Gravel - going tubeless - where do I start?!!

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

Thanks for all of the advice and tips, some of which I'd never have thought of! I've ordered some Stan's sealant, valves, and all the other stuff I might need (including spare inner tubes!), so I'll give it a go next week when it arrives.

[Siao]

I hope yours is a painless experience.

I managed to get my tyre inflated yesterday finally, it seems the valve was letting air out, which is bizarre as it was working before. Nevertheless, success!

[JEA1K]

If someone hasn't suggested it already, put tubes in the new tyres, mount and inflate and leave for a few days so that the tyres 'shape'. Mounting tubeless after removing the tubes 'should' be a little easier.

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

JEA1K said:

If someone hasn't suggested it already, put tubes in the new tyres, mount and inflate and leave for a few days so that the tyres 'shape'. Mounting tubeless after removing the tubes 'should' be a little easier.

This is good news as the tyres came with tubes in them and are currently inflated. I'll leave them pumped up until it's tubeless time.

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

Just a happy ending(ish) post to say that I managed to get the tyres set up tubeless really easily. The tyres seated with a normal track pump inflated at a fairly leisurely pace. Indeed, I had to pop them off and re-inflate them because it seemed too easy.

Only mechanic mistake I made was to tighten the valve core one too many turns and it unscrewed the whole valve, so I I had to start again.

This wasn't the biggest waste of sealant though* as I later received my karma from the god of tyre changes for it all being too easy.

• in a scene that would have been cut from Frank Spencer's interview for a Halford mechanic's job for being too unrealistic, I dropped the sealant lid down the middle of the pile of summer tyres I was using as a bike wheel rest. Obviously it landed on the floor, so I had to take the top tyre off to reach it. Once retrieved I proceeded to replace the tyre at the top of the pile, inadvertently knocking the bar stool I was using to rest the (now topless) sealant bottle on. The bottle obviously fell over on the stool, but not handily onto the garage floor, but instead just sat there spurting sealant towards the floor like an elephants c**shot.

And guess who had placed their new bike, upside down, on the floor right next to this, and could only watch in horror as the sealant poured directly into the underside of the shifters, whilst splashing the brake discs on the way down for good measure? Yeah, that was me! 10 minutes of bumping the bike to get sealant out of the shifters, and a full wipe down of the bike that took as long as the tubeless conversion, it's hopefully not done any lasting damage. I'll find out tomorrow on its maiden voyage hopefully!