Some of you will be aware that I’ve been having a struggle setting up my tubeless wheels.

Well I’ve come across my next problem. I cleaned the rims of both wheels about an hour ago with disc brake cleaner and leaf them to dry. Both are clean and ready for taping. I’ve a new roll of Stans tape but it simply won’t adhere to the rim and keeps popping off the minute I release the paper; the underside is normally tacky to the touch. What gives? I’m screwed if I can’t get the tape to stick!

As I said in your other thread, I found it a total pain in the arse.
Rub some 240 grit over the rim bed to key it, clean thoroughly with alcohol, warm tape on radiator, then pull it on reeeeeally tight.

Or just use Gorilla tape.

I have found the anodising on some rims (I’m looking at you DT Swiss 511) won’t let tape stick easily. Just give it a bit of a rub with some fine emery cloth.

I’ve found you need to exert a lot of pressure on the tape to make it stick properly, it’s not actually that adhesive until all the air is out from underneath it. Use a dry cloth around a knuckle and press firmly as you run it round the rim.

Did you heat up the rim and tape properly beforehand and during? It’s a bit of a three-handed job but you really have to stretch the tape out and wear your thumb out rubbing it into the rim bed.

As Martin said, make sure it’s warm, and stretch it on there. Leave rim and tape in house overnight, garage/bike shed cold is no good.

Everything’s warm (I’ve a hairdryer too) and I’m stretching the tape really hard but the minute I let go to move on to the next stretch it simply pops of the rim.

Are the rim and tape cold. Normally heat up the rim with Mrs Dhd’s hairdryer and have the tape in a warm place. You really have to stretch it quite tight. Then I mount the tyre with a tube in, pump up to 40ish Psi and leave it overnight, this helps the tape adhere properly. Then set it up with latex etc
” Edit” too late

“bike” disc cleaner or “motorbike” disc cleaner? I think the latter sometimes leave a residue

Tension the tape as you apply it. It doesn’t stick otherwise.

Sit with the wheel between your legs, start the tape towards you with your thumb on in and pull firmly towards you, laying it down onto the rim as you do so.

You can watch the technique here.

Watch the Stans videos, if you can’t figure it out from there take it to a bike shop.

What do you mean the release the paper? The Stans tape I’ve had is just a continual roll with no backing paper on it.

Oh wait.

Disc brake cleaner?

Leaves a residue. Clean them again with methanol or IPA. Probably need to bin the tape you tried too.

Well nothing’s working, I’ve watched the Stan’s videos as well as the Park Tools one. The Schwalbe tape stuck to a degree but then began to lift whilst the Stans tape (recommended by Hope) simply won’t stick at all despite being tacky on the back, it just drops off; I’ve heated it, stretched it, recleaned and dried the rims with no luck.

I’m not a complete novice and have built up a number of bikes over the years and would expect to do everything bar frame prep. but this has been traumatic.

I would have put it down to it being my first time with tubeless but the local bike shop has had a go (including using their own Stans Tape from stock) and failed to get in to stick; apparently they’ve never seen this before and don’t know what’s going on – they still recommend Stans as the best tape though.

In desperation I’ve left it with another bike shop further away who reckon that they can get it sort (I’m waiting to hear) but did mention that they’d seen issues before with tape not sticking to Hope rims and suggest that it’s something to do with the rim coating; this isn’t what I’d expect from a new, ‘tubeless ready’ wheelset. Fingers crossed that they can sort it out.

Oh wait.
Disc brake cleaner?
Leaves a residue. Clean them again with methanol or IPA. Probably need to bin the tape you tried too.

Asked about this on here and was told that it was great stuff to use; assumed that it didn’t leave a residue as you wouldn’t want this on discs.

I’m glad the repeated posts from various people about roughing up the surface and cleaning with IPA have been helpful :p

The thing is, not all disc brake cleaners are the same. Which one are you using specifically?

It’s just branded as Pagid and I bought it from a car repair shop (the LBS advised that there was no point buying expensive bike specific cleaner as it was all the same stuff).

A reliable way of removing oil, grease, dirt and brake fluid without leaving behind any nasty residue. Pagid brake cleaner is available….

It seems to clean my discs okay and I’ve never noticed a lack of power after using it.

Have I been badly advised?

I’m glad the repeated posts from various people about roughing up the surface and cleaning with IPA have been helpful :p

🙂 I’m not ignoring them but equally others have been equally pro Gorilla or electrical tape whilst others suggest that it’s not good stuff to use. I went with disc brake cleaner as per the previous post but that might have been a mistake and I will buy some IPA for the future. I’ve been a bit nervous about going at an expensive (for me) wheelset with wire wool or emery cloth and to be fair would expect a ‘tubeless ready’ wheelset to be ready to take tubeless tape out of the box; perhaps the LBS with do this in which case I’ll know for the next time.

As it stands I’m £100 down on tubeless kit (which to be fair will hopefully be an investment for the future) and will need to pay the LBS for parts and labour too; I’m hoping that it’ll be worth it in the long run and am trying to convince myself that I’ve made the right decision over sticking with tubes!

The data sheet for the aerosol pagid cleaner suggests not.

It does contain hexane which evaporates slowly at STP, so if you applied the tape straight away after cleaning there is a theoretical risk of a problem.

You do seem to be making a meal of this.£100 for tubeless gear? Uh, what?

I can only conclude you have duff tape or the rims aren’t clean enough.I don’t rate mechanical keying of the rim as necessary TBH.

Does electrical tape stick?

£100 down on tubeless kit

What the hell did you buy?

£100?!?

A roll of Gorilla Tape, 2 vales & some sealant is all you need.

The thin tapes IME are all junk – they don’t stick properly & they are way too easy to damage with a tyre lever when putting on and taking off tyres.

It’s really not hard – clean the rims properly, cut the GT to the right width, put it on under tension, decent overlap by the valve, cut hole, put valve in, put tyre on, fill with sealant, soapy water round bead, done.

**** a pig, for £100 I’d have driven to your house, converted them with new parts, given you all the kit for a few more wheels, and even bought my own tea. Which I’d have made in the new kettle I’d have bought, and left with profit. And good tea as well, not Aldi crap.

Keying isn’t always necessary, bits it’s the only way I could get it on to my ARCs. The other wheels I’ve tried have been fine without.

The thin tapes IME are all junk – they don’t stick properly & they are way too easy to damage with a tyre lever when putting on and taking off tyres.

Only if you’re a meathead with a tyre lever.
😉

Could well be the disc brake cleaner then, thanks for looking into that Scienceofficer; should I still be using it as a disc brake cleaner? Clearly this was my error then and I’ll buy some IPA for the future.

I don’t mean to whine at the cost, but was trying to keep it down and I’m getting myself a tad worked up and frustrated about my inability to get this sorted. A fair chunk of it went on a booster cylinder that’ll serve me well for years to come, so yes, it’s probably not a big deal in the longer term.

It looks as if I might have inadvertently screwed up (which is hardly a first) but it’ll be another string to my bow once I know what to do.

I’ve had good results with Stan’s tape, but it really doesn’t keep. I tried to do a rim a couple of months ago with some tape that was about 2 years old and I got absolutely nowhere – same kind of issues the OP is reporting. Gave up and used some Gorilla tape.

I use Tesa tape 4289 off ebay,clean rim with ipa,apply a double layer,scienceofficer’s link is good,then inflate tyre with an inner tube to 40 psi and leave it in a warm room overnight.Extra pressure from tube helps push tape into rim,and next day I pop one side off to remove tube,it’s much easier to inflate with one side already on the rim.

P.S. Ibought one of these loads in it about 5 years ago,and there’s plenty left 😀

Okay, so here’s an update which I hope might be useful to others as this tubeless thing does seem a tad hit and miss.

Firstly a big shout out (again) to Bike City in Wells who taped the rims. When I took them in and advised that I couldn’t get the tape to stick, the mechanic looked at them and said that he thought he’d have trouble my narrow tape (21mm) and often needed to use 25mm.

When I picked them up I was told that he’d given them another clean (and yes I will get some IPA) but couldn’t get the 21mm tape to work (so in addition to myself, that’s 2 bike shops that struggled) but that he had fitted 25mm tape (Stans I think). His explanation seemed to be that the Hope XC rims had a deep rim bed compared to the bead bed and that there wasn’t enough adhesion at the sides to hold the tape down against its natural inclination to flatten out. I may of got this wrong but anyway, 25mm tape worked. Apparently 25mm tape is a lot harder to apply as it has to be manipulated into place carefully but it seems to fit exactly wall to wall. I believe that a fair bit of trial and error in the past led them to using 25mm tape.

The BETO booster cylinder is a wonderful thing and make inflating the tyres incredibly easy (just a track pump gets me nowhere) and I just had to overinflate a tad with my track pump to pop the final parts of the beads into place; currently the tyres seem to be holding air without sealant added yet (just about to do this) and there’s no leaking at the valve which I had previously.

I’m annoyed that I couldn’t fit the tape myself but to mitigate my own ineptitude two bike shops failed to get the 21mm tape to work. The Hope XC rims are rated as 19.5mm internal width and I believe that the Stans site recommends tape 2mm wider than the internal width. I also checked out a Singletrack post that confirmed that 21mm tape was recommended for these rims (the mechanic also confirmed 21mm as the ‘recommended‘ width).

So, if it helps anyone out there is wrestling with Hope XC rims and 21mm tape, 25mm may be the way to go!

good result P Jay, now go ride 😀

Electrical tape works just fine – nice and cheap, just wrap round a few times.

Oh. You’re a local boy!

Enjoy the filth.

IMO it’s best to get tape wider than the rim. I think the last lot I set up it was 50mm tape on 45mm rims. The tyre bead is therefore always sealing against the tape and not the rim and you’re not going to get air escaping under the tape (except maybe at the overlap).

Who said that?

Oh yes – me. In one of your earlier threads. 😆

Glad you’re finally sorted.

good result P Jay, now go ride use your booster cylinder to spray tubeless fluid all over the kitchen

DrP’s little tip….

Wrap around the rim with thin and sticky electrical tape – i find red is fastest. This sticks nicely to the rim.
THEN…wrap the stans/yellow tape…

Works perfectly, is literally 1gm heavier, and everything sticks down nicely.

Et voila!

DrP

25mm tape on 30mm internal rims with quite a pronounced centre channel here.

Props to the bike shop. Now go ride! And forget this ever happened… Because you won’t see the inside of those rims for a long time from now on!