Tapper3279
Regular
Topic -
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Hello all, first post here so I thought I would make it a good one!
I thought it would be useful documenting what I went through trying to get tubeless on my Triban RC500 road bike which I purchased last month from Decathlon in the first week the store opened back up!
Having been out on a few trips now I do always have the concern that I’ll get the dreaded puncture and from everything I’ve read online the Triban RC500/RC520 (drop bar road bike versions) are a nightmare to change at the side of a road, so tubeless it is!
Having never even changed a tyre before I thought it would be a good idea to document this as I know the RC500/RC520 is quite a popular bike for newcomers to cycling like myself and so a lot of people upon googling the bike will probably see the same posts about difficulties with tyre/wheelset.
Hopefully this thread helps anyone else thinking about these bikes. I think the bike is great by the way and I think if I was buying my first bike again, knowing all of the below, I probably still would have bought it again!
-----------------
Sources -
This youtuber claims its really difficult to change tyres -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1QW9v59ME&t=290s
I watched this a few times but ultimately doesn’t show the final part of going tubeless -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2yaqvyL6e8
Forum member breaking a thumb from changing tyre! - https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/replacement-wheels-for-triban-rc520.257005/page-5
-----------------
The bike -
Existing tyres are the stock ones that come with the bike -
Resist Protect+ 700x28c tyres.
I think they cost about 10 pound each at Decathlon. (Non tubeless compatibe)These tyres feel strong! To be honest, they seemed like perfectly fine tyres to me, felt fast and comfortable at the same time but I wanted to change to tubeless for the puncture aspect.
New tyres -
Panaracer Gravel Kings (slick version) 700 x 32c (TLC - tubeless compatible) - brown wall. Folded tyres. Evans @ 32 pound each.
I looked at tubeless kits and buying stuff separately to save money, but for the first time I felt it was easier just going for the kit and buying the STANs tubeless kit, going for the 21mm width tape because the inner width of the Triban wheel was 17mm. Evans @ £32.
The wheels are standard from Decathlon, I am not sure if my front wheel is different from my back wheel (or different generations on it, this is the sticker on the front wheel -
And the rear wheel has no sticker but it has this marking -
Getting the tire off was actually quite easy. Deflated the tyre through the valve, squeezed the tyre into the centre of the rim and then just used two tyre levers to pull the initial part off the rim and then work around the rim. I didn’t see any of that residue that the “sweet cyclist” youtuber mentioned. I got the tyres off in a few minutes -
There is a loose yellow tape that goes around the rim, so I pulled that off because the way it went around the wheel was quite wavy and so I thought it might create gaps everywhere after my tape -
I then spent a bit of time, using Isopropyl alcohol wiping the inside of the rim, it was quite clean but some grease around the bead of the rim.
The rim itself has a centre channel which goes quite deep, I didn’t push the new STANS tape right into the rim and I also left some air bubbles but to be honest I didn’t see this having an impact as long as my tape went edge to edge so the tyre edge would effectively be pushing down on the tape. I went round the rim twice starting at the right of the valve hole and ending at the left of the valve so everywhere has two layers apart from the valve.
And this is where things went downhill for me!
Getting the Panaracer tyres on were not easy and took a fair bit of time and some sore fingers. Annoyingly I had to do this with two tyre levers and had to ask my wife for help but if I had four tyre levers I think I could have done it by myself.
I don’t have a track pump and so seating the tyres was always going to be tricky so my plan was to take it to the local petrol station and use their pump to blast the tyres onto the bead. I took both wheels to the petrol station and tried this out (with soapy water on the tyre walls and bead). Both wheels, I managed to blast the tyre onto the bead, but then there was a lot of air coming out from around the bead area (soapy bubbles helped show this). The front tyre held air for quite long (five minutes) but the rear tyre I had no luck at all and would immediately deflate through the bead around the whole rim.
I can only imagine this is because they are brand new tyres and need a bit of stretching out before they can pop out onto the bead especially when I didn’t have a pump/C02 with enough pressure to do this.
Once the front tyre was seated onto the bead, the tyre slowly deflated and so by the time I got home the tyre had fully deflated and the tyre had pulled itself back into the centre of the rim. I made another journey to the petrol station to try again and it was the same result for both wheels.
I done all the above without any sealant.
My thinking is that sealant may have helped me, but to give me the best chance, what I will do now is ride around with the tyres tubed first and seated in the bead properly using a tube, hopefully that gets the tyres stretched out and the right shape and then I will have another shot at tubeless again.
Having a track pump or a track pump with booster canister would be helpful but I don’t want to fork out for it because I won’t be changing tyres that often. I might also try a C02 when I get round to trying this again.
So ultimately, I failed this time around but I will give it another shot later and I will update this post to show how I get on! Hopefully this thread will help others and if anyone has any tips for me for my next attempt I would be happy to hear about it!
I won’t buy new wheels yet as I really want to see how Decathlons (tubeless ready rim) statement stacks up!
I still love this bike! and I'm liking the brown/tan sidewalls
--------------------
Hello all, first post here so I thought I would make it a good one!
I thought it would be useful documenting what I went through trying to get tubeless on my Triban RC500 road bike which I purchased last month from Decathlon in the first week the store opened back up!
Having been out on a few trips now I do always have the concern that I’ll get the dreaded puncture and from everything I’ve read online the Triban RC500/RC520 (drop bar road bike versions) are a nightmare to change at the side of a road, so tubeless it is!
Having never even changed a tyre before I thought it would be a good idea to document this as I know the RC500/RC520 is quite a popular bike for newcomers to cycling like myself and so a lot of people upon googling the bike will probably see the same posts about difficulties with tyre/wheelset.
Hopefully this thread helps anyone else thinking about these bikes. I think the bike is great by the way and I think if I was buying my first bike again, knowing all of the below, I probably still would have bought it again!
-----------------
Sources -
This youtuber claims its really difficult to change tyres -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf1QW9v59ME&t=290s
I watched this a few times but ultimately doesn’t show the final part of going tubeless -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2yaqvyL6e8
Forum member breaking a thumb from changing tyre! - https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/replacement-wheels-for-triban-rc520.257005/page-5
-----------------
The bike -
Existing tyres are the stock ones that come with the bike -
Resist Protect+ 700x28c tyres.
I think they cost about 10 pound each at Decathlon. (Non tubeless compatibe)These tyres feel strong! To be honest, they seemed like perfectly fine tyres to me, felt fast and comfortable at the same time but I wanted to change to tubeless for the puncture aspect.
New tyres -
Panaracer Gravel Kings (slick version) 700 x 32c (TLC - tubeless compatible) - brown wall. Folded tyres. Evans @ 32 pound each.
I looked at tubeless kits and buying stuff separately to save money, but for the first time I felt it was easier just going for the kit and buying the STANs tubeless kit, going for the 21mm width tape because the inner width of the Triban wheel was 17mm. Evans @ £32.
The wheels are standard from Decathlon, I am not sure if my front wheel is different from my back wheel (or different generations on it, this is the sticker on the front wheel -
And the rear wheel has no sticker but it has this marking -
Getting the tire off was actually quite easy. Deflated the tyre through the valve, squeezed the tyre into the centre of the rim and then just used two tyre levers to pull the initial part off the rim and then work around the rim. I didn’t see any of that residue that the “sweet cyclist” youtuber mentioned. I got the tyres off in a few minutes -
There is a loose yellow tape that goes around the rim, so I pulled that off because the way it went around the wheel was quite wavy and so I thought it might create gaps everywhere after my tape -
I then spent a bit of time, using Isopropyl alcohol wiping the inside of the rim, it was quite clean but some grease around the bead of the rim.
The rim itself has a centre channel which goes quite deep, I didn’t push the new STANS tape right into the rim and I also left some air bubbles but to be honest I didn’t see this having an impact as long as my tape went edge to edge so the tyre edge would effectively be pushing down on the tape. I went round the rim twice starting at the right of the valve hole and ending at the left of the valve so everywhere has two layers apart from the valve.
And this is where things went downhill for me!
Getting the Panaracer tyres on were not easy and took a fair bit of time and some sore fingers. Annoyingly I had to do this with two tyre levers and had to ask my wife for help but if I had four tyre levers I think I could have done it by myself.
I don’t have a track pump and so seating the tyres was always going to be tricky so my plan was to take it to the local petrol station and use their pump to blast the tyres onto the bead. I took both wheels to the petrol station and tried this out (with soapy water on the tyre walls and bead). Both wheels, I managed to blast the tyre onto the bead, but then there was a lot of air coming out from around the bead area (soapy bubbles helped show this). The front tyre held air for quite long (five minutes) but the rear tyre I had no luck at all and would immediately deflate through the bead around the whole rim.
I can only imagine this is because they are brand new tyres and need a bit of stretching out before they can pop out onto the bead especially when I didn’t have a pump/C02 with enough pressure to do this.
Once the front tyre was seated onto the bead, the tyre slowly deflated and so by the time I got home the tyre had fully deflated and the tyre had pulled itself back into the centre of the rim. I made another journey to the petrol station to try again and it was the same result for both wheels.
I done all the above without any sealant.
My thinking is that sealant may have helped me, but to give me the best chance, what I will do now is ride around with the tyres tubed first and seated in the bead properly using a tube, hopefully that gets the tyres stretched out and the right shape and then I will have another shot at tubeless again.
Having a track pump or a track pump with booster canister would be helpful but I don’t want to fork out for it because I won’t be changing tyres that often. I might also try a C02 when I get round to trying this again.
So ultimately, I failed this time around but I will give it another shot later and I will update this post to show how I get on! Hopefully this thread will help others and if anyone has any tips for me for my next attempt I would be happy to hear about it!
I won’t buy new wheels yet as I really want to see how Decathlons (tubeless ready rim) statement stacks up!
I still love this bike! and I'm liking the brown/tan sidewalls
)
