The general consensus with GP5000 is theyre really f***ing tight. it’s been the same for me.
I’ve used other brands of tubeless tyres to easier success. Hutchinson’s will go on with 1 tyre lever in winter and no levers when it’s warm. Vittoria’s were an absolute nightmare to seat onto the rim, I had to put 160psi in to get rid of the problem with seating.
I’d suggest hutchinson’s as your first tubeless tyre. probably the performance one. I’ve used the winter tyre for more than 10K Km and havent stopped at the side of the road once, and i borderline abuse my bikes.
I only moved to road tubeless a couple of months ago. My rims are tubeless ready and I needed to replace the tires so figured I’d give it a go. Put a set of Schwalbe Pro-Ones 28’s on, so far so good. My only challenge/mistake was I put the sealant in before I inflated and seated the tyre for the first time. Had to use an air compressor with a dodgy valve adapter and it was a lot more challenging and time consuming than I would have liked. Almost gave up. I think I lost most of the sealant trying to get the tyre to ‘pop’ on. However since then I’ve deflated each tyre and checked the sealant level and was able to inflate with a track pump. So next time I plan to get a better inflator for the compressor and inflate and seat first. Then deflate and put sealant in before inflating again. I feel that will make things easier.
‘Big bike’ got me again… I got weak, I felt it was time to finally set up my bike tubeless. Even got one of those tire boosters for the promised ease of installation. Took me only three hours… to once more give up on it. Well played, big bike, well played.
I’ve got a set of Zipp 303s, that I’m thinking of using on the gravel bike. However I wanted to know if anyone has used a wheelset where they fairly regularly change tyres, for example from gravel to road tyres? Is it simply not worth it? By ‘fairly regularly’ I’m thinking maybe a couple of times a month? I ride gravel far less than road but want to be able to with the same set of wheels ideally!
I tried this for a while and it became a bit of a pain, tbh - especially with tubeless. If budget will allow, I’d suggest a cheap alloy gravel wheelset is probably a good investment.
Unless you love changing tires, that sounds like a complete hassle, especially for tubeless. You’ll have sealant everywhere…not to mention the added cost of having to constantly replace all the sealant.
I have 4 bikes set up tubeless, and on two of them, do tire changes every 1-2 months. All-in, I probably set up tubeless 10 times each year. You get good at it, but it is a pain. If you have a tire/rim combo that works well together, it’s a whole lot easier - but even then requires work.
Example: yesterday I set up my gravel bike tubeless using tires I know work well (same tires from last year). But I hadn’t cleaned all the dried sealant (from last time) off the tire bead, and as a result, the tires would not seat. I had to take the tires off, and spent the best part of an hour picking sealant off. When the bead was clean, the tires set up super easy.
1x per month wouldn’t be terrible. 2x per month gets into the PITA territory.
Today was a reminder, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Spring being the time of year for (semi)annual maintenance, I set out to follow the convention of cleaning out sealant that I assumed had dried up on my road bike - it had been sitting largely unused since mid-summer 2020 because I was on the gravel bike and then hanging in the garage over winter. Convention says the sealant (Stan’s) should have probably evaporated and left a big gooey clump. Pull the wheel, pop the bead pry off one side and wait what this? Not only is there still sealant, but lots of it, in fact nearly all of it, almost 2oz by the time I suck it out with the injector. So I am this far, I figure I’ll go through the process anyways. This is the don’t fix it part.
Labour through the cleaning up the dried sealant that was there and let the miserable TL5Ks sit in a tub of scalding hot water. They go on relatively easy, must be my lucky day. Hit it with the compressor and seat the bead and away we go. Before adding sealant I have learned to do a quick inflation test to make sure there are no big leaks, especially around the valve (tape damage). This where my luck runs out. Big leak out the valve stem. Loosen it, wiggle it around, nothing. Try dribbling a bit of sealant down, no go. Have to take the tire off to realize I hadn’t done a good job of cleaning up the stem adapter and in fact it looks pretty beat up. Rummage around the spare parts and find on that looks in decent shape and install with a bit of sealant and start the tire reinstall. Of course it wasn’t going to go on easy, levers, tire jack, swearing etc and finally it goes on. Seat the bead, fill it up and now I am back where I was two hours previous. a Wheel fixed that didn’t need fixing. Lesson learned, pop the bead on ther ear tire, same thing, still has lots of sealant in it, reseat it with the compressor, inflate the tire, move onto the next task.
After cleaning out two tires, I swore that it wasn’t worth it at all and I’d never do it again. I might do it to change brands of sealant.
I just installed a new GP5000TL. (5K miles on the old one without a single flat!) There was one snot ball the size of a large marble in there after topping up sealant many times over the last year. All the dried up latex (Orange Seal) didn’t weight more than 10 grams. That marble wasn’t bothering anyone.
GP5000TLs are very well sealed and the casing isn’t porous at all. The sealant seems to last a long time and doesn’t dry out.
Had my issues from a lack of knowledge. Now I ride GP5000TL and have gone 3k miles on them. New season and new tires going on soon.
I am ridding Zipp 404 with the narrow 17mm inner rim.
My experience has been mixed. The first time mounting the tires I burnt two hours trying to get the tight sidewall on…face plant.
Now I can do both in about 45 mins and use Stan’s Race sealant.
The 45minutes includes a quick tire warm up either in the sun or oven. (I have a nice wife…ha)
The front Zipp is easy to get the tire on the back is a bit more tight.
My only call of shame came when I assumed I should run 110psi. NO BUENO. Out on a 50 miles ride and had a sidewall issue. Low pressure is key.
Since PA roads are terrible I run 105psi rear and 100 front. Tried 100 rear but did not like the feel.
I am a pretty calm person, so I am getting the Vittoria inserts for my bike and my wife’s new Bontrager Race Wheels and use my zen state to get that figured out.
I have not tried any tires with shorter life. With racing being limited the 5000TL is just fine.
Running that high pretty much negates the main reason, other than self-sealing, of lower pressure for better rolling resistance. At 155-160lbs I though running at 80psi was on the high side for 25s
It’ll take a while to get used to what seems like unreasonably low pressure. I am probably going to run about 70 on my road bike and 55-60 on my gravel’ish (65-35 split on/off pavement) bike on 35c Gravelkings.
I’ve been running 75 for the past few weeks, and I’m still not used to it. I know they won’t, but I keep thinking they are going to burp or unseat. But I’ve ripped corners well over 20 mph without issue, so . Just need some more time with gain the confidence I suppose.
. Just need some more time with gain the confidence I suppose.