Tubeless help…

I’ve used a Stans conversion kit on my 721’s – the front (with a Nic) has gone on fine and sealed very quickly – only took about 10 minutes. However, the rear (with a Ralph) is being troublesome and just won’t seal. It’ll inflate and I get it to about 40psi, do the disco dance – but still it refuses to seal.

I think I may have gotten to much water in with the soap/water combo and watered the sealant down – is that possible?

Mine took a couple of rides before sealing fully…

To the extent that there were no bubbles coming out when at 40psi, but 12 hours later it would be down to 20psi…

2 rides later, holding 28-30 Psi fine.

same here, sometimes another scoop of sealant needed i find then they settle down (I have exactly the same rims and conversion kit as you)

Some tyres need a good scrub of the inner walls to remove an anti-fungal coating.

Some tyres take a week or so of shaking/topping up/inflating to seal properly.

Some tyres are just Satan’s love children!!!!

I now use either a CO2, or my ghetto compressor made from a garden sprayer to get mine inflated!

Finally, after hours of disco dancing, laying flat, more disco dancing etc it finally sealed… what an absolute ball ache.

Yes, but now it’s done, and riding them is the good part. I’ve carried a spare tube for over a year tubeless, and not needed it yet, even on very thorny natural singletrack.

This is a joke – 3 days later and it’s still not sealing. Overnight it drops to about 10psi. Pump it back up and get hissing from areas that were previously sealed.

Is this normal? Because 3 days to change a tyre might be enough to send me back to tubes.

I’m guessing this is an older tyre. The Schwalbe tubeless ready tyres from 2012 onwards are pretty much sealed straight out of the box.

Use some soapy water to identify leaks and focus your efforts of sealing those particular areas (i.e ensure the sealant in the tyre is pooled in the area of the leak)

Were the tyres previously used? Could there be some damage to the bead? Was everything nice and clean when you did the conversion?

Is it a Tubeless Ready tyre?

The tyre is about a month old, ridden a couple of times and is tubeless ready.

In parts the tyre is actually leaking through the sidewalls – only tiny pin prick type holes and the sealant isn’t even sealing those. As soon as I put some pressure in the tyre after it’s deflated they pop and start leaking again.

I have had some very old Panaracers do the same when I tried to make them tubeless. More solution in the tyre and then rest the wheel on top of a bucket so the solution can pool round the side wall. 20 mins each side worked for for the Panaracer.

Good advice^^

Did you shake the Stans bottle before using it? The latex particles sink very quickly to the bottom, leaving a solution with much less sealing power.

My EVO Nics sealed perfectly straight away, and have been faultless!!

I’ve been doing that for 3 days! The tyre is up to 2 1/2 cups of sealant.

The only option is to strip the tyre back off, clean everything down (again) and give it another go.

What Mark N said.

I have had to use a lot of Stans 4-6 scoops with a non-tubeless ready Ralph. Once inflated do the pointing downwards at 30 degrees and shaking, turn a bit then shake, repeat all the way round. Turn wheel over and repeat the whole thing again. Then have a cup of tea (time for arm recovery) and do it again both sides.

I often find that new unsealed tyres need quite a bit more Stans than is suggested.

I’ll start again this weekend and see how it goes – seriously though, it’s a major ball ache – the idea of swapping out tyres for different conditions feels like it’s a no-go. Will just stick to what I’ve got on there even if it’s not suitable.

Tyre swapping is one of the major down sides of tubeless. I sometimes swap wheels between bikes instead.

Having said that, I put a mud x on the rear of my HT at the weekend, and it was done in 5 minutes.

Once again, got home from work and the f**king thing is flat – last try tomorrow, then it all goes in the bin and back to tubes.

Put some extra fluid in and ride it like you stole it should be fine after a good ride or try different tyres I’ve just fitted 2 rubber queens bc they went up easy and have stayed up with no fluid

Once again, got home from work and the f**king thing is flat – last try tomorrow, then it all goes in the bin and back to tubes.

Just a thought, are you sure it is not leaking round the valve stem? Get some soapy water up round there and check.

I had this. I put the wheel in the bath to discover the source of leaks, and discovered a leaky valve. A little bit if ptfe tape round the valve sorted it.

And if it’s been leaking the sealant will dry out do you’ll need to put more in. I scraped out the old stuff resealed and it has held up great ever since. It’s a non tlr Racing Ralph evo too.

Just a thought… you’re not using CO2 to inflate at any stage are you? It will react with the sealant and reduce its effectiveness or stop it working at all!

Right, I’ve stuck a load more sealant in there, no CO2 has been used – one last try. Putting it in the bath to find leaks is a good idea.

What kind of pressure do you go up to when getting it to seal – 40psi?

inflate to 60-75 psi until it pops onto rim. it won’t seat if you don’t inflate to high pressure.

sit it on a bucket on its side for couple of hours, then turn it over for same time. good to go

My advice having tried ghetto tubeless before is to strip clean mount tyre leave a gap to pour latex- lots and then seat onto the rim don’t use soap as a lubricant just rub some sealant around the sticky area to help with the seal blow up to the max and spin for a while , or just go ust I just have and it’s so so easy and never burps air I’m running xc set up at 18 psi 🙂 v grippy in the snow !

Just to confirm, you did get it to seat properly on the rim (a load pop as it goes into the groove), and then drop the pressure as required.

pump to at least 60 psi until you get a nice snap, leave for 30 mins reduce to 40 leave for 30 mins reduce to what you’d use.

Schwalbe have had problems in the past, brand new set of UST nobby nice just used to blow of rims in the shed for no reason.