Refilling tire sealant?

[Stredda]

G'day all. I was wondering, can you top up your tubeless tire sealant by pouring it through the valve body instead of popping part of the tire off the rim? This would save breaking the seal on the bead. I have seen a trick of using a cable tie as a dipstick to check for sealant through the valve body.

[richbee]

If you have tubeless valves with a removable core, then yes. If not, then change your valves for ones with a remove able core

[clint66]

stans sell these kits
http://www.pushys.com.au/stan-s-notubes ... vAodG6YA-A" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

or you could just pop one edge of the tyre off and top it up.

[Fred Nurk]

I've never had any luck getting sealant to flow into the Presta valves with removable cores, the solid particles that seem so good at sealing holes do just as good a job at blocking up the valve and stopping the liquid from getting into the tyre. Schraeder would probably work, but I don't use them on any of my tubeless setups as they're all drilled for Presta.

Popping a bit of the bead off and pouring it in seems to be the trick, once its been seated the first time its easy to seal again. The same cannot be said, though, of attempting to get a new tyre to seal with a track pump.

[trailgumby]

I've never had any luck getting sealant to flow into the Presta valves with removable cores, the solid particles that seem so good at sealing holes do just as good a job at blocking up the valve and stopping the liquid from getting into the tyre. Schraeder would probably work, but I don't use them on any of my tubeless setups as they're all drilled for Presta.

Popping a bit of the bead off and pouring it in seems to be the trick, once its been seated the first time its easy to seal again. The same cannot be said, though, of attempting to get a new tyre to seal with a track pump.

It's not a problem popping a bead off to top up. And it's worth doing anyway, so you can check whether any latex aliens ave invaded your tyre without your knowledge.

As for seating new tyres with a track pump, It's easy with Stans rims and Schwalbe and Specialized TLR tyres. It takes a bit of care with going around the rim and pulling the bead out onto the bead seat shoulder as much as you can, but I've managed to seat the last 5 tyres on my 29er with just the track pump and a bit of enthusiastic pumping.

I startled my wife doing it yesterday. Just as she walked past it went POONG! as the beads snapped into place, and she jumped.

"Are you alright? Is it supposed to do that? "

[Duck!]

Ease or not of seating is very much down to the individual tyres. On Shimano XT UST rims, Maxxis Crossmark & Ignitor UST tyres are an absolute breeze to get on; you could just about blow into the valve & they'll seal. Standard folding-bead Crossmarks on the other hand are a nightmare; the finer beads are a slightly looser fit, so they need a lot of massaging to get up onto the rim shoulder, and a lot of blasting with a compressor to get the air in faster than it escapes to get them to pop on.

Just popping a short section of the bead off is super easy to check & top up the sealant and reseat.

[megatron]

Get one of those Stans or Effetto Caffe syringes. Pretty handy, and can fit all valve types (even used it for tubes on my wife's single speed). I like not having to disturb the tyre/rim bead seal. Once your bead is sealed, you never have to break it to top up the sealant.

[silentbutdeadly]

I just get plain old 20 ml syringes from the stockfeed/vet supplies place for only a couple of bucks each . Combined with Geax sealant (augmented with glitter) and removable cores...works a treat to fill or re-fill as the tip fits the coreless valve stem beautifully...even on Presta. Couldn't be stuffed popping a seated tyre off unless it has already been unseated by misadventure.