Tubeless Tires the Love-Hate Relationship. I have finally found a way around the tubeless mess.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Let me start off by noting that if you ride with lower tire pressure the tubeless thing may be your answer. I ride on the rails to trails a lot and ride the road to the MTB trails.
With that I normally pump the pressure to 15 psi front and 20 psi for the back. Well what I have found is with the higher psi and the tubeless sealant ends up with me chasing leaks and a mess…
When I have to chase leaks I end up making a mess with the tubeless sealant…..
For months I have been looking for a better solution.
What I have been doing is running a 27.5 x 2.5-3.0 butyl rubber tube. Then just over inflate for my 3.8” tire. The purpose of this was to save weight on a 3.5-4.0” tube…
This worked out fine and it also helped with carry a heavy tube in my bag…
I researched and looked for an TPU tube but I couldn’t find the correct size and TPU tubes does not over expand.
I was at a bike shop one day and just asked does anyone know of a company that makes TPU for a fat bike 27.5 x 4” From that conversation www.tpubiketubes.com
Or www.wheelscience.com A company in Australia
I couldn’t believe it they had the size I was looking for 27.5 x 3.5-4”
The only thing I bummed about is I didn’t order enough to do both fat bikes and spares to have in my bag.
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Team Tubless and that was cemented when after a ride, I found a 3-inch thorn in the tire. I swear by Fatty Strippers! No issues with my Mulefut 80s.
You're absolutely correct with all the faults you have pointed out. I have tried three types of tape and none of them perform satisfactorly in my opinion. I have about a 50/50 success rate with them. The split tube method is almost 100% guaranteed to keep your tire from leaking and if you buy tubes with removable valve stem cores you don't even have to worry about the valve stem leaking, you can just use the one that comes with the tube. Trimming the excess can be a little tricky but it's worth the extra effort. It's not as light as tape but it is lighter than having a whole tube in the tire. The last time I used Teravail 80 mm rim tape I wrapped it three times around the 80 mm rim. The first rap was skewed to one side of the rim to allow more tape up the inner sidewall, the second wrap was skewed to the other side. Once I got the middle pressed down with as little air bubbles as possible I went with a third wrap right down the center and very tight pressing out the air as I went along. All three wraps had considerable overlaps to help combat the fluid seeping in. So far that method has allowed the tires to bead up more quickly and has sealed with no leaks at all the very first time. The downside is, it's a lot of work and rim tape can be expensive. I haven't verified this but I assume even three rounds of tape is lighter than the split tube method and definitely lighter than a whole tube. To tape up an 80 mm rim I think the tape should be manufactured at least 85 or 86 mm wide to allow for more tape to go up the inner sidewall and also to fill in the center of the rim contour. 80 mm tape is too narrow and will allow the things to happen that you have shown in this video.
@@thomasandrews8033 Thank you for taking the time for your break down. It is very much appreciated.
RIDEFAT and have a great week.
@fatride thank you and may the "fat" be with you! 😁
I always run another type of tape that's inverted and barely covers the holes. I also avoid wheels with holes where available.
Do not put 20 psi in fat tire, I ride my 2.4 mtb on 20-22 psi. 10PSI is max for the fat bike.
Buy some Gorilla or Tesa tape, put few layers on the rim to cover rubber parts, and then put Sunringle tubeless tape on it.
Thanks for the info
You can certainly ride your fat bikes with over 10 PSI, I use 17 to 18 in one of my setups all the time with no problem. I use this particular bike for road and gravel road rides and that pressure works just fine. The tire is rated for 20 PSI but I found that's just way too bumpy
@@thomasandrews8033 Yes, you can ride it, but it is absolutely too harsh and the rolling resistance is much higher than on lower pressures.
You’ve had a lot of trouble with tubeless. Hopefully the tubes work best for you.
it's all about the sealant. you need to use caffelatex. by far the best sealant out there. I use it to run pretty much ANY tire with a tubeless setup. it'd made of synthetic latex, no ammonia and turns into super strong and eoastic rubber without any boogers.
@@JoLe1991 Thank you!
Dealing with those type of rims just sucks. I have two sets of carbon rims for the fat bike. It’s pricey but not dealing with the inconvenience. Got Light Bicycle rims, they seal up immediately with just a regular strip of tape and some sealant.
@@tinshield Thanks for the insight
@@tinshield I’ll agree 100 percent. I’ve got LB wheels on my FB and they are awesome. I built them around I9 Hydra hubs with Sapim cx -ray spokes. They are light and strong. My rims don’t have spoke holes in the inside so I dom’t have to mess with tubeless rim tape. I added sealant, pumped up the tires and they are darn near perfect!
Not enough layers of tape, the tape should ride up on side wall the smallest amount so that the tyre bead presses onto the tape helping seal. With the tape you used I layer over at least 2 x minimum, or thick nylon tape with super sticky adhesive once is fine. At the join you should have an overlap around 1/3 of the rim diameter or more if you like, I will often use the smallest amount of super glue where tape finishes to help stay stuck on join, not on the rim just at tape join and wipe any excess off with finger or rag. The sealant you are using is fine and only messy if tape tyre or valve is not fitted properly. The reason it lifts or looks like it’s pushed back at bead is from poor tyre installation with tape not fitted correctly. I will usually push edges of tape on the rim bead down using a tyre lever hook just to push tape into the corner this ensures it will not push away from the bead when fitting the tyre like yours did. Tubeless is more about running lower pressure and tyre suppleness than puncture resistance. The problems you are having seem to be from poor tape and tyre fitment. If you take your bike to an experienced bicycle mechanic you may be able to watch them fit it up for you if you ask and pick up some pro tips. I have done this often with home mechanic types but I may charge on my time instead of just for the job itself but you learn and then can do comfortably with confidence. The instructions on the product boxes packages usually outline most of the points I have made and can be your best friend. Tubeless will take higher pressures too, if fitted correctly. A lot of people mess up the valve fitment as well, I normally use a soldering iron with a pointed tip to just melt the valve hole enough to poke the valve through, this laminates the tape together so layers can’t take sealant between and it stops tearing when the valve expands the hole. And f ing keep the tape under tension when applying it, this takes a bit of muscle but you wouldn’t just place cling wrap over a bowl of food and expect it to seal, same thing here. Watching your video it is clear to see that the problem is all in the way you have executed the job. Keep wrenching and good luck.
I just went through this very same thing with my Lithic Cryolite 100mm cutout rims. I found the rim strip must be the woven type vs. PVC to minimize stretch that causes excessive cutout bulge. When it does bulge through the cutouts it pulls the rim tape away from the tire bead landing area (adhesive shear vs. peel) because the tape is mostly sticking to the rim strip and lesser on the rim itself. Any sealant ingress under the tape begins to compromise the adhesion strength. This is further exacerbated when fluctuating the pressure up over a wide range i.e. 4-15psi. Also if there is any bead slip against the tape edge it slowly works the tape loose on the edges leaving less adhesive surface to hold back the air (seems to worsen with low pressures).
I finally gave up with cutout style rims and went with Nextie carbons. These rims are lighter, solid piece construction (no cutouts) and the spoke pattern is nearly inline vs. wide staggered. This allows you to use a narrower piece of rim tape to seal the spoke holes keeping the edges well away from the tire bead landing area. But main benefit of this rim design is the tape adhesive has a much larger and smoother surface area to stick to. This is super important when running higher pressures. More uninterrupted sticking surface means that higher pressure air has more adhesion to overcome. I use a hair dryer to gently warm new tape when applying it to the rim so that it conforms better to the rim surface shape preventing wrinkles.
I run 85mm Nextie's with 4.0 Vanhelga's on my summer fatty (12-15psi), and 105mm Nextie's with Johnny 5's (4-7psi) on my winter fatty, all tubeless. I've had absolutely zero problems with leakage. I rode all last summer on my 85mm rims tubeless and the tires are still holding air today while the bike is winter hibernating in my basement. The only thing I do from time to time is give the wheels a spin to move the sealant around inside to prevent pooling and clumping. If you can afford carbon rims it may be a better option to overcome this frustrating leakage issue with cutout style rims. All that said, I always carry a tube in my pack for emergency trail repair if the damage is greater than what the sealant or dart can plug.
@@joedesimone1444 WOW thank you for all the insight!
RIDEFAT and have great weekend
@@fatride No problem. HTH. As a foot note, I'm using the Nextie Xiphias for both wheel sets. These are the lighter weight single wall rims and have held up pretty well. The 105mm's should last forever since they never see any abuse riding snow. However the 85mm I use for summer riding may not take the hard abuse bashing through gnarly root and rocky trails. I generally ride with more restraint as to not get broken physically (I'm your age +1) and not crack the rims. If you plan on hitting the techy trails harder I suggest looking at their double walled offerings. I too have a Big Iron as my summer bike, and with Nextie rims, PNW coast suspension dropper, and Mastodon fork I got the bike down to 34 lbs. My winter bike is a Mukluk carbon weighing in at 31lbs (w/ studded tires). Riding tubeless carbon wheels really makes a big difference.
@@joedesimone1444 Again THANK YOU so much! What great info!
team tubes! 27.5 x 4.5 on mine, no problem at 6-8 psi in the cold on snow. 20 + psi in the summer on gravel/road/dirt. only had one pin hole leak from riding over thorns. Carry a pre glued patch kit with me on longer rides just in case.
@@Paddleandbeans I have friends that love the system.
I totally understand the advantages.
It just hasn’t worked out for me…
RIDEFAT and have a great weekend
Sealants weigh more than a tube and tube patches weigh less that tire plugs. At some point the quest for less bike weight becomes a joke. There's an old saying "One can always sell a dream".
Unfortunately, if you ride your fat bike and areas other than just groomed singletrack you may need to treat your tubes with a sealant also thereby compounding the weight even more. I'm definitely giving these TPU tubes look.
Tubeless rims?
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