Bicycle Tires - Gone Tubeless?

[WilD]

Long story short, I purchased a new wheelset for my Salsa Journeyman due to a badly mangled stock rear wheel. The new wheels came "tubeless ready" with Stan's Notubes Arch EX rims, tubeless rim tape and valves installed. I figured, "why not try it?" and ordered a set of Kenda Flintridge Pro "tubeless ready" tires (700x40) to go with the new wheels and a bottle of Stan's sealant. I read the directions on the bottle and watched a Park Tool instruction video on you tube and did the install. The initial setup went off without any problems. However, I'm not sure I'm sold on the tubeless concept, at least not with more road oriented tires. There are no obvious leaks oozing sealant and the bead around the rims looks like it is properly in place, but I loose quite a bit of pressure to leak down. The tires go from 40psi to 20 something within a couple days. So, I need to effectively pump them up for every ride. I did some searching after the fact and find a lot of conflicting views on whether this is normal or not. Lots of reports of variability with certain tire and rim combos sealing better etc. I've only ridden 25-30 miles on them so far and some accounts suggest they may seal better with more use sloshing the sealant around. Anyone else have experience with this? I can see this maybe working better with larger MTB tires that run at lower pressure and higher volume. In any case, I'm not in full regret mode, but tubes seem like a better option for me...

[shadow191]

That's not normal. I ride tubeless on my MTB and it will take months to lose 20 psi. If there isn't any obvious leak at the bead, I would suspect the tape or the valve stem. But if it's happening on both tires, I would think it's more likely the tape. I've had tubeless on MTB for 10 years now and have never lost pressure that fast unless there was an issue. I run 35 psi on MTB as I do it more for flat protection than traction.

I run tubed road tires and on those, I will lose 10psi per week but that's at 100 psi and ultralite tubes.

[gabe]

Yeah, I generally have to pump up my tires before every ride. Well worth it though, tubeless is the bomb. I have NEVER ever had a flat or any issues whatsoever running tubeless. The only time I ever even got close to having a problem was on an 80 mile bikepacking trip on my fatbike and it got a hole from a sharp rock. It was spitting tubeless sealant for a bit but I shoved some pine needles in the hole and it sealed up with sealant and I pumped the tire up 2-3 psi and kept on going. Still running that tire.

Kendas might not be the best choice in terms of reliability. Tubeless setup relies on bead design quite a lot as well as casing weave "tightness". You either end up with a tire that is thick and stiff and not at all fun to ride on so that it doesn't leak or a thin tire that might weep some sealant through the sidewalls.

The best tire I've found so far in the 700c size is the Panaracer Gravelking 700x42. Run that on my road/allroad bike for a few years and have been very pleased. Once you go with a properly supple and lightweight tire you will be amazed at how much nicer the bike rolls along.

[BLachance75]

I go tubeless on my road bike and I have to pump them up before every ride. I've used Giant tires, Panaracer Gravelkings, and my current tires are Maxxis refuse.

I have found that the more often I rode the less air the'd need. So if I ride once a week I need to pump them up. But if I ride 4 days a week they hold air and don't need to be pumped up.

[Tracker]

Long story short, I purchased a new wheelset for my Salsa Journeyman due to a badly mangled stock rear wheel. The new wheels came "tubeless ready" with Stan's Notubes Arch EX rims, tubeless rim tape and valves installed. I figured, "why not try it?" and ordered a set of Kenda Flintridge Pro "tubeless ready" tires (700x40) to go with the new wheels and a bottle of Stan's sealant. I read the directions on the bottle and watched a Park Tool instruction video on you tube and did the install. The initial setup went off without any problems. However, I'm not sure I'm sold on the tubeless concept, at least not with more road oriented tires. There are no obvious leaks oozing sealant and the bead around the rims looks like it is properly in place, but I loose quite a bit of pressure to leak down. The tires go from 40psi to 20 something within a couple days. So, I need to effectively pump them up for every ride. I did some searching after the fact and find a lot of conflicting views on whether this is normal or not. Lots of reports of variability with certain tire and rim combos sealing better etc. I've only ridden 25-30 miles on them so far and some accounts suggest they may seal better with more use sloshing the sealant around. Anyone else have experience with this? I can see this maybe working better with larger MTB tires that run at lower pressure and higher volume. In any case, I'm not in full regret mode, but tubes seem like a better option for me...

this post is old.. and spam brought me here, but i have knowledge to share..

so, if you live where i do, tubeless is almost mandatory for trail riding, the biggest thing tubeless will do is making rolling over a cactus or goats-heads not ruin your day.. it will make it not matter at all, they also do let you run slightly lower pressures

there are some downsides,
the sealant has a really powerful ammonia smell to it,
youll want to avoid getting it on anything.
the tape sometimes doesnt fully seal or gets compromised, (if you se wetting around your spoke nipples, you need to get that valve checked and the tire retaped asap, liquid inside the rim is never good)
it dries up over time so you always have to add more. if it gets all dry leaving a weird goopy latex mess inside your tire, and if its a big clump will totally cause a wobble., it can be picked off though, it takes time, and it also depends on how cured it is, i also recommend orange over stans, mainly because orange comes out in big peices, if not all in one pull
you have to remember to spin the tires ones in awhile, the seal is maintained by the sealant getting around the bead and curing, so the more spread around you get it, the better it will stay sealed
they do bleed off pressure pretty rapidly. but with time it will get better as the sealant spreads and cures
and my least favorite part of tubeless, as you use your tires and the sidewalls break down, eventually the sealants will just start sweating through your sidewalls which means more sealant more often, or new tires (or back to tubes, but now everything is covered in sealant)

i have yet to see an effective tubeless ROAD solution for consumers.. the pros run tubeless in the big races like roubaix now (less rolling resistance because theres no tube/tire interface also no chance of pinch flats from a cobble) but thats also pro level where i suspect, they get better stuff,
in the history of the tour de France, the heaviest rider on record didnt break 210... tire pressure is based on rider weight.. at 100+ psi, all stan's does is turn into a mist spraying out of a pinhole puncture, and again, high ammonia smell.. aerosolized is worse..

[gabe]

I also have some experience with this. Here's what I have:

You do have to pump your tires up before every ride but the amount of air loss just depends on how new or old your tire sealant is. The sealant will dry up and the quantity in the tire will go down so I've found I have to add some once a year and then the tires lose hardly any air for a while. 6 months in they start losing a little more between rides and by 1 year it's a leak that requires topping the sealant up.

I haven't ever taken my tires off to clean the buildup out of them from the sealant so that's not absolutely necessary but it'll add weight in the tires over time with the sealant buildup. I just swap tires when they're worn out and the new tires are clean when they go on so no worries. Just have to clean the rim off and put the new tire on and throw in the requisite 4oz of sealant per tire. The one thing that needs replaced regularly is the presta valve core. Those things get gunked up with sealant to where you can't add or remove air from the tires.

On my road bike (well gravel/road) I've gone tubeless with great success. You have to get tires specifically rated for tubeless but those are more and more common. I'm running 700x38c gravel kings and they set up easily and have run tubeless for 4 years now no issues. I did get a pretty bad puncture in the rear needing a tubeless plug but I just threw a plug in on the side of the road and it's stayed in and been fine ever since.

[Tracker]

yeah, theres only 2 reasons to unmount to remove old sealant, 1 is if you screwed up and let a blob form, and 2 is if your doing a whole strip and clean for a customer who is being a shit about his wheels leaking. so, fully strip clean a retape the rim, and clean all the old sealant off the beads, and alot of times it comes of in big peices like "glue skin" so you start with on area and in about 10 minutes its mostly clean, find and remove as many thorns as you get lucky enough to find. and put it all back together again...

hated doing it, but it at least gives the customer the understanding that you didnt send them away without doing anything

glad to hear you've had better luck with them on cross tires, the horror story i was relaying was a triathlete trying to play marginal gains on her TT setup. so she was running 25's ,, everything we put in would blow out at 100psi and spray a fine mist of sealant all over the shop, tires, sealants, and wheels have improved since then, (in my defense, sold my mountain bike a few years back, so i am not as up to speed as i once was), i was under the impression the high pressure issues remained, there have been some new developments with hookless that nobody asked for, and hopefully people stay away from until the manufacturers give it a rest...

[gabe]

That's the problem with the TT riders is they run their tires rock hard. Recent studies on road bikes have shown the tires are actually more efficient at lower pressures like in the 50-65 psi range. 100psi is totally unnecessary and would pretty much just blow out with any sort of puncture tubeless or not.

My road bike tires live at 42/45psi front/rear. The one blow out I had was certainly more violent than a mountain bike but not too bad. Mainly a pain to clean off all that sealant on the seat tube after road mess has gotten into it and dried.

I agree on the Orange Seal. Been using it for years. The Subzero is pretty rough stuff (so thick it will clog up the valve stem) but it's the only way to go on fat bike tires when it gets down to 0 degrees out.

You mentioned a break in period on tubeless setups. I've only ever had issues except on a fat bike setup initially due to the tires burping at low pressures. These days I'll run the tires a little higher in the beginning and drop them down after a few rides. Never had a tire burp doing this even running plus size tires and fat bikes in the single digit psi. I have on the other hand had 29er tire burp after taking a big jump to flat. Pretty amazing how resilient tubeless is. I only noticed the tire was a bit low but after checking the rim it had a big flat spot in the rim. Smashed that poor rear rim flat in multiple places racing downhill on a hardtail but no punctures. Tubeless really is amazing on bikes.