Going Tubeless, is it really a DIY job?

Greenman14

Greenman14

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I’ve just gone tubeless on my front wheel. I’ll have to sit down for a while to recover, maybe do the back wheel tomorrow! The wheels are Mavic Ksyrium Pro Carbon, with Mavic’s Yksilon tyres (yes, I just guessed the spelling) and have only done about 1000km. The bit I thought would be difficult- getting the tyre to seat on the rim without a proper pump or compressor was actually a breeze using a normal track pump; what was not a breeze was unseating the tyre bead. Much sweat, lubricant and swearing was necessary.

As expected much cleaning up of spilt sealant was also necessary, it’s a messy business but I’ve started so I’ll finish. So glad I didn’t have to remove the tyre to repair a puncture at the roadside, I’d have needed strong drink and sandwiches in my tool pack for that. :blast
 
I’m getting mine done at the service. £20 for both wheels. The butler didn’t want to tackle the job, he said Wapping’s Mum said don’t go there.
 
Having just gone tubeless myself I feel your pain. The rear just wouldn't seal properly, then it punctured spraying the back of my bike with gunge. I started to think it really wasn't worth the effort but persevered . I've now got gorilla tape on the rims and using Stans race sealant and found the whole process second time round much easier with no mess. Re unseating tyres, mine were like MC tyres and required a lot of effort to unseat but once I'd done it once it become fairly easy.
 
I had a spate of punctures on the rear of my downhill bike

And decided to go tubeless.
New suitable tyre, and just seal the rim.
Or so I thought. 3 different people tried.
Rim always leaked air bubbles via spoke holes, but where the acutal leak was is hard to say.
Gorilla tape, rim tapes, buckets of different sealants.
Eventually we gave up and reverted to a tube.

When my trail bike rims finally give up the ghost, I will go tubeless with someone else rebuilding the rims and sealing them.
 
No problems with mine and it's only a 5 minute job.
 
My wheels were tubeliss ready - The shop fitted the valves and put the sealant in when I picked the bike up, took about five minis.

Since I’ve only ever fitted new tyres and new sealant - That was easy
 
jonnie comet said:
Are you talking about removing the tyre from the rim in the first place ?
Click to expand...

Yes, that was the hard part, the rest was easy. I should add that the wheels were tubeless-ready so no problem with rim tape etc. Just did the back wheel, this time i lubed the bead with soapy water and left it for 10 or 15 Minutes and it came off easier. Still not a job I’d want to do at the roadside, and I certainly don’t want to carry a water bottle full of soapy water- eventually I’d forget which bottle was which and end up with a mouthful of soapy water!

Now if I went electric I could carry all that crap around with me.

The only problem now is that my tyre pressure gauge doesn’t seem to fit onto the tubeless valves so I have to rely on the track pump gauge.
 
Greenman14 said:
Yes, that was the hard part, the rest was easy. I should add that the wheels were tubeless-ready so no problem with rim tape etc. Just did the back wheel, this time i lubed the bead with soapy water and left it for 10 or 15 Minutes and it came off easier. Still not a job I’d want to do at the roadside, and I certainly don’t want to carry a water bottle full of soapy water- eventually I’d forget which bottle was which and end up with a mouthful of soapy water!

Now if I went electric I could carry all that crap around with me.

The only problem now is that my tyre pressure gauge doesn’t seem to fit onto the tubeless valves so I have to rely on the track pump gauge.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for the reply and the info' ....very much appreciated....:thumb2
 
Both of my regularly used bikes I switched to tubeless myself with no issues. As a disclaimer though, same as Tim I'm used to changing my own. My rarely used Orange 5 I switched back to tubes yesterday as the sealant had dried out. Now that is a fun job! :blast
Mark
 
earthmover said:
Both of my regularly used bikes I switched to tubeless myself with no issues. As a disclaimer though, same as Tim I'm used to changing my own. My rarely used Orange 5 I switched back to tubes yesterday as the sealant had dried out. Now that is a fun job! :blast
Mark
Click to expand...

Fun as in a sticky mess? I think I’d only go tubeless on a bike I used regularly.
 
A final point worth mentioning is that I used Muc-Off sealant, which comes in a sachet that slips over the valves stem and it’s not easy to measure the amount going in, or stop some running out when you remove the sachet from the valve. I’m off to buy a syringe for the next time I need to add sealant.
 
Have a look at BikeSeal - doesn't dry out, doesn't need topping up and should last the life of the tyre.
I have it in all my cycles, motorcycles and scooter, and have never had a problem with it.

bikeseal.co.uk
 
I did mine without any problems, it probably took an hour start to finish, the front held pressure ok but the rear dropped from 40 to 9 psi overnight, a quick whizz around the block and the jobs a good un!

I’ve never had an issue doing a push bike tyre but then I do my enduro moto tyres so maybe it’s relative??
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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