Avoid the Finish Line sealant. It’s horrible and I’ve never seen a review or comment saying it works well. I think it is glycol based and claims it won’t dry out, it may not dry out but it won’t work either. Muc-offf may be similar to Finish Line.
Dynaplug Racer and Racer Pro are nice. Not cheap at all but you can safely carry them in a jersey pocket and if you get a hole you can put your finger over the hole or put the hole against the ground to start the sealing. Then pull the Dynaplug from your pocket, insert it and be on your way if the hole is too big for sealant alone.
I would 2nd the ‘Avoid FinishLine Sealant’ I didn’t 3 years ago and had a nightmare period and almost gave up on tubeless before I realised it was the problem.
Mucoff although expensive seemed to at least hold the seal well when I used it; Finish line wouldn’t. However I p’tured on Thursday night on a TT and for the first time it wouldn’t seal I had topped up the Mucoff stuff with Stans
You have a good list, and there’s additional good info in the posts above.
One thing that I think is also very important is getting reps under your belt removing and installing tubeless tires. There’s no substitute for messing it up half a dozen times because that’s how you learn the pitfalls and tricks.
It’s nice to have confidence you can easily swap between different tires, and know you’ll be able to take care of things on the side of the road.
@bbarrera has a great list. Just a personal note. Don’t underestimate the spray bottle of soapy water! It will really help a tight tire bead move. I was shocked at the difference it makes.
Another note from experience. I just got the LightBicycle AR56 wheels and the tape they included is narrow and doesn’t work great. My rear wheel would not hold much air over even a 12h period and was making me nervous to race on. I re-taped it with appropriately sized muc-off tape and it now holds pressure overnight.
Gotta admit, every time I start thinking about going tubeless on the Venge, I come back to threads like this and the 5000TL mounting thread and think… “Why?”
Latex tubes make the rolling resistance negligible between GP5000 and 5000TL. Weight savings are minimal once you add the sealant weight. Mounting and changing a tube is a five minute job. GP5000s are great tires for puncture resistance…
I will definitely go tubeless for my triathlons when I get back to that because a flat could make the difference in KQ or not, so I get it. MTB/Gravel, obviously. But for daily road riding or the $40 crit as a cat 4, I’m not convinced yet?
I had 20 would-have-been-flats in last summer’s tires. That’s why I went tubeless. I’m already seeing Strava posts where a locals gets two flats in a day. Happened to a guy on Wed worlds a few weeks ago. Happened to me. No thanks.
DynaPlug has been a mixed bag for me on 26c road tires, I think it works better on larger gravel/MTB tires. The brass plug is sometimes too big on smaller road tires. Riding in the heat has caused the insert material to melt and get stuck in the metal tube. Those two reasons sent me back to the individually wrapped bacon strips.
Other stuff is personal preference. For example from the beginning I’ve had a 2oz / 59ml sealant bottle (Bontrager). Tried the KOM syringe and I prefer the syringe. Dipstick after a week with new tires and some are basically dry while others still full. Good hearing but the sloshing method doesn’t work for me. Etc etc.
Tubeless or tube, always carry a boot and tire and valve extender (for deeper wheels) and other roadside tools.
For 55mm depth rims, what size valve stems do I need? Are the cores all the same length, or do they need to be matched to the length of the valve stems?
Finally, is there really any benefit for name brand valve stems like CushCore or Muc Off? Those are $25-30 per pair versus $10-12 for no-name brands? Thanks!
I’ve got a couple of wheelsets without spoke holes. No tape needed in the last 3 years.
Tape can be quite handy if you’re having trouble inflating a used tyre. The beads tend to stretch a little and a wrap or two of tape can help with inflation when re-seating them.
I don’t know to be honest, ask your wheel vendor. Mine are 54mm front and 63mm back and they came with two sizes of extenders for use with short-stem tubes. I usually carry a tube with 80mm stem but if I had to borrow a tube then its likely I need the extender (packed the long one in saddle bag).
It’ll largely depend on what is available but you’ll want to get something that is slightly longer than your rim depth (say 20-30mm longer) to allow you to get your pump head on comfortably.
These come in 75 or 85mm (its your choice I think, Id go 85mm to be comfortable).
They are what I use I think on my prime wheels which have been through two winters and have seen barely any noticeable leakage.
OT, it’s a bit of a pain with aero/ disk wheels where you need an extender, which needs to be threaded and the extender/ stem need to be the exact length which allows you to comfortably get a pump adaptor in.
Just to clarify, because you list them seperately: tubeless valves come with cores. You can buy spare cores if the other ones break, but no need for the start.
I use tubeless mainly because of goatheads. I could change out a tube and 10 feet later run over another patch of goatheads and ruin my extra tube. It happened to me one too many times so I made the switch.
