UKH

Brought a TCR last summer that came with a tubeless set up. It's about 9 months old now so before I take it out again in spring I think I need to replace the sealant.

Is it best practice to take the tyre off and clean out the old sealant every time I replace the sealant? Or is that far too much faff than it's worth?

Thanks.

In reply to ralphio:

I put new sealant in every year 

I once tried to remove the old dry sealant and will never do this again!

In reply to ralphio:

I think the idea is you keep topping the sealant up every 3 months and in the end you have a solid tyre but puncture proof.

In reply to ralphio: nope, no need to take the tyre off at all. Just squeeze in more sealant through the valve. The more dirt and bits of old dried up sealant inside the better as it will help bond and block any hole that occurs. 

In reply to ralphio:

Do yourself a favour and get rid of them, I changed mine to Vittoria Corsa G with lightweight tubes, it transformed the ride and it’s lighter than the Giant factory tubeless setup, you will also thank me the first time you get a rear puncture and end up with a skunk stripe of sticky sealant up the back of your favourite kit...

In reply to mr rob:

Most sealant manufacturers rate their lifetime (before drying out) as about 3 months. Tubeless is definitely not fit-and-forget! As for the 'faff', you can leave it in, but old sealant will quickly become heavier than the tyre. Yes, it's a lot of faff, especially when you get a puncture which won't seal and you end up having to put a tube in. Sealant everywhere including the cavity in the rim. Ends up dribbling out at all sorts of inconvenient times and places. Apart from that tubeless is brilliant - off-road. I'm not convinced about on-road at all.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

This.  I persevered for two years before I gave up and went back to tubes.  Michelin Pro4 for me. 

Unless you are a committed leg shaver you will also spend ages picking sealant off the hairs on your legs and your bike will be covered with the stuff permanently.  If it does seal a puncture, you'll end up riding home gingerly to save your rims with almost no air in the tyres.  Or you'll have to stop and pump them up anyway, with your thumb over the hole, hoping it will seal, before you give up and borrow a tube from someone.

Just saying...

In reply to ralphio:

Theres a good video on GCN.

In reply to nniff:

I'm a not worried about the weight of my bike sort of guy, spent an average of about £900 on my last few bikes in todays money so nothing huge. I'm totally happy with tubes and the schwalbe highest puncture proof range, cost a bit more, weigh a bit more, literally never had a puncture in years. Job done. Trust me its not because i'm lucky on previous tyres I was averaging one every 2-4 months or so. I must be on 7 years on these tyres with no punctures.

In reply to Dark-Cloud:

I ran Vittoria graphene 2 corsa's with latex inner tubes for a while. Ride was lovely, really low rolling resistance, fast and comfortable....everything you dream of,  but the punctures!! The tyres are so fragile and wear quickly in my experience. The side walls are like paper. But you are correct that the ride was fantastic while it lasted.

In reply to Bjartur i Sumarhus:

Agreed, they are not training tyres, they are on my summer bike and have done around 1500 miles on them so far and no punctures, GP5000 are a good bet with some lighter tubes in, tubeless on road a road bike to me is pointless and not worth the faff.

In reply to ralphio:

Get yourself some Tyre Yogurt!

https://www.tybikeproducts.com/

Never dries out.  Got it used in a quad bike, garden trolley, wheel barrow........ and of course my mtb.

In reply to MJAngry:

All high volume, low pressure.  Low volume, high pressure on a road bike and it doesn't work well enough.  Drop the pressure and you get snake bites instead.

In reply to ralphio:

I get the impression that tubeless road tyres are like marmite.  MrsD loves them, I don't trust them.  In terms of answering your question, though, this is worth a look:

https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/video/how-to-maintain-your-tubeless-ty...

In reply to nniff:

I don't know man, that tyre yogurt is really quick to clag holes up.

It was difficult to get in to the presta valves on my bike, that was because I didn't get the fill kit.  As soon as the stuff was forced through a hole (opening on bottle funnel) and detected air, it was sealing the bottle very effectively.

And it does not dry out.

In reply to nniff:

It's worth getting tyre plugs to avoid this sort of thing. The Dynaplug Racer has been the best I've tried, thick enough to fill a reasonable wound and sticky enough to stay put for many kms. In theory they seal the hole permanently, with a little help from the sealant too, though in practice they do seem to start leaking after a while - but it's certainly a get-you-home option and deffo easier than putting in a tube (and less bulky in the pockets).
 

In reply to nufkin:

Having spent half an hour at the side of the road trying to fill a nipped sidewall with a worm before having to give up and put a tube in, I have no patience with those things either

In reply to nufkin:

I've had sort of the other scale-end of the problem - tiny hole that won't seal. It was in the front tyre, saw the white bubbles as I headed down the hill. Stopped bubbling after a couple of hundred yard, so I thought "great!" A mile on it started bubbling/spaying again so I stopped and had a closer look - it was a tiny pinhole. Pumped up the tyre a bit, carried on. Another mile on, fast bumpy bend, started bubbling again... And so on, till I gave up an put a tube in. I had plugs with me, but I would have had to make the hole much bigger to get the plug in, so what's the point? I wondered if there was a compatibility issue between the tyre (natural rubber - Panaracer Gravelking) and the sealer (OKO), but couldn't find any clear evidence either way. Will I risk going out without spare tubes? Guess.

In reply to ralphio:

Thanks everyone. Hopefully going to upgrade the wheels this/next year to some (relatively) cheap Chinese carbons. Fully expect I'll revert back to tubes at that point. Think I've probably only had 2 or 3 punctures over the last 8 years so the puncture prevention if tubeless has never been that much of a draw for me.

In reply to ralphio:

I use tubeless of both my road bikes now, I generally do a sealant top up once a year on each i.e. just before winter for the winter bike, just before summer for the summer bike. In terms of old sealant, I just take one side of the tyre off and sponge it out with kitchen towel - you can usually tell when its past it as it goes a bit clear, no longer like full fat milk. 

If you plan to use tubeless regularly though I would invest in an airshot, without one it can be impossible to get the tyres back on the rim.  Also, and this is a lesson I have learned, the amount of rim tape is fairly critical - you want the tyre snug but not too snug when it first goes on. Too much tape and the tyre will never pop onto the rim, too little and it might not seal, or if it does seal will start leaking a few months down the line as the tyre becomes more supple with use. 

In reply to ralphio:

The only justifications for road tubeless are:

1) Gravel (for low pressures), now just treat it like a mountain bike tyre.

2) Carbon rims and no disc brakes and you live in a place with lots of long descents and you like draggin your brakes (tubes don't like heat!)

Other than that, the use case for road tubeless just doesn't really make sense. Just use latex inner tubes. I swear I don't think I got a puncture in two years and 5000km living in yorkshire on crap roads with GP4k's and 90psi in latex tubes. In fact, my tubes outlasted my tyres!

In reply to MJAngry:

Looks a bit more pricey than normal sealant but not that much. So you would really recommend it would you?

I had a puncture back in the late autumn in my gravel bike front tyre. I had ridden into work and obviously got a small hole then, so the tyre was really soft but not fully flat in the afternoon before going home. Pumped it up, did maybe 10 kms, needed to pump it again, final 7 kms home and stopped once more just shy of home to pump it once again. I thought it might be the start of a re-run of the great tubeless debacle of Dec. 2019 (don't ask!) but then also remembered I hadn't topped up the sealant since putting those tyres on back in the spring - about 7 months previously. So once home, put some sealant in, pumped them up firmly. The next morning, still firm and have behaved perfectly since. Moral of the story - be more organised than me and top up your sealant because it does dry out (even when the tyres are in the cold and covered in mud and muck half the time)! 

So I've not seen the tyre yogurt before, but the "no drying out" bit sounds attractive.

In reply to Richard Horn:

That seems to depend a lot on the tyre and rim combination. I built a pop bottle compressor that works pretty well - not used an airshot - I'm sure they are a lot less hassle, but the homemade one does the job. But on my current Hunt wheels and Vittoria tyres I was a amazed that a couple of pumps on a track pump and that wonderfully satisfying "pop!" as they sealed. So easy! I had Gravelking SKs before and they were a massive faff to fit to either my older Boardman wheels or the Hunts when I got them.

In reply to TobyA:

Have a look online for some videos of it. There are some good ones of people trying to kill the tyre with screws and nails etc. It's definitely worth a try, the fact that you can take the goo out and reuse it, means that you would be more inclined to change tryes based on conditions. 

In reply to TobyA:

Fittability is obviously hard to predict. I popped Gravelkings on to Hunt rims dead easy with just a track pump. First time. Swapped to some Maxxis Ravagers, no problem. Went back to GKs - no way! Wouldn't pop, local shop couldn't get them on either with a Airshot. Must have stretched a bit? Anyway, I ended up buying a big red tank (can't remeber the make, but bigger and cheaper than the Airshot, and the GKs popped on straight away. Lesson? i'm not sure.