Over the weekend I put new sealant in the front tire; when I let the air out to add sealant, the beads popped. Went back on when I pumped it back up but did not hold air overnight. So, I took it to air pump at gas station, soaped up the beads, blasted pressure in, and it held fine for one night but was not at rideable pressure this morning (but not flat either like the 1st night). That I can live with, so pumped it up, rode in, and hope that riding will distribute the sealant more. I was pumping the front about twice a week before this all started so if I get back to that it's not so bad.

I use a product called skinnystripper.com that basically makes a tubless tire a tubular tire. The biggest benefit of this for me is that I can de-pressurize the tire add sealant, and just pump them back up. even on a ghetto tubeless conversion where the beads come off on deflating.

It also keeps the goop off your rim, and prevents burping. Cheap insurance.

Did you ever do the 'Stan's Shake'?

What is that?

its an energy drink made from ammonia, latex, RV antifreeze and corn meal. You probably wouldn't like it.

lol, no it's the vigorous shaking you need to do to distribute the sealant to all areas of the bead and inner tire. Hold the wheel horizontal, and waggle it up and down. Rotate 5-10 degrees, repeat.

or just air them up to a moderate-low pressure and go for a gentle bike ride.

I'd say rather a rough ride

Depends on if it has enough caffeine...

I kinda did something like that I guess, I spun it for a while (great bearings!) and out of boredom started angling it up and down. Maybe that is too laminar and not turbulent enough. But I did commute today (couldn't yesterday) so we'll see if it gets better with time and use.

Today I went to fix a flat in the rear and my 15yo rim strip was toast. So I replaced it with two layers of Gorilla! Getting close...

I'm not sure a double layer of gorilla would make any difference vs 1 -- I think you need to strive for proper width, not thickness. First time I did it, I didn't fully cover the channel, and I missed two tiny holes. Not the spoke holes, but opposite the valve hole, where the rim had been joined, there were two small holes off to either side, probably for pins to hold the rim together for welding. I had not fully covered those, and sealant (and air) leaked out.

Conversely, on another pair of rims I went overboard and had gorilla tape all up in the bead area. That tire wept its moisture like crazy. I think the top surface of the gorilla tape is so slick it prevented a good seal. I needed less gorilla tape so the rubber of the tire bead could get all up in the metal of the bead seat.

So, you know, goldilocks.

In my experience, it can take about a week to get a good seal that holds air over time.

Here's hoping. Unfortunately I've only got 3 days of commuting this week, and 2 or 3 next. The following week, back to normal though.

Added a liter of Trucker's to my Amazon cart!

my understanding is that more layers = tighter fit and I'm using conventional clincher everything at first just because I'm playing around. The tires need a refresh on this bike, they are soft race tires and wore down quick. Ardent are on the shopping list for next season... or next bike!

That's what I used. It seemed to work fine, as long as I had a good seal with the rimtape and bead. It's nice that it comes with a syringe.

Got the back tire of my MTB set up. It's 26" clincher everything, tubeless ready nothing. The tire is a WTB Wolverine Race with two years on it, and old stock before that... A cross country racing tire with small lugs, soft and about as light as a MTB tire gets, no layers of anything. It weighs less than half a tubeless ready all mountain 29er tire. The tape is Gorilla on the channel only, not up the walls; the stem was cut out of a tube. To my surprise it inflated just fine with the compressor, with the only gross leak at the not-welded rim joint. Now it's sitting in the garage and I soon noted some bleeding around the bead. I'm really expecting it to sweat through the sidewall, it's such a light tire.

I was really prepared for either total success or failure, having it sort-of work feels weird somehow :foo:

pump only, that's impressive! I did this:


and still it was not easy. One tip that helped me was, inflate with a tube first to seat the beads, then take the tube out and leave one bead intact.

I used the compressor.

Oh right. Since you said 'surprised' my brain filled the rest in with 'with just a pump'

That 2L bottle is a little scary. The pressure in a soda bottle is probably like 3 bar / 45 psi (unshaken and cold). It will always be less than that after you open it. When I was setting up a water rocket rig for undergrads back in my grad school days, we took them up over 100 psi to experiment but north of that they would distend scarily and fail before 150. We gave the students a limit of 35 iirc, which we considered a safety factor of 3 with no knockdowns. I wouldn't cycle it too many times either, or keep it for long.

Soda Stream bottles are much stouter and because they are made for reuse they are rated pressure vessels. If you look on one you will see an expiration date printed on it.

I used a 5qt apple cider bottle, and I am never able to get it over 40psi before it starts leaking. I should probably try again with a soda bottle.

The good news is that the bottle can be replaced trivially, you only need to keep the modified cap. So you can keep the cap in a tool box, and just get a new bottle everytime.

Not trying to be snide but all this jazz sounds like a pain in the butt. Is it worth it? Maybe the appeal is in part an excuse to monkey around with some bike stuff. I could understand that.

it hasn't been that big a deal. Not worse just different. I don't find it as messy as chain lube so far. I'm trying it after years on the fence because of a bad run of flats. I put it off in the past because I was worried about the stuff hardening in a puddle in the bottom of the tire in storage.

ok one can just buy them cheaply ...

£1/1 2L bottle

£10 for a 4 port threaded cap

Must safter than the plastic bottle.

There are some high-pressure glass bottles available as well

Also, just get a puncture-resistant tyre and skip this fuss. SMP should be more than enough.

The two goals of tubeless are to be able to run lower pressures for mountain biking (with no risk of pinch flats), and to have self-sealing tires in case of punctures. Maybe a third goal for some weight weenies is to lower rolling resistance and save weight?

I'm mostly after self-sealing.

I am in my 2nd or 3rd year of evaluating tubeless. Definitely as much gearhead value as anything else. I do like the lower pressure w/o fear of pinch flat. I don't think weight savings is possible (I am pretty sure the sealant weighs more than a tube)

I'm pretty sure the sealant weighs less than a tube. Usually it's like 2oz into a bigass 29er tire, right? How much does a tube weigh?

And then it dries up and has to be replenished, but (a) 'dries up'=loses all water weight, and (b) only so many replenishes are needed before the tire is worn out. Probably a different life cycle for a commuting tire than a mtb tire though.