14 December 2011 - 7:10Ask George: How To Change a Tubeless Tire

or Tubeless How To (Electric Boogaloo) or just plain old boring Week 7.

Last week, we all got to see the first of what I hope will be a bunch of very helpful videos to help folks understand the products and services Bike29 has to offer.

You know how books generally have more detail than movies do? Well, here is a more detailed step by step by step how to, to complement the video. Just be warned, once I have the money, I will remaster the original video, add never before seen footage, special effects, put it on Blu-Ray, and add Jar Jar Binks as my assistant.

the tools of the trade

Injector... damn near.. oh nevermind

If the tire is new, it will require more sealant than one that has been sealed before. Tires are porous, and the sealant’s job is to penetrate and seal any hole. New tires will absorb a few ounces of sealant almost right away, which is why you would start out with 2 scoops, or roughly 4oz of sealant. 2oz would theoretically be absorbed, leaving 2oz to stay and slosh around, ready to seal any big holes caused by rocks, thorns or rabid dogs. Tires that have been sealed already would have already been made airtight (or so one might surmise) and would only need enough sealant to slosh.

Now we come to the fun part, inflation. This is where it can go smooth as silk, or be a real PITA, so you will need to be aware of a couple of things. Having access to a compressor will make for a quick and relatively easy inflation. A good floor pump is a necessity wether you are tubeless or not, and if you don’t have one yet, I highly recommend the Topeak Joe Blow MTN.

bubbles!

You will hear loud snapping/pinging sounds as the tire snaps into the rim. It can be very scary, especially if you are not used to airing up tubeless tires. I’ve become immune to a degree over the years. If your name is Shatner, you go running and screaming into the other room like a little girl. If the tire is not inflating and pinging, however, you will have to figure out why. Most of the time, you are not getting enough air past the valve to get it to seat into the rim. This is when you would remove the valve core, which will allow more air in at a faster rate, “shocking” the tire into place. Once the tire is seated, you will have to reinstall the valve core, and re inflate the tire, but once the beads have snapped in, they should stay put.

If the tire continues to loose air quickly, make sure the tire/rim isn’t compromised. I’ve probably spent a total of about an hour over the last five years of doing this trying to air up various tires with a big slice in them, or rims with a big dent in them that for some reason I never caught. And, if your rim tape/strip is compromised,  you are basically chasing your tail.

we got us a hole in the tape

There are some folk that will tell you that you need to wait before you go ride, but what they are waiting for I’m not sure. If the tire is holding air, then there is nothing stopping you. If you are loosing air, you’ll need to figure out why. It is possible to damage the Stan’s tape, especially if you are using a tire lever to instal the tire. It is also possible that you might need to add more sealant, some tires are more porous than others, and the Stan’s can literally be absorbed that quickly. Here is another time when the valve core tool and Stan’s Injector tool come in handy. I’ve had tires that have taken as many as 5 scoops before they held air, and the Injector is a nice hassle free way to get a few more oz into the tire without having to do the seating the bead and jiggling the wheel steps.

I hope this has been helpful. I get asked about tubeless set ups all the-time, and there isn’t really anything to be apprehensive about provided you use these steps as your guidelines. I’ve been using my Topeak floor pump more and more to drive home the point that it can be done outside of a shop environment.