I'm having problems with Tubeless

Got my first set of tubeless wheels a couple of months ago, American Classic Race 29ers which come taped and with valves. I initially fitted without problem a pair of tubeless ready Rocket Rons having followed the advice on here about using a tube to get the bead seated first. Managed to get them up and on just with a track pump and plenty of Fairy Liquid.

Fast forward a few weeks of happy use without incident, I got myself a set of Maxxis Beavers for the wet months. I followed the same system as before (tube first, remove, Fairy Liquid) but just couldn’t get them to inflate. I eventually got the rear on after leaving the tube in overnight at a very high pressure, about 65psi. The front I just cant get on.

I raced yesterday, tubeless rear, tube in the front one. After about 1km, the tubeless tyre went down, I could see the remaining Fairy Liquid bubbling out through the nipples. I popped a tube in and got on my way but leaves me asking

– Given that air is now escaping through the rim, do I need to replace the rim strip? Is this unusual?

– Am I going to have to use a compressor to get the other tyre on? Is this something that a bike shop can do for me?

The Beavers are excellent tyres btw…..yesterday was hideous.

I bought a cheap compressor as it makes fitting a new tubeless tyre a 5 min job. No washing up liquid involved either.

Also, I only found tubeless to work well with Stans rims. Before, I had no end of problems with tyres burping and losing seal mid ride.

Thing is I dont really have room for a compressor and I’d rather avoid the expense.

The American Classic Race wheels have a wider rim profile than their other wheels , this makes them really difficult to inflate tubeless , once done however they should be no problem .

Not had a problem with my AC wheels with any tyre – including Maxxis. Sounds like the rim strip or, most likely, the valve is leaking on the rear. Can it be tightened?

Regarding the front, try sticking the tyre in a bucket of hot water for 10 mins before you install it. This heats the rubber making it more flexible when inflating it.

If all else fails you can always try a co2 cartridge.

have you got any sealant in there ?

Poking my nose in a bit, but mcboo how much were your wheels, are the hubs plush and durable in a British winter?

Poking my nose in a bit, but mcboo how much were your wheels, are the hubs plush and durable in a British winter?

No sealant no, not until its up. Will try heating the tyre too and yes maybe need to super tighten the valve. I guess if its not tight the air can get under the tape and out through the nipples that way. They are very new wheels and come taped from the factory so might be that.

Valves – do you find you have to replace them regularly? Mine are feeling a bit clogged up already. I’ve tried spraying some gt85 in there to try and flush out the grime but might be they aren’t letting the air pass through efficiently.

Zippykona – I got them from Burls Bikes who put it together for me and built the frame. Drop Justin Burls a line he’ll sort something out am sure.

Valves – do you find you have to replace them regularly? Mine are feeling a bit clogged up already. I’ve tried spraying some gt85 in there to try and flush out the grime but might be they aren’t letting the air pass through efficiently.

Not a problem I’ve had – try removing the cores & clean ’em that way.

I remove the valve to put the sealant in, so never had them clog up on me.

This works really well for me:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ghetto-tubeless-inflator-total-cost-9p

I could see the remaining Fairy Liquid bubbling out through the nipples. I popped a tube in and got on my way but leaves me asking
– Given that air is now escaping through the rim, do I need to replace the rim strip? Is this unusual?

This sounds like a separate problem to the one of seating the tyres. The taped rim combined with the tyre and the valve should be a sealed volume. If you can see bubbling coming through the nipples then there’s something wrong with the rim sealing. You mention earlier that it’s “come taped and with valves” but later on ask about replacing the “rim strip”. In tubeless set-ups, these are different.
On stans, there’s a yellow air tight sticky rim tape (like an improved masking tape) run around the inside of the rim. a hole can be poked through, and sealed around, this for a valve giving their lighter tubeless set up. An alternative is to use their “rim strip” which is a giant inner-tube size rubber band with a valve incorporated that is stretched around the rim and forms the airtight seal with the tyre. It’s usually used with the yellow tape already in place, almost “belt and braces” and gives a better seal with less likelihood of burping or leakage, but at a slight weight penalty. not sure from the OP whether you’re using that, but it certainly sounds like there’s a problem with the sealing of the tape or valve.

As for seating the tyres, there’s plenty of talk of people buying compressors, using ghetto, or even managing with foot pumps but nothing works better than a trip to the nearest petrol station. As long as you’ve got the schrader-presta adapter from the valve, 40p of air will seat two tyres perfectly in a minute each. have the wheel upright with the valve at the bottom and “bounce” the wheel gentle to get it started, then it all snaps into place perfectly. Add sealant later by taking the valve-core out and reinflating with a hand pump, they won’t lose their seal, then go for a qick bumpy ride as soon as possible to spread the sealant. If you do it right, you shouldn’t need to do it again till you put the R-Rs back on for spring.

Ioum, thanks…..

Rim Strip isnt what I have, the wheels came with yellow tape fitted, I just took the tyre off and washed out all the sealant and can see sealant sitting under the tape. Have removed it all and washed all the sealant out of the nipples with water. Presume I should get some fresh yellowtape on there and fit the valve nice and tight and have another go?

Yes was wondering whether I could just go round to the petrol station, will get an adaptor and do that.

Could to that I guess. Tubeless seems to depend on the tyre combo for me.

Have a UST Nobby Nic on ZTR Crest rims. Bit of a beast to get them to seat. Got a pair of Rovals which they seat and inflate on with a track pump with no problem at all. They both only have the tubeless tape on. No rim strip.

I need to buy some pretty wide rim tape, is this WTB tape the right thing? The tape I have taken out is 28mm wide, the only one that wide I can find is this……

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=66624

Maybe try a few rounds of stans tape. Put tubes in overnight to help push the tape down. Then do what you’ve already done with the fairy liquid the next day.. before adding sealant.

Stans I can only see 25mm and I need 28mm. Is that WTB the right stuff?

Tape

This worked fine in my flows

I reckon it’s the right one, but have only used the stans tape like mac linked myself.
Here’s another link to the stan’s from where I bought mine (for flows), Not to get it- but there’s a bit of explanation on fitting it (?) and choosing the thickness, worth a read. Seem’s to suggest that a bit wider is better than a bit narrower, confirming that you should probably go for the 28mm you found if that’s what your rims are.

http://www.justridingalong.com/tubeless-parts-1/rim-strips-tapes/stans-notubes-yellow-sealing-tape-21-and-25mm.html

Why are they on about fitting it with no bubbles/wrinkles? Doesn’t using 2 rounds of the tape make sure that you get a proper seal?

Rubber Queen & Mountain King II on Stands Flow with Stan’s sealant sealed first time no probs. 😀

So…..got along to the petrol station with adaptor in hand. Problem is both my local garages have those new air pumps where you pre-select the psi you want and it slowly inflates. Had absolutely no impact on a bike tyre in need of a sharp kick onto the rim. All I managed to do was snap my valves.

Anyone tried taping up the tyre and rim with masking tape? Mkight that create enough of a seal to get the tyre mounted?

Failing any other tips I think I’m going to have to buy a compressor. There’s zero chance its going to be used for any kind of DIY so with that in mind what should I get?

what about the coke bottle ghetto inflator as mentioned with a link earlier.

Or buy 100g tubes lighweight tyres and save a bit of weight.

I’m fingers and thumbs, no way I’d make a decent job of anything homemade sadly. Light wheels, light tyres…..light tubes I could do but I want to run at about 20-25psi so they wouldnt help me.

So in the end I gave up, flogged the Beavers on here and bought a single Mud-X for the back, will percevere with the old Ron on the front.

The Mud-X went straight up by the way, even on a very wide rim, didnt even need Fairy Liquid, just track pump. Noticably heavier than the Beavers but needs must.

Use the ghetto fizzy drinks bottle ‘compressor’ method – I was really struggling with a new Onza Ibex FR 2.25 tyre (120tpi) and this solved it for me ….

I used a 2 litre drink bottle.

Drilled a 6mm hole in the bottom end and inserted a presta valve from a cut inner tube – to use as the end I attach the pump to. Where you screw on the tightening ring, I made a rubber ‘washer’ from a piece of inner tube with a tiny hole in the middle – so the tightening ring formed a better seal.

I inflated this with the lid on the bottle to ensure it reached sufficient pressure and 60psi was fine.

Then drilled a 6mm hole in the bottle cap (centrally) …. and inserted another valve in that end, this time with the valve core removed as this would be the ‘exit’ end.

I had the No Tubes sealant kit which has a short length of plastic tubing off the syringe for sealant to go through, so decided to cut this tube to use. It has a handy screw on piece the other end for attachment to the valve on the wheel! [valve core removed for now]

In order to fix the tubing to the bottle-cap valve [tubing was slightly too big] I wrapped some blu-tak around the valve outer thread and squeezed the tubing over that and then zip-tied it in place – so that was air tight.

I then tested it again by crimping the tube with a set of grips [using spare inner tube rubber to protect the tubing from the metal edged grips & create a nice tight seal].

Pumped up my bottle to 70psi fine.

The tyre had already been inflated for a while with a tube in, so having taken the tube out I lubricated the tyre beads with soapy water.

Then I simply attached my bottle to the wheel valve – inflated it to 70 psi – released the grip …. and ‘wham’ up it went.

Fantastic.

I let it sit for a while to allow the tyre to sit in the rim fully.

I then used my Stans syringe to inject sealant through the valve on the rim (core was already removed).

Put the valve core back in and pumped up with my track pump, which worked fine – didn’t need the bottle that time, now the beads were in place.

Job done….

n.b. I use tubeless wheels – but to seal your rims you could try this method ….