Busted a new AT81RC and tubliss system, sharing learnings

stephlal

stephlal

Braaaaap!
Staff member
I finished winterizing my garage and installed a heater this winter so we could work on the bikes.
I completely underestimated the impact of leaving these tires in the sun before installing them like we did last summer.

I broke the sidewall on the tire when installing it (tire was too cold), took the bike for a spin and the tire almost came off the rim, side wall failure near the rim lock.
Reset the tire, but in the process I over-torqued my tubliss rim-lock, another rookie mistake, striping the thread.

1st lesson - Huge kudos to Jeff at Nuetech for helping me out with a new rimlock for free. This was my mistake, but he still helped me out. I also discovered some shops now carry rim-locks for half the price of a full tubliss system.
2nd lesson - In my research to make these installs easier I found a thread from a guy who swore the hairdryer trick worked magic on this 4 ply tire, so I gave it a try. Got a cheap hairdryer, shoved it in the tire for 30 minute (move it every 5), and presto, my 4 ply was as flexible as a 2 ply tire, making the install soooooo easy it was a joke.

So there you have it...if you run into a tubliss issue, try out Jeff at Nuetech, he might come through for you, and get a 20$ hairdryer for your garage instead of ruining a 150$ tire :)
 
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oldschoolktm

Member
I was changing out the tire I had a little incident too. I thought to inflate the small tube to double check for leaks before reinstallation and blew it apart! May have been stressed as the break was at the tube lock!
I use the tubliss tutorial online as an aid.
Will you be running "Slime" and carrying plugs this year?
"Armor All" for lube while installing does the trick for me. :wink:
 
stephlal

stephlal

Braaaaap!
Staff member
Ya, had slime in the system last year with no issues, slime and plugs again this year.
The long term tubliss users of the interwebs seem to swear by soap and water only, but at $45 for 4L of slime at canadiantire I still like the idea of seeing green goo come out of a puncture for easy finding / plug if slime doesn't do the trick.
We also replaced the inner tubes on our fronts since we were nearing 150 hours on them and had no issues getting a seal on the used tires with slime.
 
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zedro

Member
I'm surprised you managed to mangle the RC, I've run them flat when new and they lasted like a normal tire would (not so much when they're at 50% life)...so, uhh, congrats? :mrgreen:
 
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