Tubeless Tires and Winter Storage

[Mr.Gib]

I have a wheelset with tubeless tires mounted that I will only use in the summer. If I leave them untouched for the next 4 months, will I end up with 20 or 30 grams of congealed latex at one spot of the tire? Or is the proper protocol to dismount and clean everything.

I did dismount one set, and the latex residue adhered to the tire beads has me thinking they won't ever seal properly again. Picking it off molecule by molecule is out of the question. It prettty much has me concluding that unless a tubeless tire is ready for the bin, leave it on the rim. But that brings us back to the congealed latex problem. Or do I have to start rotating my wheels a quarter turn every week, like an egg being hatched under a lightbulb. Seems obsessive.

I do leave my winter bike idle for many months and just top up the sealant every fall, but who knows what's going inside those tires - could be ugly. It's a fendered up wet road bike so I don't really care. Summer gear with race tires should be perfect IMO.

Curious what others are doing with their idle tubeless tires.

[TobinHatesYou]

30g of liquid sealant becomes maybe 8g of dried latex.

If you're going to store your tires for 4 months, you have the option of sucking all the sealant out with something like a KOM Cycling syringe.

[MikeD]

30g of liquid sealant becomes maybe 8g of dried latex.

If you're going to store your tires for 4 months, you have the option of sucking all the sealant out with something like a KOM Cycling syringe.

Pulled this out of my seldom used mountain bike tire

I couldn't pop the bead free on one tire because the sealant had glued the tire to the rim wall. New sealant softened the old and eventually I popped the bead free and cleaned out the dried puddle.

Sealant last long during the winter because of the low temperatures anyway. Personally, if it's just one bike, I'd check the sealant and keep it topped up. Spinning the wheels occasionally may be a good idea. Letting it dry may glue the tire to the rim like what happened to me and will form a puddle.

[AJS914]

What brand sealant was that? It looks like you started off with a quart of sealant!

Mr. Gib, I wouldn't trouble yourself with trying to do anything special. After doing it once, I'll never clean out sealant from a tire again. I just keep topping up sealant until a new tire is needed.

My gravel bike went through a few years on the same tires, a few frozen winters, a couple blazing summers in NM, dozens of tops ups, and when I finally took off the worn out tire there was a mass of latext cobwebs in there. As previously noted they weighed hardly anything even after dozens of top ups.

I recently swapped out a GP5000TL. I had used Orange Seal and the tire had been on my bike for a year, topped up 3-4 times per year. In the end, it had a quarter sized ball of latex in there that weighed nothing.

Cleaning sealant out of tires is just extra work for nothing IMO.

[pdlpsher1]

Cleaning sealant out of tires is just extra work for nothing IMO.

I get the impression that the latex cobwebs will dry out sealant topoffs more quickly, as the liquid sealant will attach itself to the cobwebs making the sealant less effective to seal punctures. My new plan is to clean off any dried sealants before topping off. Topping off without taking the tire off is popular because it's easy. But I do think one will end up with a slightly heavier tire and less effective puncture protection.

[kode54]

If I know that my bike will be out of commission for over 4-6 months, I extract as much sealant I can and put it into a small bottle that's labeled "USED" and put the cap on. Any residual sealant will dry up. When I'm ready to use the wheels again, I put in 2 oz the day before riding and give it a spin to distribute the sealant as evenly as possible. Summer, winter...same treatment.

[kode54]

I use something like this...

https://www.amazon.com/KOM-Cycling-Tube ... NrPXRydWU=

Where you can simply remove the valve core and insert the tip in with tire valve rotated in the 6 o'clock position.

[Orlok]

I have a wheelset with tubeless tires mounted that I will only use in the summer. If I leave them untouched for the next 4 months, will I end up with 20 or 30 grams of congealed latex at one spot of the tire? Or is the proper protocol to dismount and clean everything.

I did dismount one set, and the latex residue adhered to the tire beads has me thinking they won't ever seal properly again. Picking it off molecule by molecule is out of the question. It prettty much has me concluding that unless a tubeless tire is ready for the bin, leave it on the rim. But that brings us back to the congealed latex problem. Or do I have to start rotating my wheels a quarter turn every week, like an egg being hatched under a lightbulb. Seems obsessive.

I do leave my winter bike idle for many months and just top up the sealant every fall, but who knows what's going inside those tires - could be ugly. It's a fendered up wet road bike so I don't really care. Summer gear with race tires should be perfect IMO.

Curious what others are doing with their idle tubeless tires.

I ride the whole year with two wheelsets, carbon for the summer and aluminium for the winter. The tubeless tires on the wheelset will stay the whole time unther pression and with Doc Blue sealant in it. So I can pick one of them when I want to change wheelset. I do that for more then 8 years now with no problems beside controlling the pression and turn them several turns around once a month. No deal to do so.!

[spdntrxi]

ok someone invent/make a contraption that slowly rotates wheels... like a trickle charger for batteries during the winter.

[AJS914]

Cleaning sealant out of tires is just extra work for nothing IMO.

I get the impression that the latex cobwebs will dry out sealant topoffs more quickly, as the liquid sealant will attach itself to the cobwebs making the sealant less effective to seal punctures. My new plan is to clean off any dried sealants before topping off. Topping off without taking the tire off is popular because it's easy. But I do think one will end up with a slightly heavier tire and less effective puncture protection.

IME, the more cobwebs and layer of latex on the backside of the tire offer better flat resistance.

Attached is what a GP5000TL looks like after 2500 miles with Orange Seal sealant. It's never worth cleaning.

[Mr.Gib]

I have the syringe but unfortunately I can't get it through the valve stem - the entry point into the tire is a bit too tight. Sounds like it's no issue to just leave the wheels and rotate them if I remember. But that slug of rubber from the mtb tire, that is impressive.

[TobinHatesYou]

I have the syringe but unfortunately I can't get it through the valve stem - the entry point into the tire is a bit too tight. Sounds like it's no issue to just leave the wheels and rotate them if I remember. But that slug of rubber from the mtb tire, that is impressive.

It's recommended to use 120mL of Orange Seal in a 29er MTB tire, so a 15g chunk of latex isn't surprising. If you're using 30-40mL in a road tire, you won't get a "slug" like that which is more than 8g, I promise...probably less since some of it will be coating the rest of the tire.

[pdlpsher1]

I'm less fortunate than you guys. Orange Seal regular.

[TobinHatesYou]

I'm less fortunate than you guys. Orange Seal regular.

How many months, and how much in terms of volume would you say that is?

[pdlpsher1]

The tire was initially mounted and filled with 50ml on 4/17. I checked the sealant level on 8/26 and it was bone dry. I know, four months is too long but I was a newbie on road TL. I added 50ml on 8/26. I then took the tire off yesterday to put the new TR tire on. It had about 10ml of liquid which it didn't show in the pic. because I wiped them off. This was a front tire so it had a gazillion miles on it. I don't keep track of mileage by bike but I estimate it has at least 4,000 miles. I now have the impression that high mileage will tend to dry out the sealant faster. And also the dried up latex might accelerate the drying process.