I’m pretty new to tubeless. About 4 months ago I switched tires on my MTB and at the same time, I switched sealant over from Stan’s original to Silca. (I cleaned the inside of the rim).
After about 2 months of very irregular riding, the tire went flat and didn’t inflate again despite a sealant refill. Because it was the off season by then anyway, I didn’t immediately remove the tire but let it stand around 2 more months until now.
Today I removed the tire and while all the sealant was puddled up and dried (which I expected), it seems like the rim tape disintegrated, which I didn’t expect. Although disintegrated may be the wrong word, it looks like an upper, thin (decorative?) layer of the tape came off and below is a structurally sound, slick tape surface (brown in the pic). It’s original DT swiss tape, about a year old.
Is this expected? Is this a problem? Can the tape stay in place or do I need to remove? Could the sealant switch have caused it (it seems unlikely as the tire was new and the rim squeaky clean).
by map3k