TrojanHorse

OK, I'm new to tubeless but so far I'm liking it. I purchased a set of Easton EA90SL wheels which come with a valve stem pre-installed and no rim tape. There are no spoke holes, heaven help me if I ever need it rebuilt. Anyway, tires are mounted, stans slop is inside the tire and I've ridden on them a few times now. It's a nice feeling ride.

So the valve stem appears to be a little finicky. It's a little shorter than I like and my cheap pump has trouble grabbing on, and the threads appear to provide a path for air leakage while inflating. My remedy has been to dig my old silca pump out of the shed. I don't know if all silca heads are the same, but this one is fairly large and has a quick disconnect from the pump tube, so I disconnect it, thread it on to the valve and then inflate the tire. Works reasonably well.

The trouble is that when I unthread the pump head, it sometimes likes to move the valve in the wheel. Sometimes the valve moves in the nut that holds the valve on to the rim when I'm threading the head ON, and sometimes the removable core starts to remove when I unthread the head. If I don't have the valve stem nut exactly tight enough (not too tight either!) I'll get a slight hissing, so some fiddling is required. Same for the removable core of course.

Is there some slick trick I'm not aware of to prevent this constant fiddling? I think if I get a new head for my old cheap pump I can just clamp on a pump and not worry about things unthreading. Any better ideas?

habilis

Presta or Schraeder valve? I use a Topeak Joe Blow with a quick clamp and reversible Presta/Schraeder head. After lots of problems with the Presta valves, I began using a Schraeder adapter screwed onto the valve. The adapter has a rubber grommet , so there's no need to screw it on hard. It gives a sturdier connection with the pump head. The head releases easily without any twisting.

TrojanHorse

It's a presta valve.

My old pump has one of those quick clamps. It's probably just worn out, I've had it since about 2000.

DrIsotope

The American Classic tubeless valves are the shizz. Don't move, don't leak-- they have multiple o-rings. If you can't get the Easton valves to cooperate, I recommend the ACs.

TrojanHorse

I do have a set of the stans valves laying around, but I'm not going to change them out until it's time to put new tires on. Too messy! They didn't look appreciably different from the easton version, although they were longer. Fortunately, tubeless tires don't seem to have a particularly long life.

Phlorida

.

That was my experience as well, I gave up on them.

Jamminatrix

I'd say try the Stan's, if they're longer (they make different lengths) and go back to the original ("good") pump.

If the valve is twisting independently of the locknut (loosening itself when you attach/remove the pump head), you can try some medium-high strength Loctite on it.