Tubeless tire, fixing flat issue
 

Road my Giant Defy, with tubeless tires, on Saturday, no issues. When I went to get on bike yesterday (Tuesday), I had a flat front tire. I noticed there was liquid sealant all over the tire too. I can't find the puncture. I was going to air the tire up and look for sealant bubbles, if possible. The tire is so flat, the bead won't seat. All I have is a floor pump. I read that I need an air compressor or pump blast to inflate at a high rate in order to mount the tire properly and then find leak. I plan to take to my local LBS for assistance, but need I to learn fix this, if this were to happen to me on the road and it will.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

If the bead comes unseated just by deflating the tire, you don't have a good match between tire and rim. You need more rim tape, or a different tire/rim combo altogether. At this point, I wouldn't worry about a slow leak, I would be worried about burping the tire at speed.

Are the tires the originals that came on the bike? Make sure that both the tire and rim are tubeless compatible.

If you flat on the road/trail with tubeless and the sealant doesn't stop the air leak enough for you to be able to at least limp home, then you have to resort to using a standard tube. (Which means adding a tube to your on-bike repair kit if you don't already.) Because of the sealant in the tire, this could get quite messy.

Mike

Happened to me two or three times over the years when I got a slice in the tire that the sealant wouldn't stop. Main thing is to put something between the tube and inside of the tire (like a Powerbar wrap) if the cut is big enough to be a problem and even more importantly to clean all the sealant from inside the tire (otherwise the tube may "slip out" while you're inflating it). A real PITA.

Good news, tire is fine. Took to my local LBS. We cleaned the tire, added more sealant and aired it up using an air compressor. Bead popped into place and tire is still holding air this AM. When I was riding, I now remember hitting a small (at least I thought it was small) pot hole. It obviously popped the bead loose from the wheel. All is good and I will now be buying a small air compressor for the house.

My airshot works great. There are diy variations to be found on youtube, as well as pumps with canisters built in (the latter a bit pricey).You can even get small water bottle size ones to carry on the road.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...10023a842c.png

This. Have you looked at the tire rim combo? Seems the tire should not unseat by going over a pothole that you hardly remember. I've run tubless for two years and hit "very memorable potholes etc. with no damage or burping except the extra landry of my underwear.

No that’s not good at all, and definitely not normal. There is something wrong with your wheel tire/combo.

Follow up on my tire issue. Good news, 100 miles ridden, tires are holding up great, no more issues, no more flats. I increased my PSI from 85 to 105, ride is firmer, but way more efficient. Salesman at my LBS said 85-90 PSI would be fine. When I took in for the repair, the mechanic highly recommended 100-105. Sticking to what the mechanic said.https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a012f7cc7d.jpg

I recently found that one tire wouldn't hold air very long. So I put in more sealant, and it still leaked. I put the wheel in water to see if I could find a leak, and found some tiny pinhole leaks in the sidewall that were otherwise invisible. I was wondering if the tire was defective and I should go back to tubes. Then I pumped up the tire and tilted and rotated it so that the sealant would pool up at the leaks, It seems to have worked, and holds air. I guess I didn't do a good job making sure that the sealant was properly distributed inside the tire when I first put in sealant.


I have a question. How long will the sealant (Stan's No Tube) be expected to plug the leaks? Does sealant tend to dry out?

Sealant does dry out specially in hot climates. If you have a removable core valve you can remove the core, and check the level of the sealant.
Also if you not riding the bike frequently rotate the wheels so the sealant does not settle in one area.

One of the selling points of tubeless is to be able to run lower pressures. Unless you're a Clyde on narrow tires, you should be running lower pressures. 60-80 lbs is VERY popular with road cyclists on 25-28 mm tires, and lower on wider tires or on gravel. The current thinking is that lower pressure gives a better ride and is faster.

Do some googling for research and recommendations in the past 2-3 years. Thinking on tire pressure is different than it used to be.

Ob. personal note - I'm a 165 lb rider running tubeless at 65-70 lbs in tubeless 26mm Specialized Turbos.

Yeah, what @bbbean said. 105 sounds pretty high for tubeless. I weigh about 197#, I run about 78 rear and 64 front on 30mm tires.

I weigh 210, have been riding 25mm tires for 2 years, which actually inflate to more like 28mm, at 85 in rear and 78 in front. No issues. 105 would be what I would ride when using tubes.

I ran 105 psi this weekend, no issue......smooth ride. I'm coming off riding a Specialized hybrid to this new Giant roadie. I still can't get over looking down at my speedo/computer, I'm cruising at 16-17mph, whereas the hybrid I'd be doing 12-14 mph with the same effort.

Even so, 105psi defeats one of the main purposes of tubeless. Coming down some on pressure will improve ride quality and your tires will roll even better than they are. But I guess if you are enjoying the ride and the 105psi is within max recommended pressure of the tire, don't fix what ain’t broke.

Yeah that doesn't sound right either. I'm not a lightweight and run 80-85 in rear and 75-80 in the front depending on what the road conditions are going to be like on the route I will be riding.

Hey, nice bike though I like it.