Bl**dy tubeless!!!!

loukest

Hi,

I'll keep this short as I know this must have been asked lots of times before. New Canyon Strive which has Conti Trail King tyres on DT Swiss E1700, both of which I am assured are tubeless ready. I had to get some stans no tubes valves as nothing came with them. The rims are taped, I got the tyres on no problem and they went up straight away. Over about three days front and back go down. I put more sealant in, left them on one side, turned them over, left them on the other side, then exactly the same thing. I've used soapy water, each time, I've put them in the bath, no air seems to be coming out, yet, over three days.........they go down. The only thing that seems off is how easily the tyres went on, I can imagine that there needs to be a tight fit but each time I pump them up, @ping@, they seem to seat fine.

Any ideas at all other than just getting new tyres to see what happens.....

Tom

cooldad

Do they have proper tape or just ordinary rim tape?

loukest

cooldad wrote:

Do they have proper tape or just ordinary rim tape?

They're one of these wheel sets that come with tape already on them which says "tubeless ready". The wheels are DT Swiss, I found the manual on line and it said no additional tape required. Thanks for posting.

larkim

Self evidently the air must be coming out of somewhere. Find where that is and the problem is solved.

Odd that it should be happening on front and back. I suppose in theory you could have a leaking rim / tape / valve on what wheel and a leaking tyre on the other. Is it worth swapping the tyres from front to back and seeing if that changes (i.e. just one wheel goes down at that point)? Otherwise, the fact that both are going down suggests either a problem with the combination of wheel / rim / valve / sealant that you are using, or (dare I suggest it) user error - though if you'd not tightened up the valve enough etc you'd see that most likely in your bath submersion test.

poah

its probably not proper tubeless rim tape. conti tyres also don't tend to stay up for very long unless they are protection models and even then they don't last as long as other brands.

spray some soapy water at the tyre and see where there air is coming out from.

JGTR

Have you made sure you have shaken and rotated them loads to ensure sealant gets everywhere? I refilled my tyres and one went down overnight after being fine for 3 years, took wheel off and shook it like mad and and it was fine after.

Danieljephcott

You could also get some gorilla tape which is perfect and re tape your rims. Ad a couple of layers and this will help your tyres fit tighter aswell. Use more sealant than it says on the bottle just to make sure you have enough.

bigmitch41

May just need a ride or two to get the sealant spread around enough.

larkim

POAH wrote:

its probably not proper tubeless rim tape.

Wee bit harsh - a quick google shows the manufacturer is definitely providing these rims with what it believes to be proper tubeless rim tape. e.g http://enduro-mtb.com/en/first-look-dt- ... wheelsets/

Whether that is exactly the same on an OEM set of the same wheels as opposed to retail versions, I can't comment. But it seems like a reasonable presumption.

loukest

Thanks for the replies, helpful.

The problem seems to be with the valve hole, I tried another set of valves, my water test showed a much quicker leak from the valve hole. I know theoretically, a leak anywhere inside the rim would likely come out of the valve rather than the spoke holes but to me, the valve doesn't sit quite right from the inside. I put a couple of strips of additional tape over the hole for about six inches either side, put a small hole in it and poked the valve through. The submersion test looks solid. So, I'll leave it overnight and see. I hope it's OK, I want to ride tomorrow and I can't be bothered putting tubes in, it feels like going backwards. If that one stays up, I'll do the same on the rear.

As a point to note, I know valves are designed to work with other rim manufacturers but the stans valves look too small on the rubber end for the hole, it's significantly bigger than I remember the sram wheels to be.

poah

larkim wrote:

POAH wrote:

its probably not proper tubeless rim tape.

Wee bit harsh -

not really, lots of tubeless ready wheels don't actually come with proper tape or even if they do its not put in properly.

loukest wrote:

Thanks for the replies, helpful.

The problem seems to be with the valve hole, I tried another set of valves, my water test showed a much quicker leak from the valve hole.

valve can be iffy sometimes, if you have the valve at the bottome and shake the wheel so the sealant sloshes around it should seal up the leak.

kevinharley

BigMitch41 wrote:

May just need a ride or two to get the sealant spread around enough.

^^^^ This

Rightarmbad

The rims you have are not welded, they are butt jointed.
This is a common place for air to escape into the rim and then appear at the valve hole.
Put a small piece of rim tape across the join that goes from edge to edge and then try again.

I have a set of DT's that had this exact problem and the tape fixed it.

The Rookie

With proper rim tape the pressurised air shouldn't touch the rim, the tyre should seal to the rim tape both sides.

loukest

Rightarmbad wrote:

The rims you have are not welded, they are butt jointed.
This is a common place for air to escape into the rim and then appear at the valve hole.
Put a small piece of rim tape across the join that goes from edge to edge and then try again.

I have a set of DT's that had this exact problem and the tape fixed it.

I'm going to try this, I thought I'd cracked it but the same thing is happening again.... it's infuriating. I reread the manual and it definitely says, don't use additional rim tape! I'm going to ignore this......