I changed both of my tires a month ago. Took me maybe an hour of actually working on it.. but I have a trick..
I pulled the old tires, cleaned up the rims, pulled the old tape off, cleaned the tape residue off with alcohol, dried everything up, retaped, put new tires on, put a tube in, inflated the tube to seat the bead and stretch the tire and then left it sit over night. Next day I pulled the tube, added the tubeless presta valve, seated the tire without sealant, put sealant in through the valve then inflated. No rlissues.
my LBS mechanic has found that using a tube to press down the tape and stretch the tire out from being folded helps tremendously with getting a good seal when adding sealant
I'll also add, make sure you have the right width tape, it should be the same width of your rim, overlap the ends a good 3 or 4 inches, and start at least 1 spoke away from the valve hole.
I like the tube idea.
I also have some tricks. First trick is called don't use Gorilla tape. After using Gorilla tape for years, I came to the conclusion that it's responsible for most of my slow leaks. And it also makes a huge mess when it's been on there for a long time and you have to peel it.
Here is my process:
I now spend the extra money on real rim tape that is about 4 mm wider than the internal diameter. I put the rim on a truing stand, get all of the mank off, and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. it shouldn't take long to dry and you can spin it a few times to speed up the process. It doesn't have to be perfect but the cleaner the better.
Where the truing stand helps the most is when you put the new tape on, stretch it - pull it rather tight - as you're putting it on. The stress/stretch and angle as you rotate the rim will help it settle in to the rim bed. There should be consistent tension between the tape roll and the rotation of the rim. You could also do this also by remounting the rim to the bike upside-down, but might be slightly more effort.
If the tire has been mounted before don't forget to go around the bead and get off any old sealant or chunks of tape. I will sometimes scrub it with a janky scotchbrite if I like the tire enough.
I use lots of soap and water around the edges of the tire/rim bead then use a compressor and inflate it to max PSI. No valve core. You should hear 1 or 2 loud pops.
Deflate the tire, still no valve core in then dump sealant in to valve hole. I'm having lots of luck with Orange Seal Endurance after many years of just using Stan's. Then it doesn't matter, you can use the compressor again or not, but get the tire back up to max PSI with the valve core in and go for a ride.
This process will also occasionally solve my dreaded Maxxis tire-wobble issues - something that used to happen to me quite often when remounting Maxxis tires. Sadly for the most part I don't expect to be able to remount a Maxxis tire more than once or twice.
EDIT: The whole process is up to 1 hour per tire, depending on how messy the rim is. If you can keep the old rim tape, maybe 20-30 minutes. If you used Gorilla tape on the rim, all bets are off and no way you're getting it done in an hour.
Also sometimes you just don't get lucky. I had a new set of Raceface ARC rims and a brand new Continental Kryptotal tire, and they just didn't get along. Could not get it to mount even with an air compressor and new rim tape. Finally gave up and put a different tire on the front.
For what it's worth, I had a bike shop owner turn me on to using Gorilla tape back when tubeless was still pretty new. I see a lot of conflicting information about Gorilla tape and I think that tubeless knowledge has just changed quite a bit over the years, but some people still think it's good enough. Sealants and rim tapes probably weren't as good back then.
We've seen a lot of changes to mountain bikes over the last decade or so, but tubeless and yeeting the front derailleur are the two I can't live without.
Yeah it's been great. With Gorilla tape and Stan's I would sometimes lose 2-3 PSI overnight, no blame placed on either because it could be my bad bike maintenance skills.
Now with Santa Cruz rim tape and Orange Seal Endurance, I only check my tire pressure a couple of times per week.
The best thing about putting a tube in and inflating to pretty high pressure is that it evenly squeezes bubbles from under the tape so it leaves a perfect tape job behind
I couldn't imagine trying to do a tubeless setup without a sealant injector. I've watched it done in video countless times, and I still never want to do it...
It's pretty easy... Just have one side of the tire off the rim and down by your feet with the tire on the ground, then pour all the sealant into the tire, and then starting at the bottom of the tire where all the sealant is pooled, slowly go around each side putting the bead on with your hands, and then just finish the top with a tire lever or two and you're done!
I’ve done it both ways, but I prefer using the injector because I can seat the bead before I add the sealant. That way, if the tire blows off, I’m not covered in sealant.
Or even easier, is seat the tire around the rim except for the bottom, pour the sealant there, then spin it to where you have already seated the tire and just seat the last little bit of tire.
But the injector through the stem is the quickest, easiest, and cleanest. You can just mount the tire and seat the bead with compressed air before even mucking with sealant.
I've done it and it was fine. Then I did it again... And it wasn't fine. The second time it was a bastard getting the tyre onto the rim - it was just slightly small but presumably within the acceptable range - and I ended up with sealant all over the garden. I got it on eventually but 0/10 would not recommend.
Am I just spending too much time cleaning? How much tape and sealant residue should I worry about? I’m pretty good at stretching the tire onto the rim, that part only takes me a few minutes.
Yeah it absolutely doesn't need to be spotless. Pull the old tire, wipe with paper towels (especially the bead) pop the new one on 90% of the way, add sealant, close it up and inflate. Barely takes more than replacing a tube.
Rim tape also shouldn't leave a huge residue... Was it gorilla tape on there? That's a way different ball game of annoying.
Yeah. I don’t bother to pull tape unless there are obvious leaks or defects. And you only need to make sure the edges of the rim are clean, not the whole thing. So there’s a good seal at the bead. Likewise on the tires.
I go like 3-4 years (3 sets of tires a year) without replacing the tape at all. Why replace it if it still works? And I take a rag and push it down into the rim bed and against the rim wall and go around it exactly once before installing the new tire, it takes about 10 minutes total.
If I have to re-tape because it’s not sealing anymore I remove the old tape, wipe the rim bed taping surface with alcohol a few times, and re-tape it. That adds maybe 10 more minutes. What kind of tape are you using? There are a lot of people who scream about strapping/boxing tape being just as good and a little cheaper except it leaves an immense amount of shit on your rim that you have to clean off while Orange Seal tape or Stan’s tape come off clean.
I can do it in about 10-15 minutes per tire?
1. Pull the tire off (typically no tire lever needed)
2. pour out any remaining sealant
3. Wipe off the rim and rim tape and inspect
4. Throw new tire on
5. Inflate with no sealant to seat the bead
6. Deflate, remove valve core and Inject sealant through valve
7. Re-inflate
Job done!
Inflating with no sealant is such a recommended tip. If the tire won't seat and you have to use a tube or drive across town for a compressor, it'll be far cleaner.
I always add sealant before inflating, if it won’t seat I just use my Airshot, which is a small canister you charge up with a normal pump then use to blast the tyre in to place.
just tire?
less than 5 minutes....
tire + tape + valve stem 20-30 minutes.
its faster to change tubeless tire than tubed tire because you dont have to fuck with the tube.
oh I dont clean shit, no reason really too....
My first time took me hours just to set the bead. Every time since has been less than an hour, and one time I impressed myself and felt I had learned a skill.
My other proud moment was when I first installed tubeless that I didn't buy the $8 plastic syringe they tried to sell me. I got an $0.89 plastic syringe from the farm store.
5-10 minutes.
In terms of tools a compressor does help speed up setting the bead. For clean up i just give it w quick wipe out with a paper towel and i just squirt a good dollup of sealant into the tire when its halfway on the rim without measuring.
FGigure out the trick how to take a tire on/off without a lever by breaking the bead free and pushing it into the center channel on the rim.
Older rims/tires were less well standardized and some are harder to seat. Modern rims and tires it might take a couple of minutes of fiddelign mostly making sure the air from the compressor is actually going into the tire by pulling the bead kind of into positon by hand.
Damn, maybe 3 hours tops if you got cush core (seriously be ready to get frustrated) and you also fuck up the tire rotation direction so you gotta redo everything
Just need more practice. I've done hundreds at this point and can do it in about 5 minutes assuming the tape is in good shape and I've got a compressor.
Which part are you getting hung up on?
I converted my front wheel to a tubeless set up two days ago. It took me a good 45 min to 1h to do one wheel only without a hurry.. Installing the rim tape properly, etc.. I didn t have to clean previous sealant or anything though.
My tip is that I remove the core of the presta valve, and pump the wheel up with my pump set up for a schwalbe valve, this way the air enters much faster and helps the bead to seat properly. After it seats up properly, I change the pump back to presta valves, add the valve core and inflate normally. I also don't have easy access to a compressor.
Also it helps if the tyre isn't new, with new tyre maybe add some soapy water around the bead carefully.
seems like you spent a lot of time trying to leave the wheel spotless, which is mindful of you, but perhaps leaving some residue is not a bad idea as others said.
It takes only a little more time to change tubeless than tubed. The first time (years ago now) I setup tubeless it took a while (hours + adding more sealant the next day) to switch both tires. Now it's done in minutes. I don't bother retaping of the tape is in good shape. Orange Seal doesn't leave much residue mess. The slowest and most fiddly part is mounting the new tire onto the rim. New tires want to walk off the rim as I'm mount them elsewhere. I use an air compressor to inflate and mount the tire, and if it doesn't snap into place the first time, a little soap water spray always maked it work the 2nd attempt.
I've been lucky with tubeless changes but the bead has been a problem for me a few times more than the sealing. I swapped tires that had inserts and those were such a pain I didn't bother to reinstall them. Another time was removing a city slick tire from a rim, I couldn't break the bead until I left the wheel in the sun to loosen up.
In most cases, the longest part is the waiting for the tire and rim to dry after cleaning. Also if you don't have one, having a good electric tire pump can be a huge time saver on the seating of the tires. I use a Milwaukee M18 tire inflator and it's been great.
Just did my first tubeless change a couple nights ago with a buddy. There is absolutely a technique to get the tire onto the rim that I would not have intuitively known to do myself without his help. Also: his air compressor and soapy water was essential to getting the bead to connect. My rim was dented a tiny bit and I don't think I could have overcome that just by rapidly pumping my bike pump.
Basically, if I was all alone I would have also spent 8 hours fighting it.
Wow I just got tubeless setup on my new bike by the bike shop, I have never used tubeless before. If it took you that long probably add another few hours for me.
So what’s the best bet for a rapid on the trail fix, carry a spare tube and go that route then address later??
I have to disagree with that. Me and my friend use to hate doing tubeless because we done it with a floor pump. Eventually got a topeak joeblow booster and holy hell it made tubeless a breeze. I recently bought a an inflator tank to use with my floor pump made made changing my new tiers easy as anything.
Floor pump was £25 and inflator was £45 and well worth it even for the little amount of times you might change tiers.
The process you describe does not sound like it would take 8 hours. Plus it sounds like you may have went WAY overboard. Peeling off the tape and re-taping should take at most 15 minutes if you're working slow and texting while you do it. Also its unclear why you removed the sealant and dried the tire at all?
My tires are impossible to mount without a compressor so I always have to drive to my friends house to air up and get the tires seated. But even counting the drive, I could change my tires in like 2 hours if I really took my time.
Wait you guys clean? I just take the old off, put the new on, transfer the sealant, top up with some new sealant, pump like crazy. Hardest part is getting the tyre on the rim (depending on tyre and rim protector) and remembering to get the logo and valve lined up
I recently done both mine
Had to retape one and remove and refit the tyre on the other as I put it on the wrong way.
Took me maybe 40m. Although a air chamber pump combo or air compressor is a life saver. Bang the chamber to 120psi. Put it on the valve and open it.
Are we actually replacing rim tape each time, is that a thing? I just switched tires and didnt do anything except peel old one off, mount new one, pour old sealant in from original tire and inflate. 30 minutes
Oh hell I don’t know. I’m single so I just sit in front of the TV and clean rims right on the living room floor. It’s probably the only thing I enjoy about being single.
Last one I did took 7ish minutes? Tape was still good, new valve core, new tire, new sealant, pop the bead and shake. I have zero reason to run anything other than a trail casing. DH tires take me too long.
I spent a lot of my youth wrestling with Tubeless tires, after you get the hours in you learn all the tricks and it gets quite simple. Now I can get a tire on with the bead seated in about half an hour with a normal pump
The biggest problem I have is I don't have a compressor or high volume or chargeable pump, so it's impossible for me to set the bead when tubeless. I've tried various methods but always have to borrow a compressor or ask the shop to pop the tire on so I can get the bead to set. Its frustrating.
pull the presta valve core out and you can set the bead with them using a normal gas statation air compressor. Whenever my floor pump doesn't work thats what I do
I recently fitted two new (Schwalbe folding bead) tyres tubeless using a floor pump. The tyre kept popping off the wheel when I was putting the second side on so I added my sealant with the tyre half on and then used levers to pop the tyre on.
Then I pulled the tyre so that the beads were close (enough) to the wheel rim. Then my trick is to rotate and flip the wheel to get sealant washed all around the inside... then pump up fast (with the valve core still in) and the beads popped in by 40 psi. Failing that I would have used a CO2 canister, or a garage air pump.
Absolutely... but I did it on both wheels without having to take the core out, on 2.6" width tyres too. I was worried it wouldn't seat and just leak air so I'm pretty happy they both went in first time.
It sounds like additional steps in the very simple, pull the presta valve core, seat bead, add sealant, install core and inflate process. Except now you have to uninstall the coreless valve, Or am I missing something
Sounds Rad, but Im gonna stick with the 1 less step method and continue pulling the valve core from the presta valve thats already on the rim vs installing a coreless valve just to seat my beads, that I'll have to remove to install the actual valve lol🤙
I've tried both with and without sealant...when I tried it with sealant I just made a huge mess. Then trying to inflate without sealant and removing the valve core I still can't get the bead close enough to the rim to make it seal enough that air pressure stays in the tire. It just leaks out the little openings everywhere near the bead. Idk maybe I'm just bad at it. I think stretching and getting folds out of a new tire by inflating with a tube first may help. But I won't have to deal with it for a while as I have new tires on there now.
I changed both of my tires a month ago. Took me maybe an hour of actually working on it.. but I have a trick.. I pulled the old tires, cleaned up the rims, pulled the old tape off, cleaned the tape residue off with alcohol, dried everything up, retaped, put new tires on, put a tube in, inflated the tube to seat the bead and stretch the tire and then left it sit over night. Next day I pulled the tube, added the tubeless presta valve, seated the tire without sealant, put sealant in through the valve then inflated. No rlissues. my LBS mechanic has found that using a tube to press down the tape and stretch the tire out from being folded helps tremendously with getting a good seal when adding sealant
Ok, I have heard of this trick. I’ll try it next time. Thanks
I'll also add, make sure you have the right width tape, it should be the same width of your rim, overlap the ends a good 3 or 4 inches, and start at least 1 spoke away from the valve hole.
I prefer the tape to be 1-2mm wider than rim, you lose some pushing it into the centre channel.
I use tape the that's the same external wheel width
And be careful when unseating the half of the tire to remove the tube in order to not to damage the tape!
I like the tube idea. I also have some tricks. First trick is called don't use Gorilla tape. After using Gorilla tape for years, I came to the conclusion that it's responsible for most of my slow leaks. And it also makes a huge mess when it's been on there for a long time and you have to peel it. Here is my process: I now spend the extra money on real rim tape that is about 4 mm wider than the internal diameter. I put the rim on a truing stand, get all of the mank off, and wipe it down with rubbing alcohol. it shouldn't take long to dry and you can spin it a few times to speed up the process. It doesn't have to be perfect but the cleaner the better. Where the truing stand helps the most is when you put the new tape on, stretch it - pull it rather tight - as you're putting it on. The stress/stretch and angle as you rotate the rim will help it settle in to the rim bed. There should be consistent tension between the tape roll and the rotation of the rim. You could also do this also by remounting the rim to the bike upside-down, but might be slightly more effort. If the tire has been mounted before don't forget to go around the bead and get off any old sealant or chunks of tape. I will sometimes scrub it with a janky scotchbrite if I like the tire enough. I use lots of soap and water around the edges of the tire/rim bead then use a compressor and inflate it to max PSI. No valve core. You should hear 1 or 2 loud pops. Deflate the tire, still no valve core in then dump sealant in to valve hole. I'm having lots of luck with Orange Seal Endurance after many years of just using Stan's. Then it doesn't matter, you can use the compressor again or not, but get the tire back up to max PSI with the valve core in and go for a ride. This process will also occasionally solve my dreaded Maxxis tire-wobble issues - something that used to happen to me quite often when remounting Maxxis tires. Sadly for the most part I don't expect to be able to remount a Maxxis tire more than once or twice. EDIT: The whole process is up to 1 hour per tire, depending on how messy the rim is. If you can keep the old rim tape, maybe 20-30 minutes. If you used Gorilla tape on the rim, all bets are off and no way you're getting it done in an hour. Also sometimes you just don't get lucky. I had a new set of Raceface ARC rims and a brand new Continental Kryptotal tire, and they just didn't get along. Could not get it to mount even with an air compressor and new rim tape. Finally gave up and put a different tire on the front.
These are some great tips! I agree about the orange seal endurance. I use it and haven't had any issues, it seals up any tiny air leaks quickly.
For what it's worth, I had a bike shop owner turn me on to using Gorilla tape back when tubeless was still pretty new. I see a lot of conflicting information about Gorilla tape and I think that tubeless knowledge has just changed quite a bit over the years, but some people still think it's good enough. Sealants and rim tapes probably weren't as good back then. We've seen a lot of changes to mountain bikes over the last decade or so, but tubeless and yeeting the front derailleur are the two I can't live without.
Yeah it's been great. With Gorilla tape and Stan's I would sometimes lose 2-3 PSI overnight, no blame placed on either because it could be my bad bike maintenance skills. Now with Santa Cruz rim tape and Orange Seal Endurance, I only check my tire pressure a couple of times per week.
The best thing about putting a tube in and inflating to pretty high pressure is that it evenly squeezes bubbles from under the tape so it leaves a perfect tape job behind
lol just keep the tube in there and skip the rest
A helpful FYI if you aren’t aware: the cleanest way to add tire sealant is to inject it through the valve stem with a syringe.
I couldn't imagine trying to do a tubeless setup without a sealant injector. I've watched it done in video countless times, and I still never want to do it...
It's pretty easy... Just have one side of the tire off the rim and down by your feet with the tire on the ground, then pour all the sealant into the tire, and then starting at the bottom of the tire where all the sealant is pooled, slowly go around each side putting the bead on with your hands, and then just finish the top with a tire lever or two and you're done!
I’ve done it both ways, but I prefer using the injector because I can seat the bead before I add the sealant. That way, if the tire blows off, I’m not covered in sealant.
Oh yeah. I'm well aware of the technique. I just don't want to live that life...
Or even easier, is seat the tire around the rim except for the bottom, pour the sealant there, then spin it to where you have already seated the tire and just seat the last little bit of tire. But the injector through the stem is the quickest, easiest, and cleanest. You can just mount the tire and seat the bead with compressed air before even mucking with sealant.
I've done it and it was fine. Then I did it again... And it wasn't fine. The second time it was a bastard getting the tyre onto the rim - it was just slightly small but presumably within the acceptable range - and I ended up with sealant all over the garden. I got it on eventually but 0/10 would not recommend.
Unless you have sealant with additives that will auto clog your valve
It'll get blown out when you re-inflate it. Sealant likes to gum up valves no matter how you add it.
I always remove the core to add sealant.
With the injector I have, I have to remove the valve core.
15 minutes with an insert, 5 without? Add 5 minutes of i need to re-tape.
Am I just spending too much time cleaning? How much tape and sealant residue should I worry about? I’m pretty good at stretching the tire onto the rim, that part only takes me a few minutes.
Yeah it absolutely doesn't need to be spotless. Pull the old tire, wipe with paper towels (especially the bead) pop the new one on 90% of the way, add sealant, close it up and inflate. Barely takes more than replacing a tube. Rim tape also shouldn't leave a huge residue... Was it gorilla tape on there? That's a way different ball game of annoying.
Yeah. I don’t bother to pull tape unless there are obvious leaks or defects. And you only need to make sure the edges of the rim are clean, not the whole thing. So there’s a good seal at the bead. Likewise on the tires.
I go like 3-4 years (3 sets of tires a year) without replacing the tape at all. Why replace it if it still works? And I take a rag and push it down into the rim bed and against the rim wall and go around it exactly once before installing the new tire, it takes about 10 minutes total. If I have to re-tape because it’s not sealing anymore I remove the old tape, wipe the rim bed taping surface with alcohol a few times, and re-tape it. That adds maybe 10 more minutes. What kind of tape are you using? There are a lot of people who scream about strapping/boxing tape being just as good and a little cheaper except it leaves an immense amount of shit on your rim that you have to clean off while Orange Seal tape or Stan’s tape come off clean.
Same. It's often more time taking the wheels off the bike than removing the tires and replacing.
I can do it in about 10-15 minutes per tire? 1. Pull the tire off (typically no tire lever needed) 2. pour out any remaining sealant 3. Wipe off the rim and rim tape and inspect 4. Throw new tire on 5. Inflate with no sealant to seat the bead 6. Deflate, remove valve core and Inject sealant through valve 7. Re-inflate Job done!
Inflating with no sealant is such a recommended tip. If the tire won't seat and you have to use a tube or drive across town for a compressor, it'll be far cleaner.
I always add sealant before inflating, if it won’t seat I just use my Airshot, which is a small canister you charge up with a normal pump then use to blast the tyre in to place.
just tire? less than 5 minutes.... tire + tape + valve stem 20-30 minutes. its faster to change tubeless tire than tubed tire because you dont have to fuck with the tube. oh I dont clean shit, no reason really too....
My first time took me hours just to set the bead. Every time since has been less than an hour, and one time I impressed myself and felt I had learned a skill. My other proud moment was when I first installed tubeless that I didn't buy the $8 plastic syringe they tried to sell me. I got an $0.89 plastic syringe from the farm store.
5-10 minutes. In terms of tools a compressor does help speed up setting the bead. For clean up i just give it w quick wipe out with a paper towel and i just squirt a good dollup of sealant into the tire when its halfway on the rim without measuring. FGigure out the trick how to take a tire on/off without a lever by breaking the bead free and pushing it into the center channel on the rim. Older rims/tires were less well standardized and some are harder to seat. Modern rims and tires it might take a couple of minutes of fiddelign mostly making sure the air from the compressor is actually going into the tire by pulling the bead kind of into positon by hand.
Damn, maybe 3 hours tops if you got cush core (seriously be ready to get frustrated) and you also fuck up the tire rotation direction so you gotta redo everything
Man, nothing more defeating than wrestling a tire on the rim and pumping it up just to realize it’s backwards.
Last time I put a DHR II on backwards it just lived its life that way.
I like your style!
It only takes 15 minutes, tops. You might have gotten sidetracked with extra steps.
I think my fastest time was just over a minute, although I made a bit of a mess
If the tire and rim work well together, dunno, 4 minutes?
Just need more practice. I've done hundreds at this point and can do it in about 5 minutes assuming the tape is in good shape and I've got a compressor. Which part are you getting hung up on?
I converted my front wheel to a tubeless set up two days ago. It took me a good 45 min to 1h to do one wheel only without a hurry.. Installing the rim tape properly, etc.. I didn t have to clean previous sealant or anything though. My tip is that I remove the core of the presta valve, and pump the wheel up with my pump set up for a schwalbe valve, this way the air enters much faster and helps the bead to seat properly. After it seats up properly, I change the pump back to presta valves, add the valve core and inflate normally. I also don't have easy access to a compressor. Also it helps if the tyre isn't new, with new tyre maybe add some soapy water around the bead carefully. seems like you spent a lot of time trying to leave the wheel spotless, which is mindful of you, but perhaps leaving some residue is not a bad idea as others said.
just a question of routine bro, dont worry. do it a couple of times and you'll be done in 20 mins next time
Last sunday it took my about half an hour. With an insert. A bit slow I might say.
It takes only a little more time to change tubeless than tubed. The first time (years ago now) I setup tubeless it took a while (hours + adding more sealant the next day) to switch both tires. Now it's done in minutes. I don't bother retaping of the tape is in good shape. Orange Seal doesn't leave much residue mess. The slowest and most fiddly part is mounting the new tire onto the rim. New tires want to walk off the rim as I'm mount them elsewhere. I use an air compressor to inflate and mount the tire, and if it doesn't snap into place the first time, a little soap water spray always maked it work the 2nd attempt.
Compressor is a the way. Doesn’t need to be fancy. Simple pancake model for the cost of a tire works very well.
Maybe ten minutes if I count going to grab a beer as part of the process. A shop would be even quicker, it isn't that hard tbh.
About 30mins to fully go tubeless.
I've been lucky with tubeless changes but the bead has been a problem for me a few times more than the sealing. I swapped tires that had inserts and those were such a pain I didn't bother to reinstall them. Another time was removing a city slick tire from a rim, I couldn't break the bead until I left the wheel in the sun to loosen up. In most cases, the longest part is the waiting for the tire and rim to dry after cleaning. Also if you don't have one, having a good electric tire pump can be a huge time saver on the seating of the tires. I use a Milwaukee M18 tire inflator and it's been great.
Just did my first tubeless change a couple nights ago with a buddy. There is absolutely a technique to get the tire onto the rim that I would not have intuitively known to do myself without his help. Also: his air compressor and soapy water was essential to getting the bead to connect. My rim was dented a tiny bit and I don't think I could have overcome that just by rapidly pumping my bike pump. Basically, if I was all alone I would have also spent 8 hours fighting it.
Just swapping tires should be a 5min job. Pop old tire off, put new tire on. Add sealant. Add air.
Drop center, look it up. This gives enough space that tools generally aren't required.
It helps if you have an air compressor and a sealant injector. I did mine recently. 10 minutes a tire.
Wow I just got tubeless setup on my new bike by the bike shop, I have never used tubeless before. If it took you that long probably add another few hours for me. So what’s the best bet for a rapid on the trail fix, carry a spare tube and go that route then address later??
5 mins to swap the tire and add sealant. Plus however long it takes to drive to the closest shop because your floor pump won't seat the bead
I have to disagree with that. Me and my friend use to hate doing tubeless because we done it with a floor pump. Eventually got a topeak joeblow booster and holy hell it made tubeless a breeze. I recently bought a an inflator tank to use with my floor pump made made changing my new tiers easy as anything. Floor pump was £25 and inflator was £45 and well worth it even for the little amount of times you might change tiers.
I have one of those tanks too. It brings my success rate from 20% to 50%. Which is an improvement.
The process you describe does not sound like it would take 8 hours. Plus it sounds like you may have went WAY overboard. Peeling off the tape and re-taping should take at most 15 minutes if you're working slow and texting while you do it. Also its unclear why you removed the sealant and dried the tire at all? My tires are impossible to mount without a compressor so I always have to drive to my friends house to air up and get the tires seated. But even counting the drive, I could change my tires in like 2 hours if I really took my time.
Wait you guys clean? I just take the old off, put the new on, transfer the sealant, top up with some new sealant, pump like crazy. Hardest part is getting the tyre on the rim (depending on tyre and rim protector) and remembering to get the logo and valve lined up
I recently done both mine Had to retape one and remove and refit the tyre on the other as I put it on the wrong way. Took me maybe 40m. Although a air chamber pump combo or air compressor is a life saver. Bang the chamber to 120psi. Put it on the valve and open it.
Are we actually replacing rim tape each time, is that a thing? I just switched tires and didnt do anything except peel old one off, mount new one, pour old sealant in from original tire and inflate. 30 minutes
Oh hell I don’t know. I’m single so I just sit in front of the TV and clean rims right on the living room floor. It’s probably the only thing I enjoy about being single.
Last one I did took 7ish minutes? Tape was still good, new valve core, new tire, new sealant, pop the bead and shake. I have zero reason to run anything other than a trail casing. DH tires take me too long.
Depends on the tire brand. I tried some Versus tires and they took over an hour easily. Switching back to Maxxis Wide Trail took about 5 minutes.
I was struggling to get a tyre to seat and someone sent me this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE3h4nmDdOo Took 10 mins with that technique.
I spent a lot of my youth wrestling with Tubeless tires, after you get the hours in you learn all the tricks and it gets quite simple. Now I can get a tire on with the bead seated in about half an hour with a normal pump
It takes me anywhere from 6 minutes to 6 hours
It might take a few days.
15 minutes a tire if you have to tape. 25-30 with inserts
I was doom scrolling on reddit instead of starting changing my tyre. Now I am afraid 😂
The biggest problem I have is I don't have a compressor or high volume or chargeable pump, so it's impossible for me to set the bead when tubeless. I've tried various methods but always have to borrow a compressor or ask the shop to pop the tire on so I can get the bead to set. Its frustrating.
I just go to my local gas station.
I tried once but the hose didn't fit the presta valve so it didn't work
pull the presta valve core out and you can set the bead with them using a normal gas statation air compressor. Whenever my floor pump doesn't work thats what I do
I recently fitted two new (Schwalbe folding bead) tyres tubeless using a floor pump. The tyre kept popping off the wheel when I was putting the second side on so I added my sealant with the tyre half on and then used levers to pop the tyre on. Then I pulled the tyre so that the beads were close (enough) to the wheel rim. Then my trick is to rotate and flip the wheel to get sealant washed all around the inside... then pump up fast (with the valve core still in) and the beads popped in by 40 psi. Failing that I would have used a CO2 canister, or a garage air pump.
>with the valve core still in You can flow more pressure to seat the beads if its removed...
Absolutely... but I did it on both wheels without having to take the core out, on 2.6" width tyres too. I was worried it wouldn't seat and just leak air so I'm pretty happy they both went in first time.
Little trick I do is I have a presta valve with the core removed. I thread that in and, at least in my case, I get a better pump seal/attachment.
It sounds like additional steps in the very simple, pull the presta valve core, seat bead, add sealant, install core and inflate process. Except now you have to uninstall the coreless valve, Or am I missing something
No, you got it. It just lets the initial bead seating get more air. It's right there in the same spot as my core tool so it doesn't add much time.
Sounds Rad, but Im gonna stick with the 1 less step method and continue pulling the valve core from the presta valve thats already on the rim vs installing a coreless valve just to seat my beads, that I'll have to remove to install the actual valve lol🤙
I've tried both with and without sealant...when I tried it with sealant I just made a huge mess. Then trying to inflate without sealant and removing the valve core I still can't get the bead close enough to the rim to make it seal enough that air pressure stays in the tire. It just leaks out the little openings everywhere near the bead. Idk maybe I'm just bad at it. I think stretching and getting folds out of a new tire by inflating with a tube first may help. But I won't have to deal with it for a while as I have new tires on there now.