Regarding tubeless tyres

[busb]

I had difficulty with not being able to inflate a Schwalbe one 700x28c tubeless tyre so rang up my LBS to see if they had an air line I could use. Had no better luck than using my AirShot. The owner wanted to know what on earth posessed me to go tubeless in the 1st place! He was not impressed with me one bit! This pair of tyres were bought about 5 yrs ago with a pair of hooked Hunt wheels that I regret not getting fitted by them! they did inflate with a pump but never stuck properly. I recently bought a pair of Giant Fondo 32c tyres that were relatively easy to fit to the Hunt wheels & inflate so the rims were not the issue.

The tyres had very little wear so removed all the congealed sealant & fitted them to a pair of Giant SLR 1 rims, one of which I re-taped. Although the tyres are inflated, they never "popped" on these rims (or the Hunts) & require pumping before every ride with no sign of leaking sealant. I don't know if these tyres were faulty from new or whether others have had similar problems. I even tried to fit an inner tube but could not get the tyre on the rim (maybe a slimmer one would have).

My motivation for going tubeless about 7yrs ago was because I got fed up with fixing punctures when commuting. The tubeless transition from MTB to road was not thought through by the industry IMO who should have realised that Presta valves were far from ideal in that they rarely allow initial inflation with the core in-place. I tried to address this by buying a pair of Reserve Wheels - Fillmore Tubeless valves that I returned because the core cannot be removed so can't suck out old sealant. The other issue with 700c tubeless is how tight a fit they are before we consider hookless. I dread to think what fitting 25c tyres would be like! My love/hate relationship with tubeless continues despite never getting a puncture that didn't seal (usually without noticing until I saw signs of dried sealant).

[NickJP]

You can use sealant in tubes if you are having problems with punctures while commuting. I've found that Orange Seal Regular (not OS Endurance) works to seal punctures in tubes (both butyl and TPU tubes). You just need to make sure that (assuming presta valves) you buy tubes with removable valve cores to get the sealant into the tube. I"ve found that about 50ml in a tube is sufficient, and sealant in a tube doesn't seem to dry out at nearly the same rate as sealant in a tubeless tyre.

[busb]

Thanks!
I use std Orange Seal anyway. The inner tube I tried was 622-635 so may try a narrower one that will probably allow the tyre with tube to fit. The other option is to cut my losses but despite their age, have done low milage (& haven't perished like Conti's do) so'd prefer to use them reliably.
I've fitted loads of 700c tubeless without major issues apart from these Schwalbe Pro Ones - never got to the bottom why. Both set of rims have proven to be reliable with other tubeless tyres.

[rareposter]

I've fitted loads of 700c tubeless without major issues apart from these Schwalbe Pro Ones - never got to the bottom why. Both set of rims have proven to be reliable with other tubeless tyres.

For what it's worth, when I was running tubeless on road bikes, Schwalbe were my go-to tyre and I never had any issues with them.

So much around tubeless seems to be individual cases (and then you only ever hear about the bad ones so the whole thing gets a bad rap). That said, I think 28c is the absolute narrowest you can get away with on tubeless, it's not worth even trying it on less than that.

Some wheel / tyre combinations (tubed or tubeless) are just a total pain. This is nothing new - when I worked in a shop in the late 90's, one of the super popular bikes we sold was a basic mountain bike regularly bought for commuting use and many customers wanted slick tyres fitting. We dreaded it each time because whatever rims it came with were a complete nightmare to fit the slicks to. It was just that one combination.

[Bmblbzzz]

Seems to be a rule of thumb with tubeless tyres that the wider, the better they work.

[busb]

I've fitted loads of 700c tubeless without major issues apart from these Schwalbe Pro Ones - never got to the bottom why. Both set of rims have proven to be reliable with other tubeless tyres.

For what it's worth, when I was running tubeless on road bikes, Schwalbe were my go-to tyre and I never had any issues with them.

So much around tubeless seems to be individual cases (and then you only ever hear about the bad ones so the whole thing gets a bad rap). That said, I think 28c is the absolute narrowest you can get away with on tubeless, it's not worth even trying it on less than that.

Some wheel / tyre combinations (tubed or tubeless) are just a total pain. This is nothing new - when I worked in a shop in the late 90's, one of the super popular bikes we sold was a basic mountain bike regularly bought for commuting use and many customers wanted slick tyres fitting. We dreaded it each time because whatever rims it came with were a complete nightmare to fit the slicks to. It was just that one combination.

The Pro Ones aren't the 1st Schwalbe tubeless I've run - had success with some 30c variant (Allroads?) on my hybrid for 3 or so yrs with no issues before I retired. I agree that 28c is the narrowest I'd attempt to fit! I've successfully run some Conti tubeless as well though their Black Chilli compound does perish quickly so no good if a bike is left unridden for any time like mine. I can remember over the last 50yrs or so that some tyre/rim combos were a pain but never go stranded during the CTC rides out of Reading or commuting.

[busb]

Seems to be a rule of thumb with tubeless tyres that the wider, the better they work.

Absolutely!

[JohnR]

The limited air volume in narrow tyres combined with higher pressures can result in the tyres going soft before the holes get sealed. And this assumes that there's some sealant remaining in the tyre as less gets put in to start with while higher pressure means that it squirts out faster when there is a puncture.

[mattsccm]

There are hundreds of possible combinations of rims, tyres, tape, taping patterns, mechanics good and bad, chicken guts, Norse gods etc. You only need one element and it can be a pain. I use either Schwalbe or Panaracer tyres given a choice although cheap is also important. Some go easy some are a pain. All can be made to work with another layer of tape. That won't be specific tubeless tape but Tesa tape from ebay. I no longer even question whether the \rims are meant to be tubeless. They all work. You can even get most tyres to work tubeless. A compressor helps, even a cheap one.

[busb]

There are hundreds of possible combinations of rims, tyres, tape, taping patterns, mechanics good and bad, chicken guts, Norse gods etc. You only need one element and it can be a pain. I use either Schwalbe or Panaracer tyres given a choice although cheap is also important. Some go easy some are a pain. All can be made to work with another layer of tape. That won't be specific tubeless tape but Tesa tape from ebay. I no longer even question whether the \rims are meant to be tubeless. They all work. You can even get most tyres to work tubeless. A compressor helps, even a cheap one.

Thanks but this pair of tyres fails to seat on 2 sets of wheels where other tyres seat normally so adding more tape is surely not going to help. I deflated one tyre this morning that wouldn't inflate with even a track pump. My options seem to be to cut my losses or add 28c inner tubes. I had no idea how much they cost, having not bought any for 10yrs!

[Nearholmer]

I've found that Orange Seal Regular (not OS Endurance) works to seal punctures in tubes

Is there some reason why Endurance doesn’t work in this application?

It’s just that I use it successfully in other bikes, and was thinking of using it inside tubes on an older bike that I’m revivifying currently ……. I don’t really want to have to keep two flavours if I don’t have to.

Thanks for any pointers.