As y'all know, I just picked up that BMC Time Machine. But I only picked it up a couple weeks ago, far too soon to get it dialed in for my Santa Barbara race this Saturday. No problem, I was planning on riding the Shiv anyway.

But I have been having problems with the front wheel on the Shiv holding air. Crap. I added sealant and a couple other things but just couldn't get it to hold air for more than a day. So last week I took it down, pulled the old rim tape and put on new rim tape. Mounted the tire and loaded it up with sealant. I aired it up and it seemed to hold air overnight pretty well but I added just a smidge more sealant just to be sure, and on Saturday I took it for a short ride to make sure sealant was everywhere it should be. Bike felt good and I thought it was solved. Checked it on Sunday and still had air. We're in business.

I checked it throughout the week and it did feel like it was getting softer but still felt like enough air to ride. But I get home from work tonight and I'm getting ready to load up the car so I can leave right after work tomorrow. I check the tire and it's really soft now. Double crap. I top it off and set the bike to the side. I keep putting my gear together and check the tire about 30 minutes later. Not flat but definitely softer than it should be. WTH???

I take the wheel back off and rotate it at different angles to make sure I give the sealant a chance to get wherever it needs to go to stop the leak. I air it back up and 30 minutes later it's soft again. So here I am the night before I need to leave with a tire that won't seal. As much as I hate it, I pulled that tire and the valve stem, cleaned out the sealant and just popped in a TPU tube.

I've gotten so comfortable running tubeless that now I have anxiety. I have a lot of punctures out here when I run tubes, hence my conversion to tubeless. I rarely have any issues elsewhere, but that doesn't really ease my mind that much. I've pulled thorns out of my tire while stopped at a traffic light and the tire seals right back up and I finish my ride no problem. That's a major benefit to going tubeless. But I'm going to have to roll the dice on Saturday and hope I don't have any unfortunate incidents out on the course. I do have a spare TPU tube just in case.

But it only has to make it 34 miles. Wish me luck.