Basic tubeless questions

Hirsute wrote:

Well, that was fun. Got new valves as one was clogged up.

Could not remove one of the old valves, the outer lock nut was solid on and with 2 paris of pliers still no movement.

Google suggested this tool would help https://rydercycling.co.za/

but in the end, I used a dremel to cut it off !

Lessson - once all is working, after a week, loosen lock ring.

If you loosen the lock ring you might let the air and sealant out. A better arrangement is to put a squishable rubber grommet between the lock ring and the rim. Many tubeless valves are sold with such a ring included for the purpose.

Finger tight is then enough to keep the air and sealant inside the wheel-tyre; and you can usually get the lock ring loose again with your fingers. The rubber ring conforms to any wee gaps left between rim and valve lock nut.

Rubber grommets of many sizes, including a dozen that will fit bicycle valve stems, can be bought in boxed sets of around 100, from many places, for about a fiver. They include sizes for all sorts of purposes, from rim-valve lock nut squishers to preventing your garden hose from leaking at the tap connector.

If you're a rubber fetishist, you can use one of your rubber ring collection as an engagement ring to your equally excitable partner. Also for other related purposes (or so I have heard).

A Dremel to remove a locknut! You must be butch as a fitter's cat!! 

I'm surprised Hirsute got it to seal properly without a rubber grommet. Good call on the box of o-rings; I got one from eBay to replace a busted o-ring and it did the trick: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153103461760

It's no big deal without a grommet under the valve locknut although that's a nice touch. The airtight seal is the one at the base of the valve against the inside of the rim. If that's good you only need finger tight on the locknut, indeed if you remove the locknut entirely the valve will remain sealed because air pressure is pushing it against the rim bed. The trouble with locknuts is they get done up a bit tight, and sealant seeps into them, and they get ignored for ages (I've done all this) and then you find they're an absolute b@stard to remove when you need to. 

The locknut was 6mm high and sat on a plastic concave washer. With 2 pairs of pliers I could not shift it. As it was blocked, hacking it off was ok.

I had success at the roadside with another cyclist's valve when the tear in the tyre wouldn't seal (Schwalbe 1's again). They couldn't shift the locknut until I pressed the valve from inside the rim. That relieved the pressure and therefore reduced the friction so then it undid without fuss.

Miller wrote:

It's no big deal without a grommet under the valve locknut although that's a nice touch. The airtight seal is the one at the base of the valve against the inside of the rim. If that's good you only need finger tight on the locknut, indeed if you remove the locknut entirely the valve will remain sealed because air pressure is pushing it against the rim bed. The trouble with locknuts is they get done up a bit tight, and sealant seeps into them, and they get ignored for ages (I've done all this) and then you find they're an absolute b@stard to remove when you need to. 

I was definitely getting air coming out though the locknut/rim interface so my valve wasn't quite sealing correctly, but after replacing the busted o-ring, it stopped that leak and allowed the tyre to inflate fully. Presumably the gap around the base of the valve got fixed by the air pressure and sealant.

My little hardware shop has several such boxes, managed to replace a leaking seal on my marzochi Z2s and replace a weird spring on the bottom of my Topeka Joe blow delux. Low prices too.

The workshop in microbiology, uni reading had many, I got on very well with the blokes and could peruse and aquire to my heart's content. I was a great "salvager", had to be, keeping equipment going, even repairing stuff people had thrown away. (And running old bicycles too...)

Not meant to be fixing stuff anymore...

I had o get a new set of wheels recently and my LBS removed the tyres from the original 4 year old wheels to fit on the new ones.

I asked the mechanic whether he had to scrape out solidified or balled sealant and he reported that it was still runny.

I use Muc Off sealant, he says some other brands such as Stans go solid fairly quickly.

I'll put you down as a no then...

mike the bike wrote:

At my age life is too short for buying special gloop, special valves, special tape, special pump, special tyres, special topper-uppers and then getting covered in the gloop?  Not to mention the cleaning out of the special gloop when it dries, the throwing away of the special gloop when it proves to be bloody useless and the very regular pumping of both tyres.  Now, apparently, we have to listen to our tyres in case the special gloop has turned crusty.

Mmm, now let me think .....

Perhaps you yourself have become ossified to a far greater degree than the tyre gloop ever is? I yam quite ancient myself but enjoy the invigorating effects of learning to use a new technology, especially if it provides a means to avoid having to deal with punctures when far from home with the olde joints getting a bit creak.

That ossification of the attitudes can soon morph into worserer conditions, tha knows! You may find yourself out on the bike with no idea of why you went or where you are!! Or even who you once were!!!

I think tubeless appeals to alot of cyclists as they like to endlessly tinker around with their bikes and so the preparation and maintenance of it hits their buttons, so to speak.

Others of us just want to spend our time riding our bikes instead, and I've never got the appeal of what tubeless actually gives you.

But maybe I've been influenced by watching too many youtube cycling influencers using tubeless, and who all seem to have mates who run bike shops that do all their tinkering for them, who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time plugging tubeless tyres whilst on rides.

Awavey wrote:

I think tubeless appeals to alot of cyclists as they like to endlessly tinker around with their bikes and so the preparation and maintenance of it hits their buttons, so to speak.

Others of us just want to spend our time riding our bikes instead, and I've never got the appeal of what tubeless actually gives you.

But maybe I've been influenced by watching too many youtube cycling influencers using tubeless, and who all seem to have mates who run bike shops that do all their tinkering for them, who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time plugging tubeless tyres whilst on rides.

For me it is the opposite. Tubeless is fit and forget. After about 6 months, l will top up the fluid. One unrideable puncture in 6 years, iirc. I've helped fix loads of other people's punctures in that time.

IanMSpencer wrote:

Awavey wrote:

I think tubeless appeals to alot of cyclists as they like to endlessly tinker around with their bikes and so the preparation and maintenance of it hits their buttons, so to speak. Others of us just want to spend our time riding our bikes instead, and I've never got the appeal of what tubeless actually gives you. But maybe I've been influenced by watching too many youtube cycling influencers using tubeless, and who all seem to have mates who run bike shops that do all their tinkering for them, who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time plugging tubeless tyres whilst on rides.

For me it is the opposite. Tubeless is fit and forget. After about 6 months, l will top up the fluid. One unrideable puncture in 6 years, iirc. I've helped fix loads of other people's punctures in that time.

As with all new! improved! claims from manufacturers stoking the various fashion cycles, I was very wary of tubeless at first, not least because after decades of cycling on less than resilient tyres and tubes, I was adept at mending a puncture at the roadside in just a minute or seven. However ....

Buying some new wheels from Hunt, about 6 years ago, I took the plunge and added a set of tubeless tyres, fitted by Hunt. These were Schwalbe G-one Speed, ridden many, many miles on the winter bike over some seriously nasty backroads throughout Lancashire, Cumbria and West Yorkshire. No punctures - although the eventual worn tyre change revealed several self-sealed penetrations by bits of glass and thorns, with the offending items still stuck in the tyre but only obvious from inside.

Schwalbe Doc Blue sealant was needed only every six months (and perhaps less often than that, as there was always some of it still liquid in the tyre when I topped them up).

All my tyres are now tubeless. No puntures requiring a mend by me so far in thousands and thousands of miles on four different sorts of tyres. I did have the pleasure of pulling a geet big chunk of hawthorn out of a front tyre then watching the latex ooze seal it in a second, with no obvious tyre deflation.

Once you've got the tyre mounting process sorted (soapy rims or tyre edges is the key for me) the tubeless tyre is far easier to manage than the tubed variety.  They also feel significantly and noticeably better to ride  - less pressure so more comfort & grip; and they seem to roll better (freewheeling downhill faster than others in the group with similar tubed tyres).

mike the bike wrote:

At my age life is too short for buying special gloop, special valves, special tape, special pump, special tyres, special topper-uppers and then getting covered in the gloop?  Not to mention the cleaning out of the special gloop when it dries, the throwing away of the special gloop when it proves to be bloody useless and the very regular pumping of both tyres.  Now, apparently, we have to listen to our tyres in case the special gloop has turned crusty.

Mmm, now let me think .....

I'm in my mid 70s and went tubeless 3 years ago because arthritic thumbs make tyre removal difficult. 

The only special kit I bought was an injector which made it easier to top up the tyres.   I didn't know a special pump etc was needed and have survived nevertheless.

I topped up yesterday for the 6th time  in 3 years and having read here about sealant going hard and having to be removed listened carefully and also squeezed all round the deflated tyres, couldn't hear or feel any evidence of hard sealant.

I did find 10 places where tyres had been pierced by thorns and the sealant had done its job.

Last point - if I fly with my bike I do drop the pressure a bit, normal riding pressure for me is 70-80psi, I woudl drop it to 30-40 psi for flying. Enough to keep the tyre sealed, but allow some expansion for reduction in pressure. Again this might be superstition but it seems to work pretty well.

I found this Hunt Wheels guide really useful when I started using tubeless tyres -

https://help.huntbikewheels.com/support/solutions/articles/43000456128-tubeless-tyre-setup

Local bike shop posted this picture of how tubeless tyre sealant can go

Wonderful! I just can't wait to sign up for £20 per wheel every 6 months

wtjs wrote:

Local bike shop posted this picture of how tubeless tyre sealant can go

Wonderful! I just can't wait to sign up for £20 per wheel every 6 months

Where do you get £20 per wheel every 6 months from?

It's what the bike shop from the Instagram link was charging.

Ah I see, thanks. Seems a bit steep doesn't it? Although I guess anyone who is competent enough to change a tyre, fix a puncture, etc themselves should be able to stay on top of this at home. £16 for a bottle of Stans with enough for 8 wheels works out at £2 a wheel plus some time.