Road tubeless tyre angst

I got a new Sonder Colibri recently and paid for the tubeless tyre upgrade and setup.

On my first ride (!) I picked up a thorn.  I only noticed when I stopped at the mid way point of my ride, as there was sealant on the seat tube and under the saddle.  So, the sealant had done its job and prevented a puncture while I was riding.  I removed the thorn and rode home.

However, during the week, with the bike sat in the garage, I noticed that sealant continued to weep out of the hole, and the pressure would drop from 60 PSI to 50 PSI.  The tyre didn’t completely deflate, though.

I decided to plug it using a Peaty’s Holeshot plug kit.  This was a disaster, the plugs wouldn’t stay in and I’ve punched an even larger hole in my tyre now!  I thought one had taken yesterday but I’ve just checked and it has exited the tyre and the tyre is completely deflated.

Tyres are WTB Expanse TCS 60 TPI version.  I’ve ordered a replacement, but the 120 TPI SG2 puncture resistant version.

I’ve been running Hutchinson Fusion on another bike, tubeless, for years and not had these problems before!

So, I guess my question is: what did I do wrong?  Should I have just left the gently weeping tyre?  It was holding enough pressure to ride on.

Do the plug kits not work too well on road tyres?  I inflated to 60 PSI, so not super hard.

Finally, have I now completely ruined my tyre with the puncture plugs?  Could a tubeless repair patch applied from the inside now fix it?

Identical situation here. Small hole is now a big leaky one with a Dynaplug in… Cleaned a load of sealant off the bike this morning when swapping wheels. Obviously got me home as I didn’t notice at the time…

It’s still less hassle than swapping tubes (just)…

There are mushroom plugs in eBay I believe you can repair from the inside. Not tried it myself but

I’ve a new GP5000 to replace the inverse porcupine of a Pro One rear, which is some 1000s of miles old, not worn out but cut to ribbons by winter commuting glass ..hopefully less hassle to seat the bead than the Pro One or the whole lot might be for sale to be replaced by hookless rims.

take tyre off and put a large patch on the inside is what I’ve done.

I use mushrooms from the inside for permanent repairs. IME, anything that plugs from the outside can be expelled under pressure.

+1 for mushroom plugs

There are big and small ones.

I’ve had more success with bigones cut down than small ones.

Anecdotaly Peaty stuff is crap. Never used it myself, but the Finale guides with whom I’ve rode and been given it for free have not rated it.

Another successful mushroom user. Like a patch but a bit better. I only consider the anchovies and other trail repairs temporary. They have always failed eventually when that’s all I’ve done.

Just to echo the above, if you’re at home, patch it from the inside – mushroom plug or otherwise. Loads cheaper than a dynaplug insert, too.

For smallish holes which nearly seal, I normally find just topping up with sealant and riding on it sorts them eventually. Sometimes takes two or three rides.

Thanks everyone. I’ll get some mushrooms to see if I can resurrect the tyre.

I’ve been running Stans sealant on my other bike. The Sonder came with Peaty’s in it, so that is what I have been using to top up. Maybe it’s not as good as Stans?

I never found it particularly good on road, decent on the MTB with lower pressure but totally useless on my road bike.

Been a stans user for years and fine, the ordinary stuff.

Tried peatys, hated it, rubbish, couldn’t get it to seal small holes, gave up and gone back to trusty stans.

I had a puncture that sealed but kept opening up again. I thought it was lots of punctures but then I realised it was the same one.  On a ride it got bad then I remembered I had anchovies, so I put one in and it was fine.  When I got home I put a patch on the inside and it was fine for a few thousand miles more til it wore out.

Stan’s, btw – and I’ve been told to use Stan’s Race in road tyres because it’s more difficult to seal tyres at road pressures.

I stopped using road tubeless last year after 5 years of running tubeless on my road bikes

Got fed up of the mess it made of the road bike and my expensive road bike clothes everytime it got a hole too big to seal, used to plug the hole with a dynaplug until i got home and then went through the faff of removing the tyre, scopping out the sealant, cleaning the tyre, fitting a mushroom plug, refilling with used sealant (plus topping up what id lost) and getting the tyre to seal again

Now just run tubes on my road bikes, get a puncture? no problem, fit a new tube without needing tyre levers (i run tube only tyres) put punctured tube in back pocket to repair when i get home and then once repaired strap to the bike to replace the one i used (also carry some sticky patches in case of more than one puncture on a ride)

Tubeless is great on Mtb’s but not so much for road bikes imo

Ran over a broach last week and the tine from the  clasp got embedded in the tyre. Removed it, slight pfft of sealant, rotated wheel so hole was at the bottom and waited a few seconds. Done. Couldn’t find the exact hole in amongst all the glass cuts etc already on the tyre when I got home so just left it. Still holding air a week later. Stans normal sealant on a road tyre at 68psi.

I just gave up with it this week too.  Same experience as OP, seemed to seal when first happened, great on second ride, started leaking sealant on third ride, tried anchovy thing (didn’t realise they don’t really work at 80PSI) which made it worse.

Replaced tyre as fancied lighter tyre anyway, would not stay up and found a few leaks from spoke holes so cleaned and retaped and still leaking so basically just gave up with it and put a tube in.

I don’t find I get many punctures on the road (before tubeless I was using Pro4 Endurance with tubes for 6 months and never got a puncture) and I think the puncture I had was the only one in 6 months (all through winter) and it was such a faff and would have been easier to have replaced the tube on the road and never dealt with the hassle afterwards.

Rubber patch inside, tiny dab of super glue outside has always worked for me

I think what annoys me the most is the unnecessary cost and waste.

If a tube punctures then a new tube costs £4, assuming that you don’t just patch it.

I’ve since spent at least £100 on sealant, a repair kit that doesn’t work, a new tyre (which cost £65) and I’ll be spending another £20 on mushrooms so I don’t have to consign a one ride old tyre to the bin!

Different experiences here. And as I’m big and heavy the tyres go up to 85 or occasionally 90ish PSI – depending on the width and the road surface.

I find Dynaplugs pretty much permanent.
Mushroom kits are available from around £5 not £20 – google “bicycle tyre repair mushroom”.

If the sealant has sealed round a thorn, leave it alone.

In my world of hawthorn hedges inner tubes used to go all the time – tubeless doesn’t.
And you can’t carry enough spare tubes on some rides.
Tube repair kits struggle on skinny tubes at the side of the road – better in a warm dry garage.

Except GravelKing tubeless – slick or otherwise, they are just rubbish.

One way to fix a tyre long term is to clean the hole/cut area with meths then use a bit of superglue powerflex to seal it closed. The sealant will do the rest.

Stick some glitter in the peatys. Might help a bit

Peatys is rubbish on road despite what the reviews say. It also has loads of “platelets” in it already so not sure glitter would help. I was running my road at 70psi, two rides where punctures didn’t seal and I had to put a tube in as couldn’t get the anchovie to work either. This came with the associated faff of sealant everywhere and taking ages. I understand dynaplug are supposed to be better and I suspect this is all down to used error.

In the end have gone back to tubes with Specialized Roubaix Pro tyres. All good here and I know where I stand with tubes. I know they feel different but after a ride you get used to it and forget what it was like before

Rather than starting a thread, I wonder if there are any forumites using tubeless on their road bike, weighing around 95Kg…

Currently I run a 25mm Gp5000 on the front at ~85PSI, with a 32mm on the rear at 85-90PSI, with latex tubes. Bike is a pretty upright “58cm” Cube Attain GTC, so lots of weight on rear wheel.

What sort of pressure are those of you running on tubeless road setup, with what width tyres?

At 80kg(ish) running g Goodyear Eagle F1 tubeless their online calculator was saying 66 front 71 rear for 28s in dry conditions. May obviously vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but I thought it was a pretty good resource anyway, albeit it was running those pressures I had the above issues so who knows… Not sure if continental has something similar

Tire Pressure Calculator

Wow, night and day…. GP5000S TR went on with thumbs, bead popped with airshot, appears to have sealed immediately.

Will leave for a bit and add sealant.

Of more concern is the rear rim sounds like it has bits of sand/gravel inside… Presumably I’ll need to remove the rim tape to expose the spoke holes and let it out? How has it got in?

GP5000S TR went on with thumbs, bead popped with airshot, appears to have sealed immediately.

This was also my experience. And Ofthegoat I am 90kg running 700c 30mm tubeless on 21mm internal rim width at 68ish psi.

Thanks for the input, as a non-subber I cannot use the forum like facility.

On my mtb i had a small flint cut in. Sealant every where but it sealed enough to let me pump it up and get home

The flint looked unstable so i pulled it out. This left a hole too big to seal. So i cut a bit of inner tube into a thin strip. I pushed this into the hole with a small screw driver. I think it was wedge shaped and i went from the inside. I topped up the sealant and pumped it up. Once i was sure it had sealed i trimed the rubber on the outside

I realise that mtb is far easier to sort. But in the end the anchovies and mushrooms are just bits of rubber?

Rather than starting a thread, I wonder if there are any forumites using tubeless on their road bike, weighing around 95Kg…

Currently I run a 25mm Gp5000 on the front at ~85PSI, with a 32mm on the rear at 85-90PSI, with latex tubes. Bike is a pretty upright “58cm” Cube Attain GTC, so lots of weight on rear wheel.

What sort of pressure are those of you running on tubeless road setup, with what width tyres?

I’m surprised you need anything like those pressures, even tubed. I’m 120kg, and run 32c GP5000S TR at 78psi rear and 74psi front, now tubeless but previously with latex tubes in normal GP5000 32c.

@ampthill, Good call, I keep a few different width precut strips of inner tube for exactly that use. Fixed a few tyre holes with them mid ride when I was in the flinty Chilterns.

95 kg here. I’ve run 32 mm GP5000 tubeless on the road bike for the last year at 65 psi front, 75 psi rear, mostly on some pretty terrible Manchester/Derbyshire road surfaces. One major puncture which sealed itself in about 2500 miles.