Tubeless Tyres (a daft Q perhaps !!)

smep

Hello,
I have just bought a second hand Santa Cruz tallboy.
I haven't ridden it yet but overnight the rear tyre has deflated. I hadn't realised that it is tubeless. I have tried inflating but the air is gushing out.
I have no knowledge of this kind of tubeless tyre other than years ago, tubs on my old road bike.
Please is there anything I can do other than buy a new inner tube.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Steve.

cooldad

Clean it all out and add fresh fluid.

Stick an inner tube in as a temporary measure if you want to get out soonest.

smep

Thank you.The bike has been in doors so I imagine that whatever was holding it has dried out. I'll have to explore what you mean by fresh fluid. I assume that this means some kind of sealant. If so I'm clueless as to how to proceed and wonder what happens if the tyre deflates while out riding.
Thanks
Steve

jimothy78

smep wrote:

I'll have to explore what you mean by fresh fluid. I assume that this means some kind of sealant. If so I'm clueless as to how to proceed...

Yes, sealant - MTB tubeless tyres are "clinchers" not tubular - they rely on airtight rimstrips and valves combined with sealant that fills any tiny gaps around the rim bead. If the sealant dries out, the seal eventually goes (especially if the pressure drops too low first - making it easy for the tyre to come away from the rim and lose all the remaining air.)

and wonder what happens if the tyre deflates while out riding.

Occasionally, if you're lucky and have enough sealant still in the tyre, you can pump it up and it will seal, but more often than not you stick a tube in to get you home.

cooldad

Lots of useful stuff here.

Sealant etc easily available locally.

http://www.notubes.com/help/index.aspx

The Rookie

You can get tubular (tubs) MTB tyres as well, although they are pretty rare.

smep

Please what are the views pros/cons riding tubeless.
Opinions welcome.
Thank you,
Steve

JGTR

smep wrote:

Please what are the views pros/cons riding tubeless.
Opinions welcome.
Thank you,
Steve

Lightweight, you can run lower pressures with reduced risk of pinch flats but the main benefit (for me anyway) is far less chance of punctures. I've had only one puncture in 3 years and that was a large tear in my tyre. When I changed my tyres I found 8 thorns in the tyre, all of which would have punctured a tube.

The Rookie

As above, you will rarely puncture a tubeless, when we finally had to fix a mates (the sealant had dried up after about 9 months, his fault) we found 17 thorns to remove before fitting the tube, lower pressures with safety, lighter and also there is slightly reduced rolling resistance for the given tyre pressure.

No-one who goes tubeless goes back!

bigmitch41

The "Stans" stuff is the best and its advisable to replace/refresh about every 6 months anyway, so if its been in for 9 months its ready for doing anyway.