. All sorted.

🙂

nickfrog – Member
Sounds like a faff. Not sure I want to give up on tubes despite the benefits of tubeless.

nickfrog – Member
Oh I am sure I’ll eventually convert but you know resistance to change, fear of the unknown etc…

and remember, most people only post about problems so it’s very unrepresentative of the general useage.

Ride normally sorts it, failing that you need to work out where it’s leaking from. If you havn’t got the rim taped properly it could easily be that (top tip was you should be just breaking a sweat getting the tape wrapped tight on the rim. Is the Valve in properly and locked in? – Sealant won’t sit on the valve area so might not leak from there to identify the problem.

When they go flat are they on the bead still?

Was it childish to snigger at Northwinds second paragraph…it’s straight out of Carry on Tubeless.

I’ve only ever given up on one set up, & that was because a planned ride was looming. It was a ghetto, on a very old set of paper thin Smallblock8’s, on some old (cheap) rim brake wheels.

As above though really, they need riding to flex the tyre in its natural way.

And I’ve never got on with gorilla tape.
I just split a tube & use that method. Once the tyre is back on they inflate instantly, with a hand pump if needed.
I always leave plenty of tube sticking out when trimming as it’s a bit of extra rim protection.

After dealing with a very hard-to-seal tyre a few years ago this is what I always do now. Probably unnecessary for most tyres, but I know it’ll be totally sealed doing this.

– Sealant in
– Inflate until bead sits properly
– Reduce to 35psi
– Hold wheel vertically and shake, rotate a little, repeat until you’ve gone all the way around the wheel
– Sit flat for 15 minutes on a bucket or big saucepan
– Repeat shake & rotate
– Sit flat on other side for 15 minutes

The extra steps:

– Shake & rotate again
– Sit wheel on the ground with a small weight at the valve stem so that the wheel is at a slight angle
– Set repeat timer for 5 minutes
– Move weight 1/8 of the way around the rim (4 spokes)
– Wait another 5 minutes
– Repeat all the way around the rim
– Shake & rotate again
– Repeat with the wheel the other side up

As the weight moves around the sealant pools over the entire sidewall which is the tricky part to seal on some tyres. Overkill a lot of the time and it takes 1.5 hours, but it’s what it took to get one pesky tyre sorted for me in the past and it’s easy to have this process going on while working at my desk and just move the weight every 5 minutes when the timer goes off. A little soapy water on the side of the tyre that’s facing up is good check for leaks on that side while the downward facing side is getting the sealant treatment.

The law of puncture states that 93.4% of punctures occur when it’s lashing it down, cold and of those 64% happen when it is dark too and never at home.

100% science fact!

Unless you ensure you get sealant on the sidewall and bead/rim interface, fresh tyres are likely to lose significant pressure overnight or go flat.

Generally, the lighter the tyre, the thinner the sidewall and the more important it is.

Shaking the tyre systematically (Stan’s have a video of this)? or taking it on a short but bumpy ride should do the job. Resting it on a bucket will do part of the job (sealant won’t reach the bead).

Everything else is pointless, excessively complicated effort.

I’ve found it’s rarely the valve, but these days I used a designed product rather than stealing from old inner tubes.