Just got a new bike with tubeless ready wheels (shimano mt66 & hutchinson toro tyres), and thought i’d give tubeless a go just because i could. What a nightmare trying to get the bead to take the rim – tried everything including compressors, seating 1 bead using a tube and trying to get the other to take by inflating, various straps, ranting etc. eventually managed to get the beads to sit by using a 26inch innertube inflated around the outside of the wheel to seal the tyre whilst inflating – that did the trick. However popped in the stans fluid and re-inflated only for the air and fluid to slowly seep out of the valve and spoke holes! I realise it must be leaking from the taped inside of the wheel (but it was taped from new so i didn’t think i’d have to seal it again), so i’ve got some stans tape to try and reseal it – should i remove the factory tape 1st or just tape over the top of the existing? (i’m worried that two layers of tape will reduce the already frustratingly difficult to seat bead and rim fit further). Anyone got any ideas or have i missed something really obvious i should have done originally. thanks to anyone who might be able to help.

Have you got stans tape or just normal plastic rim tape?

I’ve done a conversion which was a pain but my ‘proper’ setup was pretty easy. I used narrow gorilla tape instead of stans stuff, put the tyre on with a tube for a bit, took the tube out, poured in some sealant and then pumped it up first time.

If it’s struggling to ‘take’ then a second wrap of tape might help.

EDIT: As others have now said, if they’re UST rims then you shouldn’t need tape at all should you? I thought the rim bed was already sealed so how can sealant be leaking out by the spokes?

If your main motivation for this was giving it a go ‘just becasue you could’, then I think you’ve done that. Junk it and go back to tubes.

The tape is probably the problem, MT66’s are a UST sealed rim like a Mavic Crossmax and to go tubeless you don’t use any tape…

Did you hold the tyre onto the wheel by the valve when you were trying to inflate it? I found that made a massive difference to how easy it was to inflate. As for the tape, i would probably remove the factory stuff and re-do it with Stans or similar.

wet sponge and a good dollop of fairy liquid, get a few bubbles going and soap up the bead and rim. make sure your valve is clean and the cut in the tape around the valve is clean too.

The sealant is probably leaking through the valve hole that isn’t sealed due to the tape and then going inside the rim and out of the valve holes..
Take the tape off and refit the valves and make sure the lock ring is nipped up tight..

^ check that. And if they still don’t go up with a track pump, maybe get some different tyres. ime Shimano + DT Swiss UST wheels and the right tyres (Maxxis + Conti UST, Spesh 2bliss) go up dry with a minipump most of the time.

Ghetto split tube – never fails.

Ghetto split tube – never fails.

It’s a UST rim. You don’t need any tape or ghetto bodges, just the correct tubeless valve kit.
A UST rim and UST tyre will stay up without sealant. A tubeless ready tyre will need some sealant to coat the inside of the tyre to make it airtight,

A UST rim and UST tyre will stay up without sealant.

You’re completely right, but it’s still worth sticking some sealant in to protect against thorns etc.

(Stating the obvious a bit, but just in case…)

Deveron53 – Member
Ghetto split tube – never fails.

Promise you it does 😉

OK, RARELy fails. Not as often as UST does the ‘proper way’ though.
Why faff about for hours?
Graves uses it for racing the EWS. I’ve been using it since day 1, over 10 years ago. UST is just a bad design.

Shaving foam

Care to elobarate? 3/4 of my wheels are tubeless. Have ranged from no problem to seemingly impossible to get to inflate, requiring track pump –> compressor –> compressor + soapy water –> all the above + seat one side + lots of swearing.

I used some shaving foam to create a seal. Worked a treat.

The tape is probably the problem, MT66’s are a UST sealed rim like a Mavic Crossmax and to go tubeless you don’t use any tape…

Erm, no.

The MT66 is not a sealed UST rim, it needs tape fitted – I’ve got an MT66 29er wheelset! Mine came fitted with some white tape but I’d happily redo them with some wider Stans tape.

I have really, REALLY struggled to get tyres to seat tubelessly on the MT66’s I have, certainly in comparison to the Stans Arch EX’s I also have. In some ways I regret getting the MT66’s but I’ve got a Giant TCX SLR2 cx bike on order and will use them with that as spare wheels.

this isn’t my wheel, but a mechanic friend sent me a tip and this image. I tried it and it worked

Thanks for everyones comments. I will redo the tapes and see if it works – i have to now… its me against the wheel! househusbands post leads me to believe i’m not the only one struggling with this wheel which makes me feel much better. Anyway thanks to you all.

What Toros are they? I’ve used UST Toros for ages and they’ve been the easiest ever to seal (onto Crossmaxes).

Then again I had a similar nightmare to you with Kenda SB8s. Just would not seal so gave up and tubed em.

Gave up on my Stans Crests. But had absolutely no issues with some DT using Gorilla tape – which I thought much better than Stans tape. The biggest difference was tyres. I could not get Nobby Nics to stay seated at all. Conti X King were a breeze. I inflated the tyre with a track pump and valve core still inserted and it seated first time perfectly.

As househusband said, the MT66 are not a proper sealed UST rim, and do require Shimano supplied rubber plugs, rim tape and sticky white goo to seal the spoke holes. Its why I scoured the Interweb for the last of the MT65s instead, which were basically the sealed XT rim with a slightly cheaper hub.

To the OP, I would give some proper UST tyres a go (assuming the ones you have now are just ‘tubeless ready’) – I use Maxxis UST on both my 29er M785 wheels and 26″ MT65s, and never had an issue with seating.

I used some shaving foam to create a seal. Worked a treat

It doesn’t create a seal, it makes the rim slippery, removing the single thing that stops the tyre popping onto the rim shoulders – friction.

Washing up liquid will do the same, but by far the best is motocross tyre tube. You need only a tiny bit.

Using washing up liquid is not recommended, as it contains caustics.

Once you understand what the problem is, its pretty easy to solve.