Flat tire with notubes/tubeless

Posted At : August 18, 2007 11:58 AM | Posted By : Erik Voldengen
Related Categories: Bike

Here's another post for the notubes people.

I went for a ride in Forest Park today. About 14 miles in I got a nasty hole in the sidewall of my rear tire. Had I ran over a nail or something, I would have been fine, because the sealant I've got floating around in the tire would have plugged the hole.


There's a hole there, with white goo all around it

But when you have a hole in the sidewall...no way. So I took the wheel off, put in a little air, and once it started to leak out, I'd shake it to direct the notubes sealant to the hole. A little white stuff would squirt out, and the hole would stop leaking. However, as soon as I mounted the tire and put pressure on it, the seal would break and the tire would go flat. I think the hole would eventually seal permanently if I let it sit sideways for an hour or so, but I didn't want to wait.

So I decided to just use a tube, instead. It's a good workaround to get you home. I carry a road tube, just because there's not so much room in the tire and getting a bigger tube in there might be difficult. There's obviously not much to it, but here's some pictures anyway:

  1. Take out the valve stem
  2. Boot the tire (as usual). I use cut up pieces of tubular road tires
  3. Insert tube, pump it up, ride home

Comments (3)
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Erik,
A couple of comments -
1) Once you break the bead with the tubeless tires, you are shot. You can't pump up the tire again with a handpump.
2) Carry a C02 cannister. It's the only way short of an air compressor to reseal the bead
3) Always carry a tube (like you did)

Glad you are still sticking with 'the system". See you in Master As this fall.
# Posted By Dan Porter | 8/20/07 10:04 AM
Yup, but I didn't break the seal. With these rims, that tire bead sticks in there really well. CO2 wouldn't have helped in this particular situation, but I agree that's a great thing to have on board. Thanks.
# Posted By erikv | 8/20/07 10:06 AM
The sidewall tear issue is the only problem I've run into with Stans. Tore 2 sidewalls this year in XC racing. A couple of times I've laid the bike on the side long enough to get the goop to seal but if the hole is big enough it won't goop up.

I'm just carrying the CO2 these days, no tubes. Luckily I've not had any problems on the cross bike. Being out 25 miles on some Mt. Bike course is a whole other story.
# Posted By Patrick | 9/3/07 5:51 AM
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