Made a potentially nasty mistake with tubeless conversion

top_oz_bloke

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
Thought I'd put this up here because I'm one of those never read the instructions types.

On my roadie I'm running tubeless with Stans yellow tape/valves/sealant and the Hutchinson tubeless tyres. It has worked great for 9 months or so.

Anyway, the other night I heard a big whoosh come from somewhere in the house. Couldn't figure out what it was so I put it down to the dogs getting up to something.

Fast forward a couple of days and I go to prep the roadie for a ride and sure enough there's a puddle of sealant and dead flat tyre. At this point I am thinking I might have picked up a slow leak and the bead has let go once the pressure has got low enough. Won't inflate with the track pump. Won't inflate with the air compressor. Weird.

So I start poking around and discover the tape has burst through one of the spoke holes and there are a number of others that are just about to go as well.

I only ran a single layer of tape. At the start/end where it's doubled over the tape is domed into the spoke holes but otherwise looks fine.

Sure enough Stans instructions say to use 2 layers of tape.

I don't want to imagine the mess if this had happened when I was on the bike. With such a small volume tyre and a large hole this is basically an instantaneous flat.

 
T-Rex

T-Rex

Template denier
I expect roadie tyre pressure would have made this problem worse than MTB pressure.
 
tasty.dirt74

tasty.dirt74

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Would be interesting if it was a front, on a fast descent !

Not much , if any warning.

So....you going to continue to use road tubeless? :confused:

2x layers next time ?

Are you going to have that niggling thought in the back of your head " how is that tape holding up ?" :D
 
skwiz05

skwiz05

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Thats why they have such things as "tubeless or UST rims", and to do a conversion, you do require a Rim Tape kit.

I dont count -Just Stans Yellow Tape - as anywhere near sufficient. The rubber strip or a ghetto conversion is really whats needed.

But, I suppose if you used about 4 wraps per rim, you might get a year out of it. Good luck.
 
top_oz_bloke

top_oz_bloke

Likes Dirt
Yeah it was the front too. The rear was in similar condition when I pulled it apart.

I retaped the rims with a layer of Stans then a layer of the fibre reinforced strapping tape. Not in a hurry to take the tubes out though.

Stans road tubeless kit doesn't use rim strips - relies only on the tape.
 
outtacontrol

outtacontrol

Likes Bikes and Dirt
skwiz05 said:
I dont count -Just Stans Yellow Tape - as anywhere near sufficient. The rubber strip or a ghetto conversion is really whats needed.

But, I suppose if you used about 4 wraps per rim, you might get a year out of it. Good luck.
Click to expand...
When I bought my Stans rims, they came with instructions on how to apply the yellow tape.
It said to start 6" before the valve hole and use 1 rotation and continue 6" past the valve hole.

So by that, it has 1 layer with a double layer over the valve hole. Been on for close to 18 months and no issues at all.

My rims never have more than 30 psi, so that could be why?
 
K

King Kasper

Squid
used some electrical tape on a rim once to seal it for tubeless. worked good for about 3 rides.... then boom!

cant stand 140psi for long i guess ;)

ghetto conversions are the best imho
 
krisko

krisko

Likes Dirt
Guys read his post its on a roadie so expect 120psi not the typical 30 psi of a mtb bike tyre!

Yellow tape one then layer with fibreglass tape. I bet you cant get do the same with the fibreglass tape!

Nice warning for roadie tubeless conversions.
 
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