I didn't try the water spray since after adding sealant, the leaks decreased esp after riding about 60 miles the past weekend. But they still lose about 25% pressure overnight, the water spray sounds like a good idea, thanks!

I am enjoying reading this thread everyday. Tubes are that horrible that you deal with this nightmare on a daily basis? Not sure I understand it. This thread has a similar vibe as threads about Brooks saddles, Speedplay pedals and disk brakes. 🤣

Perhaps try wider rim tape? When I bought Stans tape for the initial install I looked online for info & consulted with the LBS mechanic but ended up with tape that was too narrow. I had worried about tape being too wide & interfering with bead seat but apparently it's more common to have tape being too narrow & edge being too close to spoke holes. So the wider tape seems to have helped. BTW I tried to follow online instructions on cutting Gorilla tape to width, found it quite cumbersome & followed one poster's advice to just tear it which was much quicker & easier though I don't know if that works for 3M etc tape. Folks at Rene Herse/Compass tires recommend 1 layer of Stans & 2nd layer of Gorilla tape though they specialize in wider tires.

Some folks suggest adding extra sealant, apparently this can help sometimes.

RE valves: some folks say to tighten them only finger-tight, using tools can risk squashing the o-ring too much. Also apply some sealant on the valve before installing (which seemed to help me). Rubber cement or similar might help give extra good seal on the valve base. Trying different valves can get expensive.

Good luck!

I agree somewhat. Tubeless might be great for goat-head thorn territory (not my situation) but for me it was a big hassle including with my new tubeless tires being the most difficult mounting/removal I've seen (adding extra rim tape to seat makes that even harder). The new tires seem to roll pretty fast but not that much of a difference. For extra flat insurance, using tubes with sealant looks much easier.

Last winter, I went tubeless with Continental 5000 tires on Reynolds carbon wheels. They were the toughest tire I have ever mounted. I had to take it to the bike shop and the bike shop took 4 hours and invented new curse words. I had orange seal in both tires. They worked great when they worked. I had constant valve leak and I knew if I got a flat, I would have to make the call of shame.

I took my wheels to the lbs and they replaced the valves. A week later, I had the same leaky valve problem. I finally gave up and went back to tubes.

The problem I found was when a tire unseats. That mess sticking on to both sides of the bead if they touch both sides of the tire stick together. I wasted 2 co2 cartridges trying to reseat the tire. Finally on my 3rd and last cartridge I manage to inflate the tire after plugging it. Not something you want to mess around with in the dark.

No tubes are not that horrible. I just am making it a priority to get at least one road tubeless wheelset functional. I hate to give up on something before I even get out of the starting blocks.

I am making headway. I rode the bike 43 miles on my regular solo country river course yesterday. I had the DT Swiss MTB valve in the rear and an aluminum generic red anodized “universal” cone type in the front. When I mounted the front I deployed 2 little tricks: 1) silicon grease on the cone shaped rubber and 2) application of firm pressure on the top of the valve (the head of the valve that is exposed @ the rim interior). I started the ride with ~110 psi front and rear and I decided to do my ride with them at that pressure to hopefully allow the sealant to do its job.

The Panaracer Race A Evo3 tubeless tires have a very different feel than what I am used to. Surprisingly they ran good at the initial pressure on my titanium road bike. The good news: I actually did a regular road ride with tubeless and got to try out these excellent Panaracer tubeless tires. For the most part the front tire held pressure.

The disappointing (but expected) news: the rear wheel, the one with the DT-Swiss MTB valve? Well it started at 110 psi and during the ride I could feel it was not as firm. I decided to complete the ride and just check it when I got home. It was down to 49 psi, apparently still rideable at that pressure. So today I will try to unseat the tire to change the rear valve out and re-deploy the silicon grease on the generic red ano cone shaped valve and press the top down with a large flat top tool before tightening the valve securing nut (just like I did for the front).

Mulberry20 - I’m not a user of Brooks saddles, or Speedplay pedals. My disc road bike I am building myself and it is not completed yet. I’m super excited about it and I intend to only use my LBS as an emergency resource for if I’m really stuck. I know of nothing fundamentally inferior about any of these things. Are you wanting to make a point about bike part reliability or how some parts are over rated? Please elaborate and keep this conversation going....

Currently, I am far from giving up on road tubeless. These skills are important and when one sets out to learn proper set-up of these systems using “tubeless-ready” type parts or tubeless rims, tape, sealant, tires and valves from different manufacturers - yes, getting started has led to a failure rate higher than my tube mounting failure rate this is true. I did learn that I can mount tubeless tires to set the beads faster while using my pressure canister using the little thread-in adapter provided that fits in the valve stem when the Presta core is removed to permit faster airflow. Little details like these turn out to be big details in mastering this stuff.

I have tubeless on my Surly and had trouble at first and it turned out I was way over tightening the valves. I put new ones in, double taped the hole and used a drill bit to make a hole. I put a small amount of sealant on the stem then installed it by pushing down and not going too tight. Now I loose about five pounds a week in my front only. The back doesn’t leak at all.

Lucky you! Can you share what rims and what tubeless tape you are using? Also, what valves are you using?

Just out of curiosity....have any of you who have had problems with tubeless been using Mavic UST?

My problem right now is with DT Swiss R460 rims set up tubeless. I do have a set of Mavic Cosmic disc UST wheels which are going on my new disc bike but I have not ridden them yet. They appear to be a great fit with the included Mavic Yskion tubeless tires provided. The fact that these tires can hold air for some time without any sealant at all is a good sign that this is a well designed system. I will not speculate any more about future air-tightness due to not having ridden them yet.

I've been using Mavic for about 1 1'2 yrs. I've had no problems. The tires mount easily, inflate easily with a floor pump and I've yet to have a flat. I think Mavic's idea to machine a wheel to a tire was a great one.

I have the stock Alex Adventurer rims that came with my Surly Midnight Special and used Stans tape and stems. I used Orange Seal. My bike came with WTB Horizons and I had more trouble with them initially but I upgraded my tires to WTB Venture and redid everything and it’s been working very well.

you know road tubeless is just not worth it , maybe for commute on 32mm city tires at under 75 psi , anything over 75 is just not going to work , some people might get it and have a good time , but i sure dont , and i had a great system , i never need a pressured pump , i just used new rim tape and i always patched my holes with high quality glue and old tube rubber , but even then , on the road hit something big enough that hole will never seal , i tried the darts , the worms , bacons , all the sealants mtb , glitter , stringy stuff , tubeless is only going to work for low psi stuff constantly , at this point i much prefer just getting some gp5000s racing tubes and carry patches and some extra wal mart tubes , i know i will never get stuck out and the patch are easy and quick !

Well, I thought I had my new tubeless conversion sorted out but the rear tire, which seemed to have sealed halfway OK, now leaks a lot, had to return early from a recent short ride. Tubeless conversion seems to be a crap shoot with some tire/rim combos working easily & others difficult at best. I think I'm going to go back to tubes. Too bad since tubeless did seem to be a bit faster & more supple.

Mavic UST and other tubeless are just not the same. I've been running 2 sets of Mavic for over a year and not one flat or problem in any way. If anyone is having a problem with Mavic UST I'd like to hear about it. Just so I know what to look for. If no one running Mavic has a problem maybe that tells you something.

Tubeless is just a solution looking for a problem. The one or two flats I get a season just aren't that big a deal, and working with tubes is just so damned easy. I tried tubeless, and it was fine...until is wasn't. Hit a pothole, broke the bead, and had to insert a tube to make it home. Unmounted the tire, and, of course, the tube is now permanently stuck to the tire. After this, I saw no point whatsoever in tubeless road tires. I went back to plain old tubes and never looked back.

UST is too logical for the bike market, ;) but I don't see any 584mm/650b UST stuff incl from Mavic. I also like the idea of tubeless rims without outer spoke holes that eliminate need for rim tape or at least mean that rim tape needs only to help tires seat vs serving as 24+ spots for mystery leaks. Slight extra difficulty in replacing a spoke likely outweighed by time & expense used to tape/re-tape rims. My current tubeless-ready rim/tire combo is so tight fitting that it's impossible to remove tires without gouging the rim tape with tire levers.

id say my final verdict would be , race day tubeless road and low pressure tubeless commute-road/cyclcross /gravel , will give the least problems
seasonal training , endurance road , high use high mile will give you the most problems .

i dont think tubeless will hold up to 300 miles weeks during peak season like a gp4000 used to , i have got well over 3000 miles on a set of gp4000s with many races and huge rides with no real issue , compared to the first damn day i raced on tubeless and got a leak , that never sealed until i patched it , on mavic UST cosmic elites , wasnt the wheels issue but the over all system that failed many times !

Isn’t it telling that Specialized chose not to go tubeless with the brand new Tarmac SL7?