shelbyfv

Thanks, I was wondering if it was just me and I needed another cuppa.

hsuBM

Sincerely, thank you for convincing me to dash any curiosity about going tubeless. I appreciate it.

Koyote

*Sighs and shrugs*

Aladin

Just.. had my fill of orange seal-NOT. Air exchg dries it out too fast IME. I am-- in process..one foot in and one foot out.. of 'sperimenting w some seal-ANT recipes. Winter will see some work..

Me thinks.. org SEALNOT is just Elmers Glue/Woodglue w some grit thrown in. The last 2 containers which IMO is well overpriced failed to last like first 2 I bought.. same conditions.

Likely.. just my mileage. I failed to review org SEALNOT status and got left very high and dry.. way the hell in the boonies. I carp as I believe the gooooo-bers who mix the stuff do it more as a recreational pursuit.

PoorInRichfield

Additional tip I learned from going tubeless this year...

• Buy a syringe that has a tiny straw for extracting sealant out of your wheels. Since I live in a northern climate where I don't ride outdoors all winter, I don't want sealant in my bike tires for the ~6 months that my bike is on the indoor trainer. Reason being that the sealant does dry-out inside the tire and I don't want a blob of sealant in one spot on the tire since it's not likely that I'll remember to spin my wheels "just because". Once the tire is sealed, it doesn't actually need the sealant in it to hold air... that's just for punctures. At this time, Zwift and Wahoo have not made any kind of "virtual tire puncture device" that I'm aware of for indoor riding realism.
  
• Don't inflate one's tires with the valve stem at the bottom of the wheel. I'm not sure if I have too much sealant in my wheels or if this is just how it is, but if I try to put air in my tires with the valve stem closest to the ground, sealant will come out of the stem because all the sealant also pools at the bottom of the wheel and thus can get sucked out of the valve stem hole.
  
• Don't deflate inflate one's tires or remove the valve stem core with the valve stem at the bottom of the wheel. Similar to the previous tip, I made this awful mistake just a few weeks ago. In preparing my bike for indoor riding, I went to remove the sealant from the tires and had the valve stem closest to the ground. It was taking a long time to let the air out of the tires, perhaps because some sealant was blocking the valve stem, so I removed the valve stem. Big mistake. Sealant shot out of the tire like a geyser into my face and all over the place, even w/o only a few PSI of air in the tire.

WhyFi

This makes the rest of your statements make sense. Well, it doesn't make them sensible so much as it informs of the ~thought process behind them.

Koyote

Methinks you're doing it wrong.

You do realize, I hope, that you need to occasionally check the sealant level and top it up as necessary?

I live in a climate similar to yours in WI, and even in summer I need only to add a tiny bit of sealant every 6-8 weeks or so. Takes perhaps ten minutes per bike.

MattTheHat 

If you leave a little Orange Seal out to dry, it's pretty obviously liquid latex with glitter added as a clotting agent.

With tires that don't seal so great against the rim (in my experience "tubeless ready" tires) yeah, Orange Seal will dry out in a few months, though I've never had to add any to a tire. I've change a few Specialized Roubaix Pros that were dry. A real tubeless tire such as the GP5000TL is a different story. The ones I've changed (6 or 8 so far) have all had Orange Seal left inside after 6 months.

Maybe how tubeless is great for some and not so great for others just comes down to what's in your area that causes punctures. For me it's those little wires that fray off of steel belted tires that are worn all the way down. Those seal up pretty much immediately. I suspect lower pressures seal better too. I know I see less weeping punctures at lower pressure.

Koyote

From reading these threads, I also think that people's experiences with tubeless have much to do with whether they understand (1) how to set it up, (2) how to maintain it, and (3) how to handle things when they have the rare puncture that doesn't instantly seal up.

If you don't know what you're doing, tubeless might not work well.

Sy Reene

Seemingly a lot of these stories are often sidewall related. Just as frequently they're conti 5k stories. With propensity to wider rims, is there possibly something to it that the center tread width section (thickest part of tire) is insufficiently extending to the sides? IOW, I find it curious that some broken glass made it up to the side of the tire somehow to cause the flat.

Aladin

Agreed.

5000's and S Pro 1's are my choices. Put a dose of my recent brew.. just what's on hand.. Berryman's (Junk) for the base, good dose of E wood glue and a little H20 to right viscosity. Where I'm going.. dose in front road is holding surprisingly.. this a Pro 1 well worn off the back wheel... 12-1500 rear and now.. whew.. at least 2000 front. And.. LOL.. that tire got a sidewall cut say 1/3" which I booted. All is well.. IMO excellent overall wear. I'll say 215ish lbs now.. kovid belly... --->no gym... too much idle time. So the front is carrying some load....

My 5000 is over 3,000 still shows wear indicators albeit very shallow.. all rear miles. BEST tube-ass made.. IME.

WhyFi

shelbyfv

Silly syntax, apart from hindering comprehension, makes folks wonder if they are dealing with an actual adult. Me thinks.....

rsbob 

ok, have to know what kind of tires AND do you ride on city streets with glass and sharp pointy things?

bruce19

OTOH since abandoning tubes for tubeless it's been over 2 years and zero flats.

rsbob 

i agree. It may have been purely coincidental about timing. Glass never migrates and I keep my front at 70-80 PSI and the rear about 85. I have read a couple of threads about sidewall issues on Contis. The thing is the site of the cut had a little flap suggesting a cut.

MattTheHat 

I've run Specialized Roubaix Pros and GP5000TL, both in 32mm. The Roubaix Pros are thicker and less puncture prone, but don't seal as well to the rim (so they lose more air over night). They also have higher rolling resistance.

About 70% of my riding is on city streets, about 10-15% MUP. The rest is on a smart trainer and a little bit of dirt/gravel.

Most of what I pick up seems to be the little steel belted radial wires. They seal immediately...I don't normally even hear anything. I see a little glass, but it's already crushed up pretty fine, so those generally seal pretty quickly too. Those tend to weep sealant for a few days.

Sidewall cuts were an issue for me when I ran GP4000S with tubes. I assume that's still a problem with the GP5000TL, but I haven't have a sidewall cut yet.

rsbob 

Stupid question time.... is there a special type of patch used inside the tire to seal the hole or do you use a standard vulanizing tube tire patch? TIA

WhyFi

There might be some special ones, but I've only ever used regular tube patches. I've only had to resort to them twice, but have had a 100% success rate.

Koyote

Umm, why not try your tire plugs?

tomato coupe

Yeah, I'll have what he's having'. Better yet, make it a double!

Koyote

This post is classic bf. OP fails to easily deal with a puncture, even though he has the tools. Then recommends that the rest of us consider carrying two tire pumps and CO2.

Hell, maybe we should all carry spare wheelsets, complete with mounted tires...?

shelbyfv

Don't forget the bacon....

WhyFi

If there wasn't already a tube inside of the tire, that's what I'd recommend, too, but if he's going to have to futz around with removing the tube and whatnot, might as well patch it up.

Of course, we still don't have the full story - if it's a smaller cut (<1/4") and it's not sealing because he's using Stan's or the sealant is old, putting in some fresh OS and re-mounting them might be all that's needed.

Koyote

I was actually just wondering why he didn’t use his tire plug in the first place, before putting in a tube.