Road tubeless experiences

My bike just ticked over 24,000 logged miles in just under 5 years. I had a few p’tures on the previous bike before I realised that the sealant was the issue. With this bike I had a blow out on a massive pothole but I was close enough to home to ring for a lift. So I didn’t even try to fix it. If I had been desperate I could have booted it and put a tube in. Whilst waiting for the lift I noticed that every driver swerved the crater so that would have wrecked any tyre. I have had clincher tyres wrecked at the same frequency.

I’ve probably posted before about how crap Muc-Off tape is, worst stuff I’ve ever used!

…but whatever brand tape I’d be surprised if that holds air effectively, as the tape looks a good 5mm+ too narrow to me. I like to cover the whole rim bed and partway up the sidewalls to give the sealant no options to escape!

Let us know if that works out, but if not you’ll have an idea what to try next :+1:

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Yep, that’s what I’ve been using to, um, encourage the tape to be more flexible. When all else fails, I use gorilla tape. One layer. and done. (then I discover that it was the seal between the rim and valve stem…)

My not-so-local-but-really-good bike shop uses Muc-Off tape. Over the last year I’ve had it on 2 sets of wheels - no problems holding air.

My tape job - held air overnight.

This is the only problem with it:

pulling back after 8+ months:

So this time I sealed the end with a heat gun:

That I normally use for shrink wrap tubing.

Just for attempting to seal off the end, and hopefully prevent the problem above.

No shop that I’ve used does that. And here is the manual for the wheels:

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Just set up my cross tires last night. 2 layers of gorilla tape plus inserts. These things will be impossible to burp.

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The first time I used muc-off tape (winter wheels) it didn’t seal perfect but the sealant sealed it and it never leaked (well significantly say more than 5psi over night). When I came to refit the wheels a couple of winters later some dried sealant had found its way into the rim so I had to remove the stuff and when I fitted fresh muc-off tape this time it wouldn’t seal/seat! So I removed it completely and fitted electrical tape and it seated 1st time and its been like that for a couple of years.

Yea I did notice there was a bunch left over from the previous tape job…

Seems fine. I’ll find out tonight when I get home and see if it’s still holding air lol. I dont plan on cleaning goop unless proven to be necessary…

Yeah it’s a last resort. I haven’t had to fall back on that since I found the heatshrink gun technique. My HED Emporias are the hardest ones I’ve got as they middle channel is very deep and quite pronounced. If the tape isn’t pliable enough to stick all the way into the bottom of the groove, the tire bead won’t sit in it and push the tape around, wreck the seal.

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Thats what I liked about the Muc-Off tape, it was flexible/pliable enough to drop into the channel of my Roval wheels without much effort.

My only previous install attempt was in 2018 with ENVE tape on SES 5.6 Disc wheels - and the ENVE tape is 25mm for a 21mm internal width. I screwed up that install and had to take it to a bike shop. The 3 bike shops around here that I’ve used with the Enve wheels - they politely refused to use the Enve tape and used Stans 21mm tape instead.

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Just got a set of Roval Rapide’s and trying to decide on which tire to fit on them. I’m stuck between the new mondo, a turbo rapid air or one of the new Vittoria corsa’s and looking for advice.

Yes I know the GP5K is a great tire but I have that on my other bike and want to try something different.

Michelin Pilot Pros if you can find them.

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Has anyone gone for an insert, such as Vittoria, for tubeless? How does it feel, does it effect the handling etc. It seems a no brainier as long as it doesn’t dramatically effect the rolling resistance or handling of the bike, and not having to use sealant is pretty cool.

I use airliners. It’s my first road tubeless experience, so can’t really compare. But for me, it allows me to race without carrying any spares (because of the ride flat capability), so any weight increase is off set. There’s also the added safety, should you blow out.

They don’t touch the tyre, so can’t really see how they impact rolling resistance. You do still need (ammonia free) sealant though - they don’t negate sealant.

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Vittoria Air-Liners work well, they compress under pressure and don’t affect handling or rolling resistance.

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Well that didn’t work… swapping tires today and sealant under an inch of the tape end. Both front and back.

My single wrap rear wheel tape job was awesome.

New AS TR mounted, without sealant (yet), and two hours later it dropped from 70 to 65psi. :+1:

However my front tape job was leaking air badly. This past week it would drop from 70 to 40psi in 4 hours. So much for wrapping front wheel tape on an upside down bike.

Stripped the tape, and 30 minutes of isopropyl alcohol later I had a clean rim.

Took it to LBS and borrowed their wheel stand, and two layers of Muc-Off tape this time:

No air bubbles and it’s like a perfect Roval factory tape install :+1: Thank you Kevin for letting me wrench on your bench!

We all got a good laugh at the Muc-Off sticker. And talked Strava segment shit because he had to get help to beat one of mine from a month ago. Good times, maybe I found a retirement job lol.

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Might have been broached somewhere in this thread but struggling to see if it’s been mentioned, but hoping someone has a couple pointers. I’ve just tried to set up my hollowgram rins tubeless, put them on without sealant all ok but as using silca sealant, I had to put it through the tyre but now I can’t get the tyre to seat true always one area that’s not seated right. Any tips for solving this? I’ve tried going up on the max recommended psi, also tried dropping the pressure and trying to seat it by hand, which helped but not perfect. It’s always the same area where it’s not sitting correctly.

Thanks

Unseat the tire around that area and inflate again. When you unseat it check for anything that might have gotten sealed there.

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Thanks will give that a go.

This useful video from Silca was in my YouTube feed tonight.

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soaking tubeless ready is something I knew/suspected. The synergistic hack for presta valves was a new one that I’ll have to try.