I installed terrene elwood light tires on my gravel bike a few weeks ago. The front tire is fine, but the back loses about 10-15 psi in 24 hours. I put the tire in water and there are no bubbles coming from the spoke holes or valve. The only thing I’ve noticed is 4 very small pinholes on the sidewalls. The holes are so small that I can’t feel or hear air coming out and I can’t see them when they are out of the water. For some reason, the sealant won’t seal those holes. I know the sealant works because it instantly sealed a slightly larger hole that was audibly hissing when I first aired up the tire. I’ve shaken the wheel numerous times and let it lay on it’s side for hours so that the sealant will pool over the holes. Nothing has improved the situation. Anything I’m missing or any other steps I should try?
I installed terrene elwood light tires on my gravel bike a few weeks ago. The front tire is fine, but the back loses about 10-15 psi in 24 hours. I put the tire in water and there are no bubbles coming from the spoke holes or valve. The only thing I’ve noticed is 4 very small pinholes on the sidewalls. The holes are so small that I can’t feel or hear air coming out and I can’t see them when they are out of the water. For some reason, the sealant won’t seal those holes. I know the sealant works because it instantly sealed a slightly larger hole that was audibly hissing when I first aired up the tire. I’ve shaken the wheel numerous times and let it lay on it’s side for hours so that the sealant will pool over the holes. Nothing has improved the situation. Anything I’m missing or any other steps I should try?
if i might hazard a guess: those aren’t pinholes. a lot of tubeless tires leak air out the sidewalls, and especially so if you over-inflate them. there are 2 ways to cure this: 1. don’t over-inflate them; 2. if you use a latex sealant, the sealant is designed to “patch” those holes by creating a kind of virtual latex tube. your tire is “tubeless ready.” here is what continental says (slightly abridged) about tubeless ready.
What does Tubeless Ready mean?
… Tubeless Ready tires are much lighter and are therefore air-permeable in the sidewall. This is sealed with a special sealing milk. All mountain bike tires from Continental are Tubeless Ready in the ProTection and Performance formats… For optimum sealing results and use, we recommend using the Continental RevoSealant…
This was happening to me and I would have sworn the same thing as you. Turned out that I had two problems - the rim tape had become compromised and there was a nick in the valve stem. Put in new rim tape and valve stem, kept my supposedly leaky tires, and boom. No more PSI loss. I’m back in paradise. If it isn’t the tires, make sure it isn’t the rim tape or valve stem. It doesn’t take much to lose a lot of air over night.
This was happening to me and I would have sworn the same thing as you. Turned out that I had two problems - the rim tape had become compromised and there was a nick in the valve stem. Put in new rim tape and valve stem, kept my supposedly leaky tires, and boom. No more PSI loss. I’m back in paradise. If it isn’t the tires, make sure it isn’t the rim tape or valve stem. It doesn’t take much to lose a lot of air over night.
i have a black rubber tub, from the the feed store, ostensibly for horses, and now it belongs to eddie (dog) who likes to soak in it (i keep it filled with water). the deal we struck is that eddie lets me use it to find leaks. if it’s coming out of the valve stem or somewhere else you’ll see it. but you can clearly see when air is leaking out the sidewalls, either using this method or putting soapy water on the tire.
As a fellow Californian, without a horse or residual horse accoutrements, I have been trained to not use water for anything… Bubbles is the easy way, and I don’t do anything the easy way….
Maybe I could dip my tire in the pool! I have not seen that in the Denizens thread.
Thanks! What you’re saying makes sense.
When I have the tire inflated and under water I can definitely see a very small amount of air and a trace amount of sealant leaking out of the sidewalls, on the part of the tire where the label is located. I can isolate four distinct places this is happening, so I was thinking of those places as pinholes. It sounds as though a better understanding would be that my tire is likely fairly porous and what I’m seeing is normal leakage for a porous tire. Regardless, shouldn’t my sealant take care of that?
I’ve had similar issues with gravel tires. Add sealant and work it around the sidewalls by hold the tire horizontally. You may need to do this more than once to seal all the tiny holes in the sidewall. It’ll seal.
Try adding more sealant or try a different brand.
Another option would be to use some type of rubber cement or patch and put it on the inside of the tire where the pin holes are…I’ve done this with large holes that won’t seal and it’s held up while waiting for new tires.