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Fitting tubeless tyres – learn how with this simple guide

There's no need to be scared of fitting tubeless tyres; try our easy step-by step technique and you'll be rolling along tubeless in no time

Switching to tubeless tyres can be messy, but it's worth it. Here's how.

Tubeless is the biggest advance in tyre technology of the last decade. As the name suggests tubeless wheel and tyre combinations have allowed cyclists to rid themselves of the butyl inner tube. This means improved road feel and when used in conjunction with tyre sealant, fewer punctures. The system isn't as clean or easy to set up as using inner tubes, but the long term benefits to the quality of your riding are, in our opinion, well worth the added investment in time and money.

>>Read more: Road tubeless — Everything you need to know

Tools and materials

How to fit a tubeless tyre  01

Setting up a tubeless tyre and rim

How to fit a tubeless tyre  02

1 Starting with standard rims. If you're lucky enough to have undrilled tubeless-ready rims you can move on to step 9. If you're running regular rims, with drilled rim beds for spoke nipple access, you'll need to remove the tyre, tube and rim tape. Give the rim bed a thorough clean with some soapy water and possibly some degreaser depending on how icky it is. Allow to dry thoroughly.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  03

2 Applying seal tape. In order for a tubeless tyre to work, the rim must be made air tight. There are two methods to making an air tight seal. One is to use an adhesive tubeless tape like this one from DT Swiss. Line the tape up in the rim bed to one side of the valve hole, and covering the valve hole work around the rim applying the tape evening into the centre of the rim bed. Keep good tension on the tape as you go, as you're looking for a nice sung fit, with no ripples, folds or creases.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  04

3 Join the ends. As you bring the tape around to the valve hole, where you began, make a neat trim to butt the two ends of the tape up to each other. Use a sharp point to pierce a small, neat hole through the tubeless tape through the valve hole - from INSIDE the rim bed in the same direction as the valve will be fitted, other wise you will lift the tape off the rim bed and risk ruining the air tight seal.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  06

4 Fitting a one-piece rubber seal. If you're using a the type of tubeless rim tape that comes in a ready-made hoop, align the valve holes in the tape and the rim and drop a thin screwdriver through them to hold the tape and rim in position. This will allow you to fit the remainder of the tape without it creeping round the rim and its hole going out of alignment with the rim hole. Once the tape is in the rim bed, it's hard to lift out to realign.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  08

5 Keep the tape tensioned. As you work the rubberised tubeless tape around the circumference of the rim keep a steady tension on the tape which will be slightly stretchy. This will give the tape fitted a good seat in the rim bed, and give you a little extra to flex over the final section of rim wall at the end.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  07

6 Keep the tape centred. Make sure the tape is perfectly centred as it is laid down inside the rim well. This will help ensure an air tight seal of the rim bed and help the tyre bead 'find' the inner sidewall of the rim faster as you inflate. This is especially important if you're using a regular track or hand pump.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  09

7 Keep the tape tensioned. As you work around the circumference of the rim, use your thumbs to keep an even tension on the tape. It's usually slightly stretchy and can be pulled to create enough slack to pop the final bit over the outside edge of the rim sidewall. It should snap into position with a tight, positive sound.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  10

8 make sure it's smooth. When the tape is installed, go around the rim checking it's fully seated with no ripples, tucks, folds or creases where air can leak. Take a few minutes to get this right.  Use your fingers or the rounded end of a small screwdriver handle to push the tape right down hard. If, after attempting to pressurise the tyre, the fit between the tyre and rim is too loose, you might want to add another wrap (or two) of tape to build up the rim bed depth and create a tighter and more effective seal between the two items.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  11

9 Seat a bead. Time to go counter intuitive. Fit a regular inner tube into your tubeless tyre. Fit the tyre and inflate it until the tyre beads snap into place. Then deflate the tube, break the bead on one side of the tyre away from the rim and remove the inner tube. This means you already have one side of the tyre bead seated, halving the job air pressure alone will have to do.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  13

10 Fit the tubeless valve. Ensure the valve's rubber foot is properly seated into the rim well. Often they're shaped and only fit to make an effective air tight seal one way. Add the necessary rubber O ring seals (if your valve uses them) and threaded lock rings and snug them down tight to make the valve assembly air tight. Remove the valve core.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  14

11 Prepare the sealant. Draw sealant into a syringe fitted with a flexible rubber hose. This will fit over the valve stem and allow direct insertion into the tyre.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  15

12 Squeeze the sealant in. With the rubber hose fitted over the valve stem (the threaded outer will grip the inner surface and stop fluid leaking out) you can push the fluid into the tyre.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  18

13 There will be mess. Some sealant will seep out of the bead during the fluid insertion and tyre fitting inflation process. This is normal, and necessary for the sealant to fill the gaps  between the tyre and rim. Wipe it away as soon as you've made the seal and got the tyre to pressure. The sealant is sticky and can leave stains on your frame, tyres and rims. Refit the valve core.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  17

14 Spread the sealant. You can help the sealing process by giving the tyre and wheel, once prepped with sealant, a good jiggle. This moves the sealant around the entirety of the inner surface of the tyre. You can repeat this process once the tyre is inflated as well to help with the final sealing.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  12

15 Inflate the tyre. Ideally you want to get a lot of air into the tyre as quickly as possible to blow the beads into the rim quicker than air is able to escape. This is most easily achieved with a home compressor, or one of the new breed of tubeless-specific  track pumps that can be pre-loaded with a high-pressure blast of air. A standard track pump can also work, and if you've set up the system well and chosen your tubeless tyre and rim combination wisely, a hand pump can make the magic happen.

How to fit a tubeless tyre  19

16 Check the pressure. It's not uncommon for tubeless systems to lose a few psi after installation, as the sealant works to plug all the microscopic holes in the carcass and union between tyre and rim. Top up any deficit and ride; that also helps finalise the sealing process. Doing this whole process indoors, in the warm, also helps. You should find the tyre holds pressure consistently after 24 hours.

>> Read more: The full archive of road.cc maintenance articles

Add new comment

21 comments

Avatar
pablo | 3 years ago
2 likes

Very easy to do after your first one but the pump is key a crap pump will result in frustration.  I made a ghetto inflator after an hour of frustration and have since bought a real one. 

The jury was out after that first experience but since then the additional comfort (=faster) and puncture protection have won me over.  My first puncture was a thorn branch I stopped pulled it out and was greeted with a blast of air.  Oh s#&t that will never seal but I rotated the tyre to the bottom and it instantly stopped I was riding again in 30-45 seconds.  

Avatar
Hirsute | 3 years ago
0 likes

Don't know why this has popped up.

I came across 2 tips on this

Where you can't get the tire to inflate, you can use a luggage strap or roof rack strap around the tyre to get downward pressure (and also score a try) so that the air is forced sideways to push the bead on the rim.

Use silicon around the valve before seating it (although I'm not clear what the exact product is).

 

Avatar
Miller | 3 years ago
3 likes

Well,
A. Once you're used to it, setting up and maintaining tubeless becomes routine, and
B. If you want faff, how about swapping an inner tube on a rear wheel in cold and rain. Hell, on many a clubrun in fine weather I've seen people make a total hash of that. Tubeless saves you from almost all of those stops.

Avatar
Sriracha | 3 years ago
3 likes

Wow. Looking at that whole palava, anyone would think that inner tubes came along to save us from all the hassle. But you say it's actually the other way about?

Avatar
ktache replied to Sriracha | 3 years ago
2 likes

Well...

I'm not going to convert my other bikes into ghetto tubeless, but, when I was cleaning the dried gunk off the drier weather tyres before fitting them (yes, another faff) I found another 5 or more thorns that I'd not noticed before, just in the rear, all capable of puncturing a tube and ruining a ride.  I don't know if these tyres were thorn magnets, but I reckon I've pulled 20 or more from each one, never had such a thorny problem before, these were a bit lightweight, if any 3 inch tyre could ever be called lightweight, or if my present daily route is particularly thorny.  I did a lot of farm track riding in the late summer too.  All sealed, with many not even being noticable.  And a big sharks tooth flint that required (quite excitingly) an anchovie.  Most of those would have meant a trailside tube repacement and a later repair, some maybe multiple tubes needed, the flint on a very wet day.  There is  a certain smugness when you pull out an inchsworth of thorn and see the hole seal all by itself.

Avatar
baggiero | 5 years ago
2 likes

Two things:

1. Pre-inflate without sealant to seat the beads without spraying sealant everywhere if it doesn't pop...   Once it's "on", it's trivial to let it back down, inject sealant, refit valve core and inflate. 

with a *really* tight rim/bead combo (which is desireable for security of fit in the face of tyre squirm, especially after a puncture) - you may struggle to get the final bead over without using tyre levers - and i found it awfully easy to pinch the tube doing that ...

2. Fairy liquid (other washing up liquid brands are available).  A dilute (or if the tyre/rim combo is a real pig, semi-neat) application will ease the bead into place before you do (1).  Can be "flushed" out by hosing the whole thing down and pulling the hose (or the syringe full of water) onto the valve, sloshing it around and then pumping it out by setting the wheel ~ vertical with the valve stem at the bottom and pushing on the tyre either side of the valve until it stops squirting foamy water out.

Avatar
ktache replied to baggiero | 3 years ago
0 likes

Both of these things.  These tips may stop you from going a bit mad.  (And very messy)

Though I used as little of the slightly diluted washing up liquid and didn't wash it out.  It didn't seem to affect the gunk too much, I suppose only time will tell.

I see you are not a regular poster, but do you (or indeed anyone else for that matter) have any tips for getting the bead away from the rim, apart from brute finger/hand strength and occasional standing on the sidewall.  The better half seemed to find it all so amusing.  I don't want to use a vice or molegrips.

I carry a spare tube, just in case, but trying to get the bead moved off it's seal to fit it out on the trail, especially in the cold and wet fills me with particular dread.

Avatar
ktache replied to ktache | 3 years ago
0 likes

I'm glad I got the Topeak Turbibooster X, (just had to go Topeak, such good pumps) as it has the tube, the standard doesn't.  It means that when I've charged , connected and flicked the lever, I can run away, the noise of the bead going onto the rim terrifies me.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to ktache | 3 years ago
0 likes

ktache wrote:

Both of these things.  These tips may stop you from going a bit mad.  (And very messy)

Though I used as little of the slightly diluted washing up liquid and didn't wash it out.  It didn't seem to affect the gunk too much, I suppose only time will tell.

I see you are not a regular poster, but do you (or indeed anyone else for that matter) have any tips for getting the bead away from the rim, apart from brute finger/hand strength and occasional standing on the sidewall.  The better half seemed to find it all so amusing.  I don't want to use a vice or molegrips.

I carry a spare tube, just in case, but trying to get the bead moved off it's seal to fit it out on the trail, especially in the cold and wet fills me with particular dread.

I vaguely remember someone asking this before and the best solution was to lay the wheel down on a pavement or step so that the rim is supported and the tyre/sidewall isn't. You could then kneel on one side of the wheel and use both hands and your body weight on the tyre to get it to separate. I've had a couple of tyres that were a little bit stuck but never had to use the above technique.

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ktache replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
0 likes

Ta, I can see the kerb/step thing adding the required ooomph.

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velodinho | 7 years ago
1 like

Flaff with a capital F.

Avatar
sergius | 8 years ago
1 like

The bit I don't get with tubeless is, what happens if you DO get a puncture?  Are you just SOL?

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to sergius | 8 years ago
0 likes

sergius wrote:

The bit I don't get with tubeless is, what happens if you DO get a puncture?  Are you just SOL?

You can usually just put a usual inner tube in to get home. Of course, you then lose the advantages of tubeless and you have to remember to have a usable inner tube with you.

Avatar
Steezysix replied to sergius | 7 years ago
0 likes

sergius wrote:

The bit I don't get with tubeless is, what happens if you DO get a puncture?  Are you just SOL?

 

The liquid sealant will stop any small punctures by blocking the hole and then setting, so glass, wire, nails, etc shouldn't cause a ride-ending puncture. If you get a big cut in the sidewall or something that the sealant can't fix, you still need to carry a spare tube and tire boot.

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to Steezysix | 7 years ago
0 likes

Steezysix wrote:

sergius wrote:

The bit I don't get with tubeless is, what happens if you DO get a puncture?  Are you just SOL?

 

The liquid sealant will stop any small punctures by blocking the hole and then setting, so glass, wire, nails, etc shouldn't cause a ride-ending puncture. If you get a big cut in the sidewall or something that the sealant can't fix, you still need to carry a spare tube and tire boot.

For large-ish cuts you can also use the push-in fabric patches - although they're more usually seen off-road.

Avatar
DaveS replied to fukawitribe | 3 years ago
0 likes

For a sidewall cut, all you need is to carry a patch about 2cm round cut from an old tyre (not from an inner tube) and one of those tiny tubes of super glue gel, the ones that come in packs of 3. Glue the patch on the outside over the cut, reinflate and ride home. Of course this only works if the cut is in an area that is smooth, no thick tread, but it works fine, at least for me.
Is tubeless worth it? Well I have been using them exclusively for 3 years and will never go back (roadie). It can seem like a load of trouble to set up, but it's more a question of learning new skills, and a huge amount of the hassle melts away if you are lucky enough to have tubeless ready wheels, which is slowly becoming the norm.

Avatar
Roger_The_Rabbit replied to sergius | 3 years ago
0 likes

You can use some product from Dynaplug to plug larger holes that the sealant can't seal. Then pump the tire and you'll be good to go.

Avatar
poppa | 8 years ago
0 likes

@ dafyddp: No idea if its easy to make, or would have operational problems, but the tyre/tube combo would probably be more expensive. With 'conventional' tubeless the rim tape and valves are fitted only once, whereas every single tyre-tube would have to include these, and it would probably not be simple to make either, especially if the tyre/tube use different rubber compounds etc.

 

Avatar
dafyddp | 8 years ago
0 likes

This seems like an awful faff. Any reason manufacturers don't produce a hybrid tyre-tube? ie one piece tyre tread for the road-side surface, welded to inner-tube material on the wheel-side? It would be lighter and potentiall fit any wheel?

see attached

 

Avatar
matt1705 replied to dafyddp | 8 years ago
0 likes

dafyddp wrote:

This seems like an awful faff. Any reason manufacturers don't produce a hybrid tyre-tube? ie one piece tyre tread for the road-side surface, welded to inner-tube material on the wheel-side? It would be lighter and potentiall fit any wheel?

see attached

 

Not sure if they still make it but Tufo used to make a Tubular Clincher that was similar to this. Tubular profile that had 'wings' that fitted into the hooks on a standard rim.

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to dafyddp | 7 years ago
1 like

dafyddp wrote:

This seems like an awful faff.

 

..and yet it really isn't in general.

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