Finally beaten by tubeless.

Perceived for 2 years.

Not by the process, but the tyre.

Schwalbe, G One, All Round.

Lots of recommendations for this tyre.

Front has wept sealant from day one. No dramatic loss, but continually ‘wet’ patches on the tread. 40 psi.

This morning one big wet patch, with sealant on the surface.

Rear, again 40 psi, always bleeding out, sealant had sprayed out over night, tyre flat, floor covered.

I have now taken both tyres off, washed them clean, examined the inside surfaces, nothing obvious there.

Over 2 sets of these tyres, this has been a regular pattern.

Finally, I cant go on like this.

Now tubes fitted.

what brand of sealant are you using ? sealant seepage is quite normal btw.

There no way you’d get me back on tubes, I can’t remember the last time I had a puncture while out riding with a tubeless setup. Stans works seamlessly for me, not tried any other brand though.

No punctures in 6 years since I switched to tubeless. Minimal to no seepage. Stans. I’m running pressures less than half yours though OP, which was another attraction of tubeless. Dunno if that could be a factor?

what brand of sealant are you using ?

+1. This is crucial imo.

And are they tan walk (tbh I don’t know if they do a tan of that tyre but I’ve had more issues with leaky tab sidewalls than black).

TBH my WTBs tan horizons have been pretty good, we have devils head thorns things here, last time I went tubes I had around 6 of em in the tyre within the first mile luckily.

I do find with the higher pressures there’s a more noticeable gradual loss of pressure if they aren’t being ridden daily.

Tubless is great when it’s all happy but It’s a right arse when you start getting problems and I have thought about using some of the protection liners that they do for tube usage as a bad tubeless configuration sucks biggly.

Scrub the inside of the tyres, always scrub the inside.
The release agent from the molds prevents the sealant wetting the inside of the tyre properly, so it will always seep through the tyre carcass, instead of wetting and setting/sealing.
The big holes will seal due to the lumps in the sealant, the small, tiny, miniscule ones are reliant on the liquid.

I’ve ran every bike tubeless for over a decade now and can honestly say I’ve never had problems at all, except for the Schwalbe G One all rounds I fitted to my gravel bike 2 years ago.

Long story short one is now in the workshop bin hardly work and the other is soon to follow…

Well.

I did write the post in a bit of a mood this morning.

Missed 2 weekends riding due to a terrible bout of what I can only think is hayfever, but which has eased off now.

So, I wrote that I fitted tube, but reading comments above I stopped, and took a closer look at the tyres.

They are 2 years old, and where the Stans sealant was coming through co-incided with what must have been a puncture that the sealant had previously sealed successfully.

Pumped the tyres up to 100 psi and sure enough a stream of Stans was ejected from these 2 locations. Yellow crayon marked.

Tyres off, emptied out the sealant, (not a lot, nowhere near what I would have put in originally),washed and dried.

Could not see anything obvious inside, but proceeded to stick a Rema Tip Top patch in place.

Re fitted, added fresh Stans and bingo, no leaks.

Conclusion

These wheels have not been used since the end of the summer ’22, and have been hung up in one position. I suspect that as the inside of the tyre has not has a continuous coating of liquid sealant, it has allowed ‘weak’ spots to fail, and allow sealant to escape.

I had been running these at 40psi. Is this too much? I am going to go down 5, to 35psi.

Only time will tell.

“Scrub the inside of the tyres, always scrub the inside.
The release agent from the molds prevents the sealant wetting the inside of the tyre properly, so it will always seep through the tyre carcass, instead of wetting and setting/sealing.”

yep, you can get rubber cleaning stuff the tyre houses use.

Also, do you top it up or change it? Or was it the same sealant for 2 years?  Apart from anything else, I think it separates out if you leave it for ages, the particles in suspension drop out and leave the thin liquid which is more prone to oozing and less adept at sealing punctures. This is less of an issue if you are using it regularly to keep everything mixed up. I also find it can go off or dry out completely to form ‘stanimals’ in prolonged warm weather.  In the past I’ve left it in for up to a year, but now I try to top up after 3 months and change after 6.

drnosh, congrats for thinking it through and making it work. Tubeless is great, there’s no way I’d go back, been at it well over 10m years now
pre tubeless, on a group ride near Brighton (maybe 7-8 riders including Mr Mint Sauce Jo Burt I think) we had 17 punctures due to thorns on one outing. Maybe the thorny hedges had been trimmed.

New tubeless tyre lasted 10 mins for me last weekend in the Cairngorms. Tyre held its pressure in transit and then when I hit the trail started weeping and wouldn’t stay up.

Put a tube in and moved on with my life.

Schwalbe, G One, All Round

How much do you want for em? They’re all I use I the gravel/commuter. Been tubeless for well over 10 years and they’re the only tyre I’ve always changed for the same when they wear out.

Was just effing and blinding earlier as my rear tyre on my road/gravel bike that has gone unused for 2.5 months was flat as and floor pump did nothing. First go of the newish airshot went tits up as the airshot was leaking. Luckily I realised it wasn’t tight enough on the big cap on the airshot and got it up to 120psi and connected up to the tyre, it did it’s thing and it sounded like it worked, put the valve core back in and tried the floor pump and still the beads were leaking air but persevered and they finally sealed up. Will see how it is in the morning and take it out for a quick test ride. Typical as I want to take it to Blackpool on our holiday on Friday.

Anyone know a good bike shop around Blackpool in case I encounter more issues? 😂

I generally don’t have a problem with tubeless, but I had to retape a wheel recently and it’s been a complete bastard. Done it three times, seemingly everything looks hunky dory, yet every time I get air gushing out of the drain holes in the rim.

When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it’s a right @&£*%{%#~!

I had been running these at 40psi. Is this too much? I am going to go down 5, to 35psi.

What size? the 35s i had i ran at around 35 psi, and i’m 90 kilos. (everything from road to packed dirt trails)
The ex runs them at a similar pressure, but she’s lighter and only runs them on road, ish.

Tubeless is right up there with one of the best changes ever on bikes for me. Only tyres I don’t run tubeless are Shalwbe Winters on the commuter on account of the wee metal spikes in them.

700×50 Clement Xplor MSOs on my gravelly bike at 35f/38r tubeless and no issues, Stans fluid, me @ 88kg. They typically lose 3-4psi over a week no matter whether they’re ridden or not.

Road tubeless on my commuter. This morning I got stabbed by a blackthorn twig that clattered away until I stopped and pulled it out.
A quick spin to seal it and on my way.
13 seconds according to my Garmin

I had loads of issues with the tubless set up on my Anthem when I first bought. A couple of holes in the rear tyre early on that wouldn’t seal, and it was a nightmare trying to get air in the tyres after changing sealant. They just would not seal quickly enough to get air in. Turns out is was the wheel/tyre combination.
Once I’d swapped to Hope Fortus wheels and Vittoria Barzo tyres it’s been like a dream. Never any issues at all.

Pressures held up overnight, been out this morning and all good.

Interesting comments about the age of the Stans.

The bottle is 2 years old, as the tyres are 2 years old. Maybe the solution has separated. I did give the bottle a good shake. Not much left in the bottle, so I will chuck that.

I will pick up a new bottle this week.

The inside of the tyre was pretty well coated with ‘dried’ Stans, but did wipe over the surface with a cloth and IPA.

Good idea above from Mudfish, to scrub a new tyre to remove any mould release agent.

All these little ideas must help.

The tyre size is 35, and at 35psi today felt comfortable over a mix of tarmac 60% / hard trail 40%. Weight here is 85 kg.

I just set up these exact tyres on my gravel bike. Had a problem with the rear losing pressure but riding it seems to have sorted that, probably forcing the sealant into every weak point in the system.
What annoyed me most though was spending all the dosh on rim tape, valves, sealant etc….starting to like the fact wee punctures are just shrugged off..
..only for a **** spoke to snap so now I have to remove the tyre,clean out the sealant,remove all the rim tape,replace the spoke and buy all the gubbins (minus the valves) again, typical !!

Edit, spoke snapped inside the nipple so spoke needs removed also.

One thing. You can sometimes get tubeless to hold air merely by adding sealant. In my book, this is not the way to do it. The best way is to have it taped and set up so it will hold air with no sealant. Nothing crazy, not overnight or anything like that, but a good 15 minutes. Then you know that the sealant you put in is only being used to seal minor installation leaks or future punctures. And sealant really struggles with gaps in tape.

I generally don’t have a problem with tubeless, but I had to retape a wheel recently and it’s been a complete bastard. Done it three times, seemingly everything looks hunky dory, yet every time I get air gushing out of the drain holes in the rim.

I went with caffelatex rim strips when I had fun and games with the tape.

I’m gutted I left a set of crank bros wheels in the U.K. can’t beat not having spoke holes tbh.

You can swap a spoke without all that faff if you can keep the nipple out of the rim, engage the threads and keep it clear enough whilst you start to tighten it.

It can feel like a three-handed job, but I can make it work most times on MTB rims.

Well here we are again.

Last Sunday, 2 ‘punctures’ one in the rear at the start of the ride and one in the front part way through the ride.

Both sealed for a short while and then just opened up again. This happened 6 or so times. When I got back the bike, oh and me, was covered in drying latex solution.

How to wash it off…..sponge down so you can see it and then wipe off with Isopropyl alcohol, then coat the bike with silicone spray again to help prevent things ‘sticking’.

Having emptied out the Stans and stripped the tyres off, and following thorough cleaning and drying,  I found that these were not punctures but a tyre failure. These ‘holes’ in the tyre are always in the centre. The positioning of these and previously repaired ‘holes’ follow the same pattern.

(I ran all winter over the same ground with tubed Maxiss tyres without 1 puncture).

This is what the defect looks like:

Plenty of tread:

Closer look, defect here:

So, lessons learnt:

Dont use cheap patches.

This looks like its OK:

Closer look, it has not stretched, the air is getting under the edge, and the Stans will eventually work its way out:

Use these patches :

Tip Top with a feather edge.

Reassembled again. Struggled with the tyre inflator on my workshop compressor. At 45psi the beads seated with a satisfying ‘click’.

I’m going to run these st 35psi, so pressurised at 1.1xWP = 40psi, for 30minutes. (sounds like a hydro test of some pressure retaining industrial equipment !)

Depressurised, removed the valve core, and filled with 60ml new,  freshly shaken and stirred Stans through the re valve stem. (No need to disturb the tyre again)

Going to buy an Airshot, or make a copy from an old fire extinguisher body.

Can you not plug that with some bacon?

You can make a tubeless inflator from a 2l pop bottle (wrapped in duct tape), two coreless valves in the lid, and a short length of plastic tube. Remove valve core, push on the tube, kink the tube, whack it up whatever pressure you dare (think I got 120psi once), then quickly unkink the tube. Boioioioioioing!

I got a puncture in my G-One tonight. Sealant wasn’t working, hole a bit too big. Opened the saddlebag to get tube out and there was my Dynaplug… ooh, found the hole, cleared the sealant away, whopped the plug in. Pumped. Rode the rest of the 15miles home. Brillz. Will leave it like that for tomorrow. 🙂

@andeh

Its not like a coventional hole where something has pierced through.

Its more like a weak point in the inner carcass, allowing air in, and then out through another weak point, again not a hole , in the outer rubber.

@drnosh

I only ever patch my tyres if it’s a big sidewall graze.  Use a tubeless repair worm and you’ll be fixed and riding before the tyre has even lost much pressure, if you hear an obvious puncture and get someone to put their finger over it, you often don’t even need to add any air!

I’ve not had much luck with vulcanising solution to stick patches to the tyre carcass itself (although I do ‘paint’ the worms with it).  There is blue cement provided in some tubeless patches that is designed to work, there is also rubber adhesive you can get but my last tube didn’t seem to like my freezing garage, and separated. I think it was Butaprem or similar on Amazon.  With the sealant in the tyre, patches need all the help they can get to stop it seeping underneath the edges.

I leave all my worms in as permanent repairs, I just trim them a few mm proud.  I only replace them if it’s a sidewall puncture and I think the tyre is weakened structurally, and then I use a mushroom patch (sold for motorbikes on Amazon)

I still carry a tube but I’ve barely ever used one in years, it’s probably the least used thing in my toolkit, even the emergency lockring remover has got more use after snapping rear spokes!  And I’ve had more luck bodging a repair with multiple plugs etc than trying to get a tyre popped back on the bead evenly when it’s got an inner tube sticking to the tacky sealant trying to stop it seating.

PS After a few years with Stans and some brief attempts with other sealants, I switched to Orange Endurance and it doesn’t cause me any hassle.

I had loads of issues with tubeless when i first bought my Anthem. It turned out that the Maxixis tyres and Giant wheel combo was just rubbish. About three months in I got a hole in the back tyre that wouldn’t seal, so I plugged it up but it never stayed up for more than a couple of rides. When taking the tyre off the rim to top up tyre sealant it was nigh impossible to get air back in once the tyre was reseated. You just could not get enough air in for the tyre to begin sealing around the rim. After a year of swaering I’ll never do tubeless again I was convinced by a mate to change wheel & tyres. I bought Hope Fortus wheels and Vittoria Barzo tyres and it’s been nothing but a dream ever since, never have any issues with anything.