Road tubeless tyre – seating issues

Joe Totale wrote:

Joe Totale wrote:

This for me. Recently I’ve been looking to go tubeless but on top of the tyres I’d need all the additional kit like sealent, a valve core remover and tyre worms.  Once I did the maths it was going to cost me over £150! 

Considering a pair of decent clinchers and tubes can be bought for £60 or less, the price disparity is just too large for me and many others. And that’s before we go into the additional faff of mounting the things…

I don’t know where you learned maths, but how the hell do you get £150? Valve core remover costs about £0 if you have a pair of needle nose pliers. Tyre worms…what, never bought a puncture repair kit in your life? Tubeless pumps are about £50 if you’re afraid of unbranded stuff, or probably about a fiver if you’re not. Alternatively, you can easily make one yourself with a 2l coke bottle, some old inner tube valves and some 5mm tubing. The tubing cost me 90p from a hardware store and the pop bottle was 16p- I even got free fizzy water with it. Sealant is less than a tenner. My Schwalbe Pro Ones were £70 for the pair, and in addition there was a one off purchase of some valves (about 8 quid).

We get it, you’re a roadie and are therefore afraid of anything new, but these arguments with made up numbers and imagined inconveniences are so fucking tiresome.

Mungecrundle wrote:

Mungecrundle wrote:

Seems like lots of people have issues with even getting the buggers over the rim, worse the the most recalcitrant clincher, and far too easy for the unsophisticated home mechanic to damage the wheel rim.

Plastic tyre levers are the answer. I tend to be heavy-handed when fettling, but with the right tyre levers, you’ll break the lever long before any damage happens to the rim. When seating tubeless tyres, I’ve found that technique is far more important than brute strength – lots of tubeless fitting liquid (or washing up liquid) to lubricate the rims and beads and then make sure that the beads are resting in the centre of the rim bed so that you’ve got a couple of extra mm to play with. Then again, I’ve damaged rim tape by over enthusiastic use of tyre levers, but although annoying, that’s easy to replace.

I switched to tubeless on my
I switched to tubeless on my MTB about 2 years ago and only about 10 years behind the curve. No way could I blow the bead onto the rims with a track pump, so I ended up fitting them with a tube and shrugged the whole nonsense off. Few days later I got the inevitable thorn puncture, ripped the tube out and realised that the tyre bead could remain fully seated on one side and that the other now matched up much tighter having spent some time conforming to the shape of the rim. So fitted a valve, applied a bit of washing up liquid to the rim and managed to pop the bead on with only a track pump. Removed core, added slime, re-inflated. Job done and same for the other tyre.

Have now bought a track pump with a chamber which makes things even easier.

Run tubulars on my road bike and would not swap to tubeless. Seems like lots of people have issues with even getting the buggers over the rim, worse the the most recalcitrant clincher, and far too easy for the unsophisticated home mechanic to damage the wheel rim.

I am usually able to get my

I am usually able to get my various tubeless tyres to seat with just a track pump, but that can sometimes take a massive effort. I bought a Beto Tubeless Inflator Air Tank (https://www.merlincycles.com/beto-cja-001s-tubeless-air-tank-inflator-98943.html?utm_campaign=googlebase-GB&utm_source=googlebase&utm_medium=shopping&utm_term=Tubeless+Accessories&ucpo=38248&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-cWl95CR2wIVBLTtCh02aAAdEAQYAiABEgJNovD_BwE) which makes everything super easy. Load that up with 160psi, then dump a load of air into the tyre in one go. 

If you leave the tyre somewhere nice and warm for a few hours it will make the bead a little bit more pliable, so it should be easier to get it into position right. 

Oh, and always use twice the amount of sealant that is recommended. Make sure that you’ve given the wheel a bit of a spin to spread the sealant around the tyre – helps it seal a little more quickly if its already covered the inside of the tyre.

Another trick to try is to inflate with a tube in the tyre up to the max pressure, deflate, reinflate, deflate, then try to set up tubeless.

One problem you might have is that if you have damaged the bead when getting the tyre on/off (overly agressive use of tyre leavers is the usual culprit, which is sometimes hard to avoid given how awkward they can be to get onto some rims) then the tyre might not seat and seal properly. At this point it’s relegated to being used with a tube. Not ideal, but puts you in no worse a position than everyone else using tubes

You really need a compressor
You really need a compressor to get the bead to pop onto the rim. Two pops confirm both sides have seated. Sometimes I have to press the tyre hard against the ground at every point to hear the tyre pop into place, after that everything is perfect.

Plasterer’s Radio wrote:

Plasterer’s Radio wrote:

 …… I’ve yet to be stranded having tubeless but have waited on a few dozen occasions for club mates while they fix their tubed flats. Mugs!  

I know exactly what you mean Mr Radio, it’s easy to think some people just deserve to be left behind.  But on the other hand such riders are simply subscribing to the “least worst” school of cycling.  

Their philosophy is that the worst thing that is likely to happen is their tubes need fixing or replacing every now and then.  However, with tubeless at its present state of development, the worst thing that can happen is an unfixable tyre a very long way from home.  

I agree it’s not likely, but, as the OP demonstrates beautifully, eventually it will ruin your day.  Those of us with pessimism coursing through our veins will settle for the occasional nuisance flat while we wait for a leap forward in tubeless technology.

When I’ve had trouble, it’s

When I’ve had trouble, it’s usually been the rim tape that’s got damaged and needs replacing.