I'm a bike commuter. On my regular route I started getting one or two punctures a day, mostly from tiny glass shards, so I decided to learn to set up my wheels to tubeless.
I watched countless of videos about it on youtube, I read forum posts about best practices and techniques and I swear I tried to follow them the best I could and still no success.
The first time I used a Muc-Off kit (which turned out to be a mistake, since the rim tape left an almost unremovable residue on the rim and it was a pain in the ass to clean it off), then I bought a large bottle of Peaty's sealant, WTB rim tape and Peaty's valves. I've also tried three different tyres: Goodyear Connector (came with my bike), Pathfinder Pros (which I used of the last 3 months) and lastly unused, brand new out of the box Gravelking SK+ TLRs (I used the TLC ones with tubes on my previous bike and never had a puncture with them; if everything fails I'll fall back to these). The wheels are Sonder Nova alloy, tubeless ready wheels.
I don't think I applied rim tape or installed valves any worse or different than shown in these videos:
https://youtu.be/hAhQ40J1i3o?si=46ESQ0CljA4VINUd&t=120
https://youtu.be/bzAXCsT8U_A?si=QPH-yQ6NMZIvVCBQ
My very first attempt was no different to what this guy's doing:
https://youtu.be/ZHXF_kRfb5M?si=U6DU2-poghcgEBDT
I also tried putting in an inner tube first to press down the rim tape evenly everywhere. I used about 60-80 ml sealant per tyre and inflated them to 40 psi. I checked and made sure that the beads popped in place properly. No sealant was leaking anywhere. No visible or audible air leak.
And yet the result is always the same: the tyre slowly loses pressure and deflates completely in half an hour. Even after 2-3 days and 6-8 20 minute rides. It's just enough for me to get to my workplace but nothing more. What do I do wrong? Or does it take several days until it starts working?
by Unique_Ad_1188
6 Comments
This is why I abandoned tubeless for TPUs. So much less faff.
[https://youtu.be/sYwj473fGgk](https://youtu.be/sYwj473fGgk)
I followed that dudes guide, double wrapped (triple over the valve) and pressed in hard all the way around with a tyre lever.
Then once sealant is in rotate and lay each wheel on it’s side to coat the sidewalls and fill all the tiny gaps.
I used muc off tape, sealant and valves, two different bikes a year ago first go and they’re both still holding well.
There is a break in period with new tubeless setups. Everything needs to seal up.
However that usually doesn’t take longer than one ride – you’ve definitely got an issue.
Valve core not being fully screwed in? Rim tape issue? You can fully inflate the tire – spray everywhere with soapy water and you should see bubbles wherever the leak is.
Do you have a bottle of soapy water in a spray bottle? A leak that bad would blow some pretty serious bubbles. Bubbles at Spoke holes means it’s your tape that’s the problem. Otherwise you might find a valve tire or rim that’s leaking. You’ll need to wet the whole rim and every spoke hole with the soapy water (use a little dish soap)
Put the inflated tire in water and find out where the leak is. If it’s from the spokes your tubeless tape is too narrow and might have a leak.
If it’s from the valve it’s probably not seated well
If it’s from the tire, self explanatory
Have you tried spraying your tire + wheel with soap to see where the leak is? The leak is probably somewhere in the tape.