Blake: Hey Henry, I've got this FSA gradient wheel. One careful owner and it's slightly
used. It's in perfect tip-top condition and full to the brim with sealant. Here you go,
just for you. Henry: Lovely, thanks, man. What a nice guy.
Kind of weird how that it's actually a different model of wheel but I guess that's just the
magic of cinema. How long does tire sealant last and how to remove it if it does become
dried on and stuck to the rim? How to unclog tubeless valves. Well, when it comes to tubeless
systems, the questions, much like the sealant, come thick and fast. We've done plenty of
videos on how to set up tubeless but this is a video on how to refresh your setup-less
tubeless system less the tube setup tubeless system refresh setup.
Here's my first mistake. I inherited these wheels from certain Mr. Blake "The mechanic's
headache" Samson. Lesson learned, never again. He just has this way with bikes like few others.
He rides them not so much like he stole them but more of a case that he has no interest
whatsoever in their resale value. Basically, what had happened is Blake had punctured and
torn a tape quite badly. He bummed a tube in there but what essentially was happening
is, all the leftover sealant was getting jettisoned into the rim. Now, this isn't so much of a
problem but old gubbins over here inherited it the night before a shoot.
I've put a new tire on, got it set up as quick as I could but for the next or however long
it was, sealant was just oozing out of every orifice. It's kind of sat my garage, I haven't
gotten around to cleaning it but today is the day. I'm going to clean this up so it's
absolutely factory fresh. First up, let's get this tire off. It's not nice. Can you
hear that? It's completely jammed up. That's not going to let any pressure in or out in
this case. What you can do and this is pretty cool, I'm
just going to show it to the camera, is using this one here. Cap also doubles up as a tool
to remove the valve core. Got this one and, oh yes, it can come out like so. This one
I'm going to put to the side and deal with that later. Get this off. Now we dance. We
get some glue sealant remover, we read the instructions carefully and we spray it on,
okay. I really want you to really go to town here okay but not literally. We're in lockdown,
you sausage. Once you've done that, you're going to leave
it carefully to do its thing for about 5 to 10 minutes. If you happen to be making a YouTube
video of it, you can bring back the visual metaphor of a cup of tea, to show that this
is reality, and time really has passed. There'll be no Blue Peter trickery going on here. The
sealant's been able to work and we're going to get it really clean. Also, use the glue
remover on the inside of your tire. How long should sealant last before it dries
out? That really depends on how much you're using the wheel. If you're using it a couple
of times a week, then in my experience, the sealant will last as long as the tire does.
If you're leaving the tire in storage, it will probably dry out over about four months.
Now, make sure the wheel is dry and squeaky clean. We're going to add the tape. You know
the score here. We're going to use the correct width, nice and snug and we're going to overlap
at the valve hole, okay. Now it is time to put your valves in. Now,
to freshen up tubeless valves, you can put them in warm soapy water and if they're really
gunked up like this valve core is, it may indeed help a little. To be honest, in my
experience, for the best results you can get about 7 billion of these for 3.65 on eBay
and that's what I'd recommend. If you need to spruce up the valve itself, Muc-Off does
sell these seals separately which is cool. It means that the actual metal hardware should
last the life of the wheel. Now that the tire and the rim are both cleaner
than a used wad of twenties, we're going to put them back together and get the tire seated
by inflating it but we're not going to add the sealant yet. Now that your tire is seated
all the way around on both sides, we're going to undo all your hard work again by letting
all that air straight back out and removing the valve core.
Now, it is time to introduce the sealant. if you're injecting it through the valve,
like me, we want to connect the sealant packaging at 12 o'clock. Insert the sealant into the
rim at 6 o'clock using the guides on the packaging to measure it out. Then we remove it at 3
o'clock. For you digital clock lovers, well, not so clever now. No handy metaphor for you.
Then, we shake the wheel to get all the sealant in all the places it needs to be. Then, we
annoy our downstairs neighbors by bouncing the wheel around.
There we have it guys. There is a wheel successfully de-Blaked. Now, there're going to be some
tips that I have missed, no doubt. How do you guys keep your tubeless sealant in your
tires and not anywhere else? How do you clean it up? Get in the comments to let us know.
As always, don't forget to like and subscribe and we'll see you next time. Thanks, guys.
[00:05:40] [END OF AUDIO]