Weight Weenies

I can't remember setting up an un-anodized rim tubeless until setting up road tubeless.
Perhaps that is the problem? Un-anodized aluminum reacting with the Stans.
(I have never seen caffe latex corrode a rim like that, even on a road tubeless setup)

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Those rims are likely aluminum-scandium alloy.

CerveloMikey wrote:I have a set of DA 7850 Scandium wheels that have zero corrosion.

Here's my data points:

WH-7900 TLs = corrosion. Silver, un-anodized rim

WH-7850SL/WH-6700 = no corrosion. Same tires, same quart of stans, same mounting procedure. Both the 7850 SL and 6700 have a black anodized finish on the rim bed, and show no corrosion.

aaric wrote:Here's my data points:...WH-7900 TLs = corrosion. Silver, un-anodized rim...

I have these as well, also used Stan's 1-2 oz. My experience is some discoloration but no real loss of metal. Changing out the Stan's and cleaning the rim occasionally can't hurt.

The trouble I run into is: what's a suitable alternative?

I've had very poor luck with cafelatex doing an effective job @ sealing. I'm also a skeptic of orange seal when it comes to high pressure: when I ran it in a MTB tire, it didn't seal holes that stan's would no problem.

Those on road tubeless: what sealant would you recommend?

Dura Ace + Stan's = bad idea, stans ate my rims
Dura Ace + Hutch Fast'air = read somewhere that this is the only sealant Shimano recommends, cant find the reference now. doesnt work as good as stans though
Dura Ace + Cafe Latex = better, although i read that some people still had pitting. unsure if this was caused by Stan's before the users switched.
Fulcrum 1 + Stan's = no issues experienced personally

Has anyone else noticed that Stan's NOTUBES is located in thw town of Big Flats (New York)?

http://www.notubes.com/ContactUs.aspx

Years ago ironically my car completely shut down on the highway passing by Big Flats. One moment I'm doing 60 mph the next I'm coasting into the side of the road.

Fwiw running 2 sets of zonda's tubeless for 2 year w a bit of stan's, not enough to plug a hole but just enough to get a good seal. My zondas have the black ano inside. So far so good, but I'll prob check more regularly after seeing this. Also running fusion 3's.

Leonard Zinn wrote about this issue a couple of years ago at VeloNews- I don't have the link handy, but if you search the site, you'll find the article. As I recall, although he didn't say so in so many words, the only sealant that he recommended is CaffeeLatex.
My personal experience- I bought a pair of DA 7850 c24's on the auction site oh, maybe 18 months ago. They came mounted with Tubeless Fusions and the Stan's sealant conversion kit (the wheels were the CL's- so 3 layers of Stan's tape and Stan's sealant installed). It was not one of the best purchases that I've ever made on the 'Bay- one of the tires started leaking sealant as soon as I pumped it up, so I decided to unmount the tires and install regular clinchers and tubes; I was quite dismayed at the amount of corrosion on the rim bed, and even the spoke nipples had a little ball of corrosion on top of each nipple. Not quite as bad as CerveloMikey's photo, but real close. I cleaned up the rims with a green scotch pad and some alcohol, and inspected the clincher bead closely, and decided that they were safe, and rode them for several months, but I was never quite comfortable on them- they're sitting in my garage now.

Even though I use tubeless solutions for years, such as Joe's, Stans, BOR/FRM, I never had a problem with my rims because of this.

And by the way, I am bit curious. Why would you go tubeless on road with 8-9 bar in the tires? I prefer tubeless with low pressures to avoid snake bites...

The way that the sealant "coagulated" on Mikey's rim happened to me too but only on the tires, if I don't use the wheel for more 2-3 months...

I run tubeless on all my bikes (road, TT & mountain). I have, thankfully, never seen this issue (where's that wood to knock on...). However, the guy who got me into tubeless had an issue with his first set of Shimano wheels. I believe they were DA7800 series wheels with the raw aluminum finish (not black annodized). His wheels were pitted within a couple of months of use, and he eventually sold them off. His next set of wheels (another set of DA7800 wheels, but the "tubeless" variety, with black annodizing) did not suffer this issue, after two years of tubeless duty. Both wheels used Hutchinson Fusion or Intensive tires and Stan's sealant.

I have lately switched over to my own "homebrew" sealant, which I hope will continue my good fortune in this aspect. It's two parts Stan's to one part Slime sealant. I just don't find Stan's to be effective for sealing anything beyond a pinprick on the tires, while Slime is just too thick. However, between the two, they provide good sealing and can patch slightly larger cuts. I recently had a 1/4" (6mm) cut on my front wheel, but the sealant kept about 40psi (3bar) until I pulled over at a store to put a tube in.

Vlad, to answer your question, tubeless road tires allow you to run lower tire pressures without risk of a pinch flat. This also has the added benefit of having a slightly larger contact patch to the ground, and dulling out some of the road buzz. If you ride somewhere with great quality roads, it isn't much of an issue. However, where I ride, the quality of the roadway is very poor, with a lot of substandard material used patch and pave the road. Tubeless provides an improvement to the road. The trade off may be a slight elevation in rolling resistance, but nothing I have noticed in my rides.

I want to use tubeless road carbon rim without rimtape (no spoke holes on outside diameter)
Do I have to worrie about corrosion or degradation if I use carbon with Stan's NoTube sealant?
I found this article, but it is about aluminum rim:

Lennard wrote:http://velonews.competitor.com/2008/11/bikes-and-tech/technical-qa-with-lennard-zinn-the-price-of-11_85378

Ryan wrote:Dear Lennard,
This season I bought the Dura-Ace 7850-SL wheelset to use exclusively for cyclocross racing. I used the Hutchinson Fast’Air to inflate and seal the Hutchinson Bulldog tires, but have had less than stellar results with the Fast’Air sealing thorn punctures.

I have switched over to Stan’s sealant now due to the higher cost and lack of performance with the Hutchinson Fast’Air magnums. I called Shimano and they said not to use Stan’s because it can cause corrosion. After that I called Stan’s and they told me there are no corrosion issues to worry about.

Any idea which way to go? I know a ton of people are using Stan’s with these wheels and have not had any issues.

Dear Ryan,
I’ve heard this concern before, and I think it is nothing to worry about. The concern I’ve heard expressed is something about there being ammonia in the Stan’s sealant. This is what Stan Koziatek had to say about that:

NoTube.com Stan wrote:My sealant has very little if any ammonia in it.

If you read the Installation Instructions on the hang tag of the Fusion tubeless tire, Hutchinson recommends using their Fast Air Latex sealant.

In the tubeless road tires we use 2oz of my sealant. In most cases it lasts over four months almost one full season 2000 + miles. My sealant will not damage any tire.

I personally have two sets of wheels that I’m riding these days with Hutchinson Fusion 2 tubeless road tires – one on a set of the same Dura-Ace wheels that you have, and another on a set of Mavic Ksyrium ES wheels. Both of the Ksyriums and one of the Dura-Ace wheels have Stan’s sealant inside, and I’ve had no issues with either.

If the Shimano rep’s concern was about the rim and not the tire, then that can certainly not be a big concern, since there are and have been for years countless mountain bikers out there using this stuff in their rims with no problems. I’m sure if you clean your rims and tires out at the end of your ‘cross season, you will not have reduced their life by using Stan’s.

Bukes wrote:I too have had this happen with a set of 7900 DuraAce C24 TL wheels. The Stans ate through the clear anodizing and created pits all over the insides of both rims after 2 months of use. Shimano will not warranty, as the documentation that came with the wheels specifically states that using sealant will void the warranty. Sigh - These have been cleaned up and relegated to trainer use only

Interestingly, I also have a set of DuraAce 7800 series tubeless that have black anodizing in the rim cavity that are still perfect after 2+ years of Stans use. My guess is that the black anodizing might be a bit tougher than the clear stuff.

I had the *exact* same experience.

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Try Orange Seal. Washes right off my rims and doesn't leave anything that looks like that gross photo above.