"Oatmeal" In The Tubeless Tires!

A few week back, we stopped at The Bike Shop to see Joe(l)

A few weeks back, a few of us randos rode up to visit buddy, Joe Morgan at his shop in Temecula. It's not really "his" shop, but he was hired on to set-up the whole thing after The Bike Shop was liquidated and sold to the new owner Rick. He started with a few shelves, the shop tools and over a period of several months, built it up into a nice, neat, respectable shop in Temecula. I thought it would be a good idea to ride up and check it out via the official "Old Highway 395" rando route. Troy, John, Bill, Keith & myself showed up at 0700 and had a nice ride up and back that day.

I had ordered a few things from Joe then, so another trip was in order for pick-up. OFR didn't have much going for their weekly Thursday ride, I opted for a trip up to see Joe instead. I've been riding the nice Specialized Diverge Gravel bike of late and did so earlier this week. I ran over a utility blade and sliced the rear tire up bad, so I chucked the Schwalbe G-Ones and put on the set of slightly used Specialized Trigger Pros that came with the bike (got these back from John M., who maybe was going to try them out someday). The rear brake squealed real bad only when coasting and I tried everything to correct this (even with a few tips from Joe). So I put on my slick Stans Gravel wheelset with the WTB 650b's on for the ride north.

Buddy John Mestemacher gave me some Finish Line Sealant

I love this set-up as John lent me some Finish-Line Sealant a few months back to seal them up with.When I pulled the wheelset down from the hooks, they were a little low on air, but a few pumps and I was heading northward. Leaving at my normal 0700 from the 7-Eleven in San Marcos, I arrived early and went over to the Stagecoach Park via the gravel equestrian paths to stretch out a bit and wait for the Shop to open at 1000. The paths were nice and comfy riding. Mmmmm? I decided to check the air pressure with my carry-along digital gauge. OHoh. 12 & 16 lbs? Over to the bike shop I go.

1005 AM and I was pumping up my tires to 45/40 lbs for the return trip back to San Marcos. Chatting with Joe a bit about the other wheelset rotor squealing under no load and picking up my goodies along with 2 bottles of Serfas Sealant, I was off before 1030, not knowing how much air I would be losing on the trip back. I arrived back in soft pressure condition, and immediately checked my pressure again. How low can you go? This called for a quick analysis.

4 oz of Finish Line Sealant turned to "oatmeal" in 2 months!

I put in the dipstick (the little stick gauge you get with Orange Sealant) and couldn't get a reading! Time to pull the tires off and see what's inside... OATMEAL! Yep, there is was lying in a chunk of gooey mass in the tire. So much for 4 oz of Finish Line Sealant not drying out. I couldn't say it actually "dried out", but it went somewhere? Enough of that Finish Line stuff, it's time for a redo.

I pulled the bead loose from one side of the 650b rims, and thoroughly wiped the oatmeal out. Might be enough for 1/2 bowl. Things looked good inside so I aired up and resealed the tires to the rims and then added 90ml of Serfas Sealant to each. Did the air up to 50psi and did the shake job. Let the rims lay horizontal and re-shook again. Job done.

Tried some 1" T-Rex Tape instead of Monster

Next morning, the front tire looked good, but the rear was flat! Time for some more work. Air-up and get out the soap-spray bottle. Leaking around the valve and some nipples. Well, I knew that meant the rim strip was leaking. Time for some  more work.

Poured out the Serfas Sealant, pulled the rear tire off the rim and did a clean job. Looked to me like when I pulled one side of the tire off earlier, the Monster tape cut-edge was caught and pulled back a bit. Not good. More work ahead.

Added 90 ml of Serfas Sealant per tire

Super clean job and I used T-REX super tape that was 1" wide this time. Took 2 tries to get it perfect and sealed tight. Plenty on the roll. No problem. Valve back in tight and after much effort, finally got the tire to seal up. T-REX Tape isn't a thick as Monster, but seemed to stick well. Added the re-used Sefas Sealant thru the valve hole and pumped up to 50psi, did the shake job and all was well again.

Time for a gravel ride to check things out.

-randorides