Fall is approaching quickly, trails begin to get moisten and slippery. It's definitely time to change tires, put some tacky ones on the bike, and take profit to change the sealant inside the tires.
You just need 2 tires lever, a specific tubeless valve, a pump or air compressor and of course some tire sealant. As my rims are tubeless ready, I don't need to put some specific tape, but if yours are not TR, you must first seal your rims with a tubeles tape that you can find in your local store. The tape helps to close the spokes holes to avoid the sealant leaking through.
My product choice is of course Monkey's Sauce tire sealant available here and Granite Tubeless Valves, also available here.
1- First, remove your wheelset from your frame and release on side of the tire from the rim, no matter what side. You should not remove the complete tire. Remove your old inner tube and make sure the tire has no cracks or pinches first. If needed, clean the interior of your tire.
(if you need to put the tape, the operation comes between 1 and 2)
2 - Take your tubeless valve and put it into the hole into rim. The small silicone ring is ment to go to the outside, so take it off first. Once the valve is placed, put the silicone ring from the other side and tighten with the screw. Now the valve is on place.
The right amount of sealant is written on the bottle. According to your tire and riding style you should put more or less sealant. The bottle says 140ml for my setup and the full bottle has 150ml so to not waste the rest, I've putted all the sealant into it.
3a - Put back the tire until it's at 3/4. Put the sealant in the tire and gently turn the wheel to have that open space on top of it and close the tire.
3b - You can also put the whole tire on and open the valve nipple to insert the sealant from there. With our Granite Valve Caps it's easy because they are ment for it, but with a standard valve you will need a valve tool to open it.
4 - Once the tire is putted back in place, use a floor pump or a compressor to inflate the tire. A simple floor pump maybe won't have enough pressure to make the tire pop. We use Bontrager's Flash TLR Pump with high volume cartridge. It allows to inflate tubeless tires easily. Pump up to 4bars and make sure the tires seals perfectly on the rim. The tire is marked with a thin line all along the rim. Make sure this line appears everywhere. If not: the tire is not perfectly fitted. Pump more air until you can hear a loud "pop". If it still doesn't work, deflate the tire, wet the tire along the rim a little bit, make sure no water goes into the tire, and pump air again. If it still doesn't work, leave the tire for a night under high pressure, normally it will get in place from alone.
5 - Once everything is done, you should rotate the wheels and in the best case have a short ride.
We hope this tutorial could be helpful for you! Follow us for more tutorials and news to come.