PedalingWalrus

So I went tubeless on 2 of my bikes. What do I do if I get a flat tire?

Carry a spare innertube or what?

Leebo

What. Or some extra stans, super glue as well as a spare tube.

2manybikes

Or just a tube.

PedalingWalrus

actually, saturday was an interesting episode confirming my liking of the tubeless. Went on a short ride, 2 miles in we take a short break. I look at my front tire and see a nail sticking from it. I pullet it out. It was in kind of sideways and not too deep but still penetrated a lot of the rubber. Nothing. The tire is still full today.

cyclintom

Tubeless tires are meant to have sealant inside of them. This limits the amount of air that can leak out on anything but a major flat. You still have to carry a pump because if you pick up a couple of leaks your tire pressure can get low enough to cause problems with handling.

FrozenK

If you get a flat you put a tube on it. The sealant will seal small holes but flats are still possible.

chaadster

Yes, as has been said, an actual flat is handled almost exactly as you would a clincher: add a tube and air up.

The odds of getting a flat are greatly reduced with tubeless, however, if you get one, it's likely to be damage of the scope that a boot is required, in which case, as was mentioned upthread, superglue and a rubber patch should get you rolling again without even needing to pull the tire. Pretty neat, IMO, and an advantage over tubed where such damage would not only necessitate the boot, but also the removal and replacement of the tube.

PedalingWalrus

I am unfamiliar with this repair. What is a 'boot' ?

Seattle Forrest

A "boot" is something (like a folded dollar bill) you put between a tube and a tire, it's sort of like a patch for the tire.

I went over some glass, cut my tire open, didn't notice the hole at first. Inflated a spare tube, it bulged out through the hole in the tire and popped. Luckily I had a second spare; a folded dollar bill kept the tube inside the tire until I could get home.

indyfabz

Booting a tire is when you put something between the tube and the inside of the tire. Some punctures are so bad that if you simply put a new tube in, the tube will push through the hole in the tire. I personally use a folded bill to boot a tire since I usually carry money with me during a ride anyway. If you go that route, make sure you have at least one $1 bill. I once had to boot a tire, and the only bill I had with me was a $20. You can buy pre-made boots. I believe Park Tools makes them. There are probably other brands. Another boot I have heard of is a PowerBar wrapper.

Canker

If you do get a flat really look over the tire for thorns glass whatever sticking through. You can end up with a bunch of "punctures" that were sealed by the tire goop and are just waiting to puncture your new tube.

unterhausen

interesting point about looking for glass.

One other thing is that if you do put a tube in, save the tubeless valve. You can reuse it and save some $$$$

Shimagnolo

These work great on a tire that is *dry* inside: Emergency Tire Boot | Park Tool
They got me back home with a sidewall so badly slashed I could put my thumb through the hole.
All bets are off if it is wet and slimy.

MileHighMark

There are flats, and there are flats. A simple puncture shouldn't require any intervention as long as your sealant hasn't dried up. In some cases you may have to rotate the tire so that the puncture is at the lowest point (so the sealant can flow and then seal), but that's pretty rare, IME.

If, on the other hand, you've torn the sidewall, or the tread has a gash that's too large for the sealant to seal, then you install an inner tube and possibly a tire boot. I always wrap my spare tubes in Tyvek envelopes in case I need to boot a tire.

chaadster

Expanding on that, booting a tubeless tire is covering a hole in the casing by adhering an airtight patch.

On the road, this can be done externally, right on the tread or outside of the sidewall. At home, you may choose to do it internally (for cosmetic reasons, and for durability).

Joeyseven

I'm going tubeless this week for the first time.
Hutchinson Fusion 3 700x25.
I still need to watch A youtube video on how to install.

So I'll grab A spare tube and pump.But what about [h=5]2-Ounce Sealant Injector ?Does anyone carrying extra sealant or just leave it at home?[/h]

chaadster

I don't know if anyone carries extra sealant, but I'd think the odds of getting a gash so large as to spew out all the sealant, then to have a patch to boot the tire, and then go on to flat again from a puncture, all seems pretty unlikely.

One of the oft overlooked benefits of tubeless is that they don't suffer catastrophic air loss from punctures like tubes do. Whereas a wire penetrating the casing and puncturing a tube would cause the rapid loss of air out the rim bed, a tubeless punctured in such a way may lose very little air at all, as the rubber tread would tend to seal around the wire, which is the only path for air to escape as the wheel and tire are otherwise airtight.

DrIsotope

I carry a 2oz bottle of Stan's just because I have in the past forgotten to replenish my sealant in a tire, it all dried up, and I got a slow leak in the sidewall that kept flatting the tire. As soon as I got home I squirted a little sealant in the tire, it aired up, and went another few hundred miles with no air loss. So I keep it in the bag because I'm a forgetful idiot.

I've never had to use the 2oz, but I also carried a spare tube during my time on Hardshells and never had to use that either. I often remark that the entire contents of my saddle bag are things I hope I never have to use. But I still carry them.