1Lieutenant

Been having a problem with running tubeless tires on the rear wheel of my Lynskey R300 road bike.

I ride mostly rails to trails paved paths with limited road. My wheels are Mavic Ksyrium carbon wheels with Schwalbe Pro One tubeless tire. Previously this wheel had Mavic Yksion UST Pro II.

With both tires I developed multiple flats. Punctures through the tread, not slices and not very big. In each case, the sealant would work for a short period of time but with continued riding the leak would continue.

The initial Mavic Yksion 28 mm tire had Mavic sealant in it. I supplemented it each season with additional sealant. After multiple leaks with sealant spitting out of the puncture over the frame of my bike, I replaced the tire. It was not nearly worn out from tread wear.

I replaced this tire with the Schwalbe Pro One 30 mm tubeless and Muc Off sealant. The results were no different than the previous tire. A single puncture that will not seal and sealant spitting out over the frame. This tire has less than 300 miles on it!

First question, what am I doing wrong? Why aren't small punctures sealing? Second question, can I clean out all of the sealant, patch the internal side of the tire, and run a tube?

Prior to this bike and wheel combination, I was riding Scwalbe Ultremo ZX 25 mm tires with tubes at 85 PSI and never had a flat in thousands of miles

oris

What's the size of the punctures? In what you're describing, it usually means the puncture or hole is too large. I'd recommend using a tubeless plug or patch kit to seal the hole then top off the sealant.

Otherwise worst case scenario is it clean it out and insert a tube to keep going.

1Lieutenant

The puncture is no greater than 1 mm. Muc Off sealant supposedly can seal up to 6 mm. That is why I am puzzled.

chaadster

There’s nothing magic about Ultremos, though Schwalbe did build them with a puncture resistant belt. That you did not have a puncture on that tire in thousands of miles is a matter of fortune primarily, because as I say, they are not magic, and they work like all other tires. Tire construction plays a role in preventing punctures, of course— not only belts, but other factors, too e.g. carcass material and tread thickness— but within the realm of lightweight sport rubber, where the variances aren’t that big, luck is the biggest factor by my estimation.

So your luck ran out and you’ve got a “punnie” in your high-zoot tire…yeah, the sealant should work. I don’t know anything about Muc Off other than that seem to be taking the market by storm recently, and perhaps that their chops seem to come from the MTB world. Is it possible that their sealant formulation is poorly suited to high-pressure road tires? I think it’s possible, but I don’t know. What I do know is that not all sealants work the same, something I know from personal experience in use and simple observation.

Therefore, given the inevitability of punctures and the variability of sealant performance, I’d suggest trying another sealant. I like Bontrager the most, but seem to be having good luck with Panaracer SealSmart. OrangeSeal was pretty good for HP road, but I didn’t like the way it aged. Joe’s Eco and Stan’s original collectively stank, but Stan’s Race might be cool. I suppose there are many other brands which would be recommended by other folks as well.

As mentioned upthread, use a plug to repair, try another sealant, and see what you get. I don’t think there is a sure-shot, unfortunately, to guard against every puncture and eventuality, so it’s down to trial and error…and luck.

WhyFi

Try Orange Seal (regular, not Endurance or anything). Regardless of the tire, it's never failed to permanently plug 100% of my punctures 4mm or smaller (I've had to use bacon strips on a few punctures of ~5-6mm).

WhyFi

Sure, you could if you want to.

Remove the sealant, but there's no need to clean the inside of the tire - the stuff coating the tire weighs very, very little. Also, if you're going to run a tube, there's no reason to patch the the tire internally.

But I'd just use some known good sealant.

eduskator

I'm using pro ones with muc-off sealant and never had a flat. Been using TL setup for the past 3 summers and only experienced one flat with my old setup (giant tires / giant sealant) because I rolled on broken glass... Perhaps the roads you are using are very dirty and/or full of debris? Also, at what pressure are you riding? If it's too high or too low, it might explain why.

Small punctures may not seal if the object that made the puncture is stuck in it. Otherwise, it should seal, especially with Muc-Off.

You can indeed patch it from the inside, put fresh sealant back and continue using the tire. There is no need to replace it unless the puncture is irreparable (long slash, big holes, etc.).

NoWhammies

eduskator How do you find the muc-off sealant? Do you find that you have to replace it/refill very often? And yes, I realize this question may be dependant on things such as where you live, the frequency of riding, etc.

danmyersmn

You could consider one of these:
https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/...ess-insert-kit

or:
https://ride.lezyne.com/collections/...ss-co2-blaster

if you keep getting punctures. It would help keep you on the road and not need to pull the tire for repair.

SCTinkering

I've been using both Orange Endurance and Regular. I've had both seal up some slices, but neither held when going back up to "normal" pressure. I patched both from the inside, but have yet to re-mount them.

The only other issue I had was hitting a bump big enough to unseat the bead. I ended up putting a tube in it and finishing the last 50 miles of my ride. Post ride I pulled both tires only find that I hadn't been very diligent with my sealant refresh on that set of wheels/tires. both were bone dry.
I've since cleaned up the rims, and inside of the tires, re-seated and re-sealed with Orange Endurance. They're better now than the first time around in that they are holding air over a week.

(now that I have posted in this thread I am now queued up for a tubeless failure...)

1Lieutenant

Thanks for all the replies. I decided to place a tube in the rear wheel but keep the front tubeless for now. Only downside is carrying both a spare tube and sealant.