Tubeless - what to do with the tires in the "off" season

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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

Lewn777 wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:59 am
In my experience all the sealant will probably all dry up. The best thing to do is to inject more sealant into the tire via the valve with the core removed. However this sometimes doesn't work if the tire bead falls out of seat of the rim sidewall. Sometimes it will just not reseal and you'll end up wasting loads of sealant and stressing out. The only way to fix this if it won't reseal is to re-tape the wheel, an expensive annoyance. Also as the sealant will keep drying out you'll need to keep refilling over months, a waste of money.
Which rims though?

This honestly cannot possibly happen with any of my rims unless I force the bead off. I can and have limped home on a completely flat tire mounted to a hookless rim. The loosest rims in my stable are Velocity Ailerons. When initially seating the tire with sometimes, the bead would pop back out until I added sealant. Once sealant is added though, it dries up in the crevices between the bead and bead shelf/lip and there's enough friction to hold the bead in place with zero pressure.

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Lewn777
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Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:35 am

by Lewn777

TobinHatesYou wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 2:46 am
Lewn777 wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 12:59 am
In my experience all the sealant will probably all dry up. The best thing to do is to inject more sealant into the tire via the valve with the core removed. However this sometimes doesn't work if the tire bead falls out of seat of the rim sidewall. Sometimes it will just not reseal and you'll end up wasting loads of sealant and stressing out. The only way to fix this if it won't reseal is to re-tape the wheel, an expensive annoyance. Also as the sealant will keep drying out you'll need to keep refilling over months, a waste of money.
Which rims though?

This honestly cannot possibly happen with any of my rims unless I force the bead off. I can and have limped home on a completely flat tire mounted to a hookless rim. The loosest rims in my stable are Velocity Ailerons. When initially seating the tire with sometimes, the bead would pop back out until I added sealant. Once sealant is added though, it dries up in the crevices between the bead and bead shelf/lip and there's enough friction to hold the bead in place with zero pressure.
Sometimes if a tire gets deflated then the tire can fall out of the the rim hook. This depends on the rim tightness, the rim condition, the condition of the tape and how much sealant is left in the tire, it seems I'm prone to dried sealant as I live in a dry area. This can happen maybe 25-50% of the time on my Spank Oozy mountain bike wheels with Maxxis or Schwalbe tires, DT Swiss road wheels with nearly any tire and Veulta CX with Schwalbe tires wheels but can't happen with my Fulcrum MTB wheels. Please don't presume that your circumstances are universal, tubeless ready rims and tires are not properly standardised. Some people break tire levers trying to install, others need 3-4 layers of tape. It's not user error, it's manufacturer error.

These manufacturers need to have a conference in some 4 star hotel and decide some proper standards to stick to for road tubeless to really gain in popularity.

zefs
Posts: 436
Joined: Sat Aug 05, 2017 8:40 pm

by zefs

Lewn777 wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 3:03 am
These manufacturers need to have a conference in some 4 star hotel and decide some proper standards to stick to for road tubeless to really gain in popularity.
Mavic UST basically does that, really easy to work with and tires seal with normal floor pump. No rim tape/airshots needed.

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Lewn777
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by Lewn777

zefs wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 7:41 pm
Lewn777 wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 3:03 am
These manufacturers need to have a conference in some 4 star hotel and decide some proper standards to stick to for road tubeless to really gain in popularity.
Mavic UST basically does that, really easy to work with and tires seal with normal floor pump. No rim tape/airshots needed.
Yes, but then you need to buy Mavic/Huchinson tires and Mavic wheels. A lot of people aren't over enthused with Mavic hubs and bearings or tires. I Also UST quite is heavy and everyone that uses it has to pay Mavic royalties. Other manufacturers need to work out a tubeless ready 'standard'.

boots2000
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Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:28 pm

by boots2000

Just add more sealant in the fall-
Mr.Gib wrote:
Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:41 pm
So I run tubeless (and discs :P ) on my fender bike in the winter. However where I live, between April and October the roads are dry and the bike may only get used a few times. It sits hanging up in my bike room. I am concerned if it sits unused for months I will have dried sealant collected in one part of the tire.

What is the right move?

Take the tires off, clean everything and install a conventional tire/tube so that on the odd wet day I have a functioning bike?
or
Will I be OK if I spin the tires once per week? Or is there some other protocol that I have not considered?

TKS

Geoff
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Location: Canada

by Geoff

I have been running a few test sets for a number of seasons now. In my experience, the sealant lasts more than a single season. It is really dry here, so I would expect that they would last even longer in a more humid environment. I would guess that you could probably really safely go with a refill every two seasons, or so. I don't think I need a refill on any of my sets this spring, with will be 3 seasons for one of those sets. Please note, if you let the pressure come off too much in the off-season, you can get a bead-break, which might lead the sealant drying-up a bit more quickly.

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IrrelevantD
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by IrrelevantD

dvq wrote:
Thu Apr 05, 2018 6:40 pm
I spin them around once a week, or I just let them dry out, and peel off the sealant/refresh when the season is on again.
This.

My experience has been that so long as I keep the tires at sufficent pressure, I've had sealant last up to a year (Stans). The only time I've found dried sealant in a wheelset, I let the tires get down to arround 30-40psi for a few months. Low enough I could pinch the bead off the rim.
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