I got a puncture today (well, two, but one of them I’m not worried about) on a tubeless tire near where the tire sits on the rim. It plugged as soon as I got some sealant to bounce on it (it’s a very small hole), but when testing it out I managed to reopen it. And reseal it, and reopen it and reseal it. From Google searches, that’s common for tubeless punctures in that area. I am hoping that it will do better if I let it sit overnight if I give the sealant a chance to cure (from Google I’m getting mixed messages about the likelihood of sealant curing).
My question is, should the seal fail again, would taking the tire off and using a patch on the inside be likely to help, or might the patch fail for the same reason that the sealant would fail (according to the internet, because the tire flexes too much in that area). Or do I just need to write off this tire and replace it with a new one (fortunately, I have another, but I’ve only had this tire on for a few weeks)
Some details in case it helps–I’m running Continental GP 5000 S TR 700x32 with Peaty’s Holeshot.
Has anyone tried to patch a tubeless tire on this location, if so how did it do? Any other thoughts/options? Does anyone want to correct anything I found from the internet?
You will not find legitimate answer like “you will be fine, keep riding”.
Yes, it the area that have flex too much. You will compress-decompress a lot that area. No any sealant or patch will hold that kind of flex. Unless you completely melt it together with hot glue gun or something extremely heat to melt the material to seal together.
Just my opinion. Most will tell you to dumb this tire or do it at your own risk.
Have you tried putting a plug in? On sidewall stuff, I’ll goop a bacon strip plug up with vulcanizing cement and it usually makes a nice permanent repair. I’ll sometimes patch sidewalls from the inside, but that’s a tough ask if it’s right near the bead. Also, I’ll typically only use a “questionable” tire on the rear.
Possibly related question - how long should one wait after doing a new tubeless set up before going for a decent length ride.
To be clear, part of my tubeless set up process is to ride around the block. I normally then wait overnight before doing my normal ride (say, 2 hours), but I’m wondering if I could get away with setting up a new tire in the morning and going for a full ride even an hour or two later.
I haven’t tride a plug. The hole is pinhole size so I’d be worried that a bacon strip or similar would significantly increase the size of the plug.
Is there are a reason why you’d only use such a tire on the rear? Given how slowly my front tires wear out, I’d think that would be ‘safer’ - but I guess a rear blow out would be less dangerous than a front one?
Yeah, that’s the only reason. And I personally wouldn’t worry about a plug making the hole bigger. It’s still small and the vulcanizing cement makes for a much more permanent repair compared to sealant
Depends on the tire. I set up the new Tracer TLR two nights ago, filled with sealant, and went for an hour and a half on trails. I was able to tell immediately that the tire is quite leak-proof and it seated easily, so I was comfortable. Prior to that, I set up Caracal TLRs and without sealant, they lost all air within minutes through the sidewall and around the bead. I haven’t seen that level of leak before, so I made sure to let it sit with sealant until it held air, which it happily did by next day.