Tubeless Tutorial

 This is not a tubeless tutorial.  On our Trek Lamar ride today two of the riders had flats.  As it turned out, both were riding tubeless tires.  Those of us who have yet to be enticed over to the new trend, learned a few things.  Doug is our most experienced guy and, by the way, had some nifty tools.  

The first flat, we found, had a hole in the tire.  The sealant should have fixed that.  Unfortunately, due to inexperience plus a broken hand that put her off the bike for an extended period of time, the sealant apparently had dried up.  Mostly, these need to be refreshed every three or four months.  And I read somewhere you need to spin the wheels like every week or less.  That is, don't let too long go without riding.  Doug first got out a little gizmo that looks like a big sewing needle and threaded some rubber-looking thread into it and attempted to push it into the hole.  The object is to get the "thread" off the needle and fill the hole.  I saw this one other time on a ride and it worked quite well.  Didn't this time.  So he went to plan B, got out a little squirt thing and squirted some sealant into the hole.  This worked well enough that he could get air in the tire sufficient to ride.  As it turned out, there was some more air added a little later, enough to get her to the abbreviated end of the ride.  We also learned that you shouldn't use co2 because it reacted poorly with the sealant.

The second flat was a slight slit in the sidewall.  The sealant doesn't do well, or at all, on sidewalls.  However, tubeless or not, you should always carry a spare tube, which he had.  Getting the tire off the rim took a little doing, because you have to do something (sorry I wasn't close enough) to the stem.  Getting the tire off took a bit of doing, mostly to keep the sealant from going everywhere.  That was done quite expertly and Doug neatly emptied the tire.  The tube was installed (the slit was small enough a boot wasn't needed) and aired up (using co2), tire replaced on the bike and we were off.

Due to the time it took on these flats, we decided to skip tacos and go straight back to the shop.   I may be too old to go with tubeless tires and through-axel hydraulic brakes.