
Got my first tubeless wheels and while wheel shopping and watching how to setup tubeless videos it seemed like most people take the factory tape off and apply "good" tape to start fresh, but….
Then got into the weeds on the ENVE website about how their tape is the best tape, you have to use their special valve stem nut thing so you don't explode and figured with all this research they put into it surely from the factory this is setup better than a noob like me could do. So, I seated the tires, added sealant and pumped them up thinking it was good.
Next day both tires were flat. I read you have to ride it to get the sealant distributed well, but some people said you could just shake it so I figured I'd try again. Pumped them up and shook the heck out of it, and the next day only ONE tire was flat! I did it! So I'll just do it again for the flat tire…. but, I still cant get the flat one to hold air overnight. I read to do soapy water:
https://i.imgur.com/rQyKalC.jpeg
Its leaking around the valve stem. If I push on the valve stem slightly with my finger I can hear air coming out. I undid the nut, wiggled it around trying to feel for it seating in the rim groove and tightened it back down… doesn't leak as much when I push on it now, but still maybe a little bit.
Is this a bad tape job? Do I need to rip everything off, start all over and re-tape it? Do I need a new valve stem? Squirt another oz of sealant in and shake it more?
FYI the reason I'm hesitant to "ride it" to distribute the sealant (instead of shaking) it is because with these wheels my rotors and pads change (old wheels have different size and type (6 bolt) rotors that wont fit anymore), trying not to disable my bike until I can get this holding air so that I still have a bike to ride.
by tolem
2 Comments
Same post happens once a week… Answer doesn’t change. It’s the tape. Retape
Whenever I retape I need to push the valve stem in with thumb and tighten the nut on the other side at the same time. I suggest trying this first before retaping.
I would 100% trust that enve knows how to tape their rims correctly. While I’m sure that on occasion maybe they didn’t do a good job I would suspect that is rare.