Old 03-16-21, 09:57 AM
  #13  
Hiro11
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2,608

Bikes: 2022 Specialized Allez Sprint custom build, 2019 Giant Defy Advanced Pro 0, 2018 Seven Mudhoney Pro custom build, 2017 Raleigh Stuntman, various others

Mentioned: 7 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 782 Post(s)
Liked 475 Times in 238 Posts
Tips:
1. I've found the most common place to leak pressure is at the valve. When mounting valves, I push hard on the top with my thumb while screwing it in. I also (carefully) turn it another 1/2 a turn with a pair of needlenose pliers after it's finger tight, just to make sure.
2. An inexpensive 6 gallon compressor with a Prestaflator will make your life 10x easier. I have 6 bikes setup tubeless right now, so maybe I need it more than others. Still, a 6 gallon Porter-Cable compressor (from a Black Friday sale at Amazon years ago) with a Prestaflator Pro cost me about $160 total. A 6 gallon compressor will give you more than enough volume to seat the beads. Also, there's no work to charge or recharge the reserve and the regulator offers ultra-fine control of blowing the beads on. I remove the valve cores like you do prior to blowing the beads on.
3. I do not recommend putting sealant in the tires prior to popping the beads on. It's just messy with the sealant in there. I add it later through the valve stem. I don't like or use the "injector", I just use 2oz Stan's bottles with narrow spigots. Get the weight off the tire by hanging the wheel to make it easy to get the sealant in there.
4. Wetting down the beads prior to mounting is crucial, as is getting the entire bead into the center trough. I really try to mount the tires with my hands if possible. I can get most tires on with my thumbs now after completing ~30 setups to date.
5. A five minute ride after mounting is the best way to make sure the sealant gets everywhere inside the tire. It's not really necessary, but I generally give a new setup a couple of days to "settle in" before going on a long ride. I avoid mounting tires the night before a 50 mile ride, for example. I'll add a bit of sealant and go for another short ride if the tire loses pressure. After the tire holds pressure for a day or two, I'm confident it's going to be reliable.

One other (obvious) tip: I don't screw around with non-tubeless ready tires or rims. I use really overpriced tubeless tape because it's exactly the right width, I could save $10 by getting (slightly wrong sized) generic tape but my time is more valuable than that.. Screwing around with non-tubeless ready stuff in general is a waste of time. I have found that the cheap Chinese valves on Amazon are fine, I have lots of spares of various lengths.

Last edited by Hiro11; 03-16-21 at 10:06 AM.
Hiro11 is offline