WW4M: Tubeless Tire Tips- Questions Answered

 Okay, ya'all should know the drill now. "WW4M" stands for "What Works For Me". NOTE- It may not work for you. Consider everything here carefully. Think it through, and if it makes sense, it may work for you as well. Or.....it may not! 

How do you know when your sealant is dried up?

Yesterday I posted some knowledge on tubeless tires I have garnered over the course of a decade and asked if anyone had any further questions. In fact, a reader from South Dakota did, so today I am posting this follow up, because many folks do not read the comments section. I figured it would be better off to make it a stand alone post that others could get some use out of. Again- If you have any specific questions regarding tubeless set ups, I'd be glad to answer them, if I can, and maybe your questions will be answered in their own blog post here. Who knows?

So, here's the first question: "Is there a "normal" amount of leakage over time?"

In my opinion, a "good" tubeless tire and tubeless set up should not leak down faster than your typical tubed set up, and a really good tubeless set up will actually be better than a tubed set up in this regard. So, if your tubed set up leaks down 10psi in the course of a few days to a week, you should expect your tubeless set up to do exactly the same thing. I recommend checking air pressure before every ride, and monitoring the results as you go to get a feel for how your tires, sealant, and over-all set up is performing, because when you notice a change, it may be time to add more sealant.

 "How do you know when you need to add sealant? Any tips for doing so?" Well, as I have just stated, a change in your air pressure readings from your previous check which shows a lower pressure than normal is a clue. When sealant gets dry, it begins to be less capable of keeping air from escaping the tire's casing, not to mention the ability to seal punctures goes out the window. So, it is critical to understand when to add sealant. Keeping tabs on air pressures is one way to do that. However; there may be mitigating factors which might change when you would want to check your sealant. Things like extreme heat, a hot, dry storage area, a puncture which caused a loss of some sealant, or just the passing of time, all of which may point to a different time to check that sealant than normal.

Many sealants are coming packaged in such a way that you could bring it with you on a ride now.

Hot, dry weather, or a hot, dry storage area will dry up sealant faster than if you lived in a more humid, wetter, cooler area. I find that here in Iowa, sealants based on latex formulas typically go around three months before they dry up. People living in the Southwest may experience a drying up of sealant in less time than that, and some folks get half a year or more out of their sealants. How can you know when yours is dried up, besides using air pressure as a monitor?

You can use the auditory method. Take you wheel off the bike, hold it vertically, so that any sealant pools in the bottom of the tire's circumference, and shake the tire. Listen for any sloshing noises. If you cannot hear anything, it may indicate a dry, or nearly so, sealant situation. There is also the "dipstick" method. You can use this method with the wheels on the bike. Park the bike for a period of at least an hour or more to allow the sealant to settle in the bottom of the tire. Also- It works best if you have the valve stems at the six o'clock position. After the bike has sat awhile, take out the valve cores, allowing all the air to escape. Then, using a toothpick, or similarly thin, long-ish object, dip the toothpick into the valve stem and use it like a dipstick in a crankcase of a motor to see if you have wet sealant at the bottom of the tire. This may not be preferable if the tires you are using have a looser fit, because letting the air out may break the bead seal, and that might be a headache, but usually it is not an issue.

Getting more sealant in a tire is usually pretty easy. Again, you typically will have to remove the valve core, and the proper tool for that job, or the appropriate sized spoke wrench will remove that core easily. Then you can use a small length of plastic tubing, or buy a Caffelatex Injector, (my absolute favorite tubeless tire tool), or a used Stan's single serving bottle, if you don't buy the aforementioned injector, and add in about two to three ounces of new sealant, depending upon how big your tire is. (More for bigger mountain bike tires) While that may seem like a lot, I'd rather have extra than "just barely enough". Your mileage may vary. By the way, Caffelatex has a great tubeless tire table concerning this which you can find HERE.

Sometimes it is best to remove a tire and do some "Spring cleaning"!

There are times when removal of a tire and a thorough cleaning are necessary. Stan's users know this all too well. They tend to get a "bouncing, rumbling, tumbling" sensation inside their tires, which is the indication that the Stan's sealant has dried up. Their are several names for this phenomenon, and "Stanimal", "Stan's Booger", or other such names based on Stan's are common for describing this. The problem is that Stan's dries up in such a way that it forms a large, solid, strangely shaped chunk of latex which ends up bouncing around in the casing of the tire. It can only be removed by breaking down the tire from the rim and getting that "booger" out of there.

Other sealants form a dried layer, or a "skin", which can either be washed off with mild, soapy water solutions, or peeled off like a Sunburned layer of human skin. It is good to do this from time to time to keep the layers from building up and adding unnecessary weight to your tires. Sometimes layers of dried sealant coagulate around the valve stem area, and can impede the inflow of air when you are trying to inflate a tire. This should be cleared off if that happens. Beads of tires and bead seats of rims are also places where you may need to clear off excess dried sealant at times.

How often you break down a tire and clean it up is not a hard and fast rule, but I would suggest at least doing that once a year and more often if you use Stan's as a sealant. Obviously, switching out tires presents a perfect time to clean up the rim and inspect your rim tape as well. Don't forget to clean up those removable valve cores from time to time also.

Hopefully this additional info was helpful. Again- Please ask any questions in the comments section.