Paul_M

I have recently bought a new mountain bike with "tubeless ready" wheels. Following a puncture on the front wheel after the first few miles, I decided it might be better to go tubeless. I managed to mount the front tire as a tubeless setup, but so far I have not managed to set up the rear tire. The issue I am having is that there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice on the web about how to proceed, so I wondered if any cyclists or mountain bikers with more experience of tubeless setups could give me their views on the following questions: 1) should the bead of the tire be a) in the rim well or b) on the outside edge of the rim when you inflate the tire? 2) Is it better to do a "dry run" first, or is it better to use a sealant immediately before attempting to inflate the tire? Thanks in advance for any advice.

dsaul

The tire bead only needs to be in the center channel to allow you to get it on the rim. For inflating, it is better to have it on the bead seat, but that is not very easy to do by hand. I put the sealant in before attempting to seat the tire. Sometimes it makes a mess, if the tire won't seat right away, most times it doesn't. Seating the tire is easier if you remove the core from the valve stem to allow a larger volume of air to rush into the tire.

Paul_M

Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it.

TiHabanero

Conversely, I never seat the things with sealant installed. Seat the tire dry. It will hold air for an hour or two, sometimes more. Inject sealant after tire is seated, it just makes sense to avoid a mess if the tire does not seat properly.

shelbyfv

I add the extra step of initially installing with a tube, then breaking the bead on one side to remove tube and install the valve. Reinflate (valve core removed) and add sealant after everything is well seated. I do it this way because I only have a regular floor pump and it seems to require less air to seat only one bead.

cpach

If you have access to a compressor or a tubeless setup resevoir thing on your pump I'd probably recommend just adding sealant and hitting it hard, with the valve core removed. Dry runs are nice just because you can make sure it seats before you potentially have a mess. Also can be a bit cleaner. If you do dry run it's helpful to mix some soapy water and apply that around the bead.

caloso

I seat without sealant, see if I can get it to hold air without sealant. If not, I might give it another wrap of tape. Then I'll take out the valve core and inject sealant. Pump it up. Swish it around a few times and set it horizontally on a bucket. Flip it over. After it looks like it's going to hold, I'll go for a short ride.

davei1980

+1

This is my preferred method for stubborn tires

Step 1: inflate with tube until bead hooks
Step 2: break ONLY 1 bead and remove tube
Step 3: add valve stem with VALVE CORE REMOVED
Step 4: add soapy water to the loose bead
Step 5: hit the valve stem without hesitation with the inflator chuck (it will seat the bead, and air will rush right back out of the valve, but the bead should stay set, if not, it wasn't meant to be)
Step 6: add sealant and valve core
Step 7: inflate to actual riding pressure

not sure if this is the approved method but I have done quite a few and this is what works in real life.

The rest of what the OP is asking about really doesn't matter as long as everything seats up nice. Good on you, OP, for riding a few days with tubes. Brand new tires sometimes do not seat nicely because they're all folded up, riding on them makes the beads round and used to interacting with the rims.

BHG6

This is the way I do it as well - I always seem to do this stuff in the kitchen and the woman would kill me if I blew sealant all over the walls lol.
I've never had an issue seating a tire that the tube trick couldn't fix, at least.

Kapusta

I always seat first without sealant. Sealent does not help it seat (I use soapy water to help seat the beads), and it just means more mess if there is a problem.

Once the bead is seated, add sealant through the valve.

the center groove is for mountIng if you can get the bead out of the channel and up onto the “shelf”, the tire will seat easier, but that can be difficult on some tire-rim combos.

Setting up with a tube first and letting it sit at high pressure overnight can help make sure the rim tape is fully sealed.

fietsbob

An Air compressor putting out a lot of air quickly may help seat those tires lacking an inner-tube..

Alj10571

Throw the tire in there, use an air compressor to shoot a high volume of air in at once. Sometimes it helps to remove the valve core. Once tire is inflated, and the beat is set reinstall the valve core letting as little air out as possible. Let it sit, a good tubeless set up should hold air for quite a while without Sealant. Once you are ready, pull the valve core and out some sealant in there!

Boatdriver

What size compressor is needed for seating the tires? Will the roadside care tire inflators put out enough pressure? Will the small 1 gallon pancake compressors be enough?

Kapusta

Well, often times no compressor is needed, just a floor pump.

But if you need faster air, even a 1gal compressor Is plenty. It does not take much air to seat the tire, it just needs it delivered quickly. Taking the valve core out greatly increases the air flow.

Once the tire is seated you should be able to let the air out and have it remain seated as you add the sealant through the core-less valve.

davei1980

The little roadside inflators will not work but the small roofing compressors you mention will have more than enough. Roadside inflators are really just pumps, not compressors. You need one with an air reservoir.

You do need some volume but not a lot. Pressure is more important here. I have a huge compressor with a 5hp motor, but it only goes up to 100psi (which is plenty). Those little pancake compressors are made to run roofing nailers all day, which don't take a lot of volume but do need a lot of pressure to drive nails, so they go up to 120psi or higher so one of those may actually be BETTER.

I usually flip mine on about once/week and it hovers between 100-40psi which is fine for topping off tires. If I am mounting tires I make sure it's all the way up to 100 but caution - you don't want to blow the tire off the rim if it's not rated that high!

Paul_M

Success!

Thank you all for your advice. In the end I followed the advice to inflate using an inner tube first, then to take off one side. I also bought an air tank (tire booster) to ensure a rapid inrush of air under pressure, which seemed to work well. I managed to seat the tire on the second attempt. I then went on to put the sealant in by removing the valve core and using a syringe.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Best regards,
Paul

Paul_M

I did this and it worked well, thank you! I also used an air tank to inflate the tire quickly. I managed to seat the tire correctly on the second attempt.

davei1980

Glad it worked! It's not a complicated thing once you wrap your mind around it. People are all over the board with this too, with some swearing off tubeless for life due to the headache, but it's really not a hard thing to do.