Bingod

Went to put my gravel wheels on yesterday, they have been hanging up for 3 months as I have only ridden on my trainer as I'm recovering from a spine injury from a fall. Anyway the tires were flat, no surprise, the bead was separated from the rim in a couple of paces, nothing too bad. The front pumped up no problem but the rear wouldn't hold air and was leaking through the spoke holes. I removed the tire to discover that the rim tape had become smooshed and pushed and rolled away from the rim shoulder into the center channel - barely any of the tape was in its correct position. The rims are Stan's Grail, Stan's rim tape and sealant, 700c WTB Resolutes. This is the second time this has happened to the same wheel having gone several years on the original rim tape. The LBS installed the tape 4 or 5 months ago as I was too lazy and rushed to do it myself. After one day the tire had gone flat due to this same issue. The shop redid the work and it lasted well enough for the few weeks up until my accident when I hung then up. I watched the LBS tech do the work and both times he seemed to do a careful and pro job. What could have gone wrong? Is this common? I'd like to do this repair myself and would appreciate any advice so I don't end up with the same repeating issue Thanks G

masi61

I suspect that this is common, especially considering you have not ridden these wheels for several months.
I imagine it is even more predictable for certain brands of tape. I have hard a pretty harsh learning curve getting my DT Swiss R460 tubeless road set-up air tight.
Do you know what brand and width of tape is on there now? How does the width match the interior rim width? Does the tape extend all the way out to the edges of the rim interior covering the tubeless “shelf”? And did they do 1 or 2 layers of tape?

Bingod

21mm Stan's tape on approx 21mm rims, same as stock. i did not notice how many wraps it got. I wish I had checked as i just took the rim back to the store to redo. What's worse, too much tape or not enough?

alcjphil

I wonder if perhaps the rim was never properly cleaned before applying the tape leading to the edges of the tape peeling back towards the centre of the rim

Bingod

Good point. I watched the tech clean the rim, he used a spray bottle but perhaps it was just a soap or degreaser solution rather than alcohol. This time they will use alcohol

oldbobcat

Perhaps the tape was a little too wide for the rim or applied unevenly, riding too close to the bead. Then, when the tire is installed, the bead of the tire pushes the edge of the tape away from the rim, breaking the seal.

Regarding how many layers is "enough," it's usually a matter of how cleanly the first layer went down. If the first layer creates a good seal, that should be enough. If there are bubbles or irregular edges, then the redundancy of a second layer becomes necessary. And too many layers will make the tire harder to mount.

Bingod

This also seems plausible. The tire bead when seated is definitely or must be dislodging the tape but its impossible to tell if my removing the tire is making it worse. think I'm pretty gentle at removing the tires and i never had this problem with exact same set up for years. The rim tape really is trashed. WTB has changed the bead on the Resolutes, they used to be bare cloth which would quickly become tattered with loose threads from repeated tire changes. The cloth is now rubberized so a little thicker and less flexible

tyrion

I'm no expert on taping rims, but my experience with clear Gorilla Tape is it's super strong and sticky. You have to cut it down to proper width though, usually.

I just used one layer, but this was for low pressure, 35psi max - for higher pressures you might want 2 layers.