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Should I clean old latex out of tyres
i have a continental non-UST tyre go mavic xm819 rims that refuses to hold air for more than a day.
The tyre has been on there a long time.
Should I remove some of the old sealant out of the tyre and replace it with fresh sealant or just keep topping it up?
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Bar getting a new TR tyre I'd start fresh.
Take the tyre off the rim and give the rim a good clean and if it's taped up give the tape a check to make sure there are no damages (leaks). Clean the bead hook of the rim with metho. Now just give your tyre a light wash out with water and then go around all of the beads and wipe them clean so there is no random bits of gunk left on them.
Add new sealant and use Stan's technique to make sure the sealant gets a good chance to seal all imperfections.
http://youtu.be/EUtKp22cf_k
May need a top up but if should be good to go. If it is still going flat after a day after this then I'd re-tape my rim and get a new tyre
+1 to moman's advice above. I'd also check where the valve goes through the tape. If the tape has torn at the hole, replace it.
With non-tubeless tyres I put in a bit extra, lay the wheel flat and slop it around the sidewalls. Repeat for the other side. Then go for a couple of laps around the block.
Some tyres take a few goes for the sealant to penetrate all the pinholes'(eg OEM Schwalbe RaRa TLRs), so you may need to repeat the sloshing/ riding process a few times.
If you still don't get a result you're happy with, get another tyre. Tyres that don;t stay inflated properly simply arent worth the risk.
I changed to ghetto style strips using 20 inch tubes, mainly for economy. Works great, and takes the rim out of the equation, as the ghetto strip wraps the whole rim. But if the tyres been on a long time then it's likely to be something other than the tyre, valve or rim etc. Cleaning out the latex might be a good idea, beware you may have an emormous latex bogie in there!
You should get your tyre and rim as clean as possible before adding new sealant.
Any old gunk will make the new latex attach to it resulting in a "stans baby". this will leave all the latex seperate to the other liquid which will spurt out not sealin the hole it is meant to seal.
after removint your tyre, get a sharpis blade and lightly run it over any left over dried up latex off hte tyre bead and do the same on the rim catch. this will will make sealin the tyre easier as there will be no dried up gunk making any air escape, therefore making a clean seal.
in my xc days i used to add glitter to the process helping to block any bigger holes. ive heard of guys doing the croc trophy adding pepper corns to do the same thing
Thanks for the advice. I'm going to clean out the tyre of old latex and start fresh.
proprer UST, so don't need a rim strip, but yeah, good clean out with soapy water, make sure the rim and the bead are clean. Wipe out the tyre, but no need to go nuts trying to scrape the latec out, then put it all back together with a good dose of goop.