Rip

Well both tyres went down over night so I'm back to square one and £30 lighter for yesterday's bike shop visit. They held good pressure for a few hours yesterday but obviously have slow leaks somewhere, I'll pump them up again this morning (assuming I can get them to hold air with my track pump and seemingly non seated beads) but if the same thing happens overnight tonight then I think I'm going to have to call it another failure and go back to tubes.

Thanks, I did try to massage the tyre into place before inflation but like you say it's so damn tight it just wouldn't move. I'll just have to see how it holds up over the weekend. I've just had a quick fast spin on the bike outside to get the sealant moving and there are a couple of small leaks Inbetween some of the tyre treads so hopefully they were the reason it was slowly losing and air so once sealed it may hold air indefinitely. There are no leaks around the beads or valve so that's got to be a good sign.

I got the wheels back, they said they could get any popping sounds when trying to seat the beads and they are kind of holding air for a while and there are no visible leaks. They dumped a load of Stans sealant in it and told me ride it as much as I can ASAP and hopefully that'll sort it. I'm not convinced though especially as the tyre does not seem to be seated properly, the photos below show that some parts of the tyre are further into the rim than others, looks like about half the tyre (both wheels), this is exactly what my old Macaskill tyres were like as well with inner tubes and obviously no Rimpact inserts, no matter what I did they were never even all the way around, what's causing this, the rim? The tyre? Or the fitting technique? Ill keep topping the pressure up to 60psi over the weekend and try to keep the wheels moving so we'll see what happens. Also I did actually mention to the shop about using a bit of lube on the bead but they didn't seem too keen because apparently they never have to when using a compressor. I reckon a little bit may have helped but not too much because when I tried this setup a while back I blew the tyre off of the rim with a canister type track pump after applying lube so maybe there is a middle ground required.

Thanks, I was under the impression I was supposed to have the tape the full width, maybe that's causing an issue for me now.

Bike shop can't seat the beads either! They've tried a canister pump at 160psi a few times and also a compressor so at this point I'm not convinced that this tyre and rim combo are going to work with tubeless. They reckon there's a chance that the tyres will stay up if they put some sealant in even though the beads are not seated so they're going to try that. If that's doesn't work then I'll either have to find someone who can seat them or go back to tubes.

I'm not going down that road or I'll end up with a garage full of spare parts like some kind of an F1 Team or something

I decided to revisit this today, aaaaaaaaaand..... It worked! (I think) The major differences between my epic fail last time and my (touch wood) success today are brand new tyres and decent tyre levers. The old tyres were the biggest problem I believe as upon closer inspection they were very deformed and the beads never really seated properly even when using inner tubes, my wheels looked buckled if I looked at them while they were spinning but it was only the tyres, the rims are both very true. The tyre levers also made a massive difference by making things much much easier, I used Pedros tyre levers which didn't even feel like they were close to failing whereas during my previous attempt I snapped a couple of Park levers. So as it is I put one layer of black Gorilla tape around the rims, full width (thanks Ben), installed the valves (the tighter side of finger tight) making sure the rubber cones did not deform, wrestled the tyres and Rimpact inserts in and pumped them up to 60psi with a normal crappy no-name eBay floor pump (not even a tubeless type) and so far they've held some pressure for around an hour but with no sealant and technically not tubeless-ready tyres they won't hold much pressure for long. I wasted all my sealant on my last attempt but I work nextdoor to a bike shop so I'll get them to add to sealant tomorrow if they have time and make sure the beads are seated properly as just like last time I never got any bead popping sounds while inflating but this maybe because the tyres are so damn tight on the rim that they seated themselves while I was installing them, maybe, this would also explain how I managed to inflate them with the Worlds crappiest pump but more than likely I just couldn't get enough pressure built up quick enough with my pump so hopefully the bike shop will get them seated for me.

Definitely! Chain now ordered

Cool. As I bought the bike 2nd hand I'm keen to put a new chain on asap really.

Nice one, thanks.

That link for TrialBikes is just a link that has the full spec for the '19 Fourplay which I use for reference, I'll order the chain from Tarty. I need tyres too and I still need to conquer setting up tubeless so ordering a chain quickly became a nearly £300 shopping cart so I held off for a minute as I've already spent a small fortune this weekend on other things.

Nevermind, looks like the Z610 had been superceeded by the Z1eHX (e-bike chain) so I'll order one of those.

I want to buy a new chain, according to the following link my bike was supposed to have a KMC Z610 chain from new: https://www.trial-bikes.com/en/bicicleta-inspired-fourplay-team-24-p-538357.html I bought the bike used and I've just had a look at the chain and the lettering on it: KMC Z1e 9D NARROW So, do I currently have the following e-bike chain fitted? Is my current chain this?: https://www.kmcchain.eu/chain-KMC_Z_Series_for_e_Bike_Narrow_BZ1eN#Z1eHX_Narrow_Silver_BZ1ENNP12 And do I need this instead (Z series 1/2 x 3/32 Narrow)?: https://www.kmcchain.eu/chain-KMC_Z_Series_BZ1#Z1_Narrow_EPT_BZ1NEPT12+narrow The KMC Website does not seem to list a Z610 as per the bikes original spec?

Thanks, my guess of 8Nm could be about right then.

Anyone happen to know the recommended torque specs for the two bolts that mount the tensioner to the frame and also the single bolt that mounts the tensioner arm to the tensioner mount? All three bolts are M5 Stainless steel threading into aluminium so probably around 8Nm?

Oh, and the reason the old tensioner was kicking off at an angle was a worn out brass bush (8.1mm dia hole and a 7.5mm dia bush). That tension is 2-3 years old so I assume it's just worn out over time and thus the new one will as well at some point. Strange material choice IMO for that bush as these tensioners do not have to constantly rotate like a rear derailleur would for example because with a single speed setup the tensioner is always at a fixed angle. Literally any other material would have done as long as it wasn't soft like brass. Perfect example of potentially having to spend £25 on a new tensioner assembly because of a tiny inexpensive component. I might make a Phosphor Bronze bush for it.

Actually, I've fixed mine. It seems my problems were two fold... 1. The old tensioner was definitely kicking off at an angle (old tensioner on the left): 2. This is the funny one, one of my tensioner bracket mounting bolts was snapped off so the whole assembly had pivoted around the one bolt that was actually doing its job. The head of the bolt was still there so at a glance it looked ok but it just sheared off when I went to undo it: Here's the chain alignment after fitting a new bolt and the new tensioner, not perfect but much much better:

I just removed a chain link to tighten things up a bit and it has exacerbated the chain alignment issue, it's hard to get a photo but this looks terrible. The photo was taken with the camera squared up with rear hub and sprocket and you can see how far the chain kicks off to the right after its been through the tensioner so it has to do a big diagonal on its way to the front chainring. Surely that's not by design? I do have a brand new tensioner in my spares bag so maybe I'll try fitting that just to see if it makes any difference.

Hello mate, this is a bicycle trials forum, try posting on the TrialsCentral forum instead.

I need to do this at some point because my MT7 levers are just a ticking time bomb I reckon, one decent bail on concrete/tarmac and they're toast. Which Shimano levers should I get that will feel the same (or better) and give me the reach adjustment that I currently have with my MT7 levers plus HC3 lever blades?

5 months of riding (when I can, around the weather) and my calipers are still perfectly centered and my wheels still spin freely. All I've done is periodically checked the torque on the caliper mounting bolts.

Not sure what bike you have but this info is from someone at Inspired but is probably useful anyway: The only thing I'd note is that typically, if it's time to replace a BB you'll usually get more of a 'popping' kind of sound rather than a creak. A creak would generally just imply very small movement between some parts, whereas when the BBs go it's usually due to the bearings failing. As they break apart, they get forced past the other bearings in the cartridge giving that 'popping' or banging sound. It may be worth taking everything in your crankset apart, giving it all a thorough clean and check for cracks or any other damage/wear, then reassemble it all with plenty of grease. That includes things like your pedals in the cranks too! It's usually tricky to pin-point causes of creaks in that area because it's all under a high amount of load and will generally all have a similar sound if anything is a touch loose. And: I forgot to mention, but the crank bolt on the Truvativ cranksets needs a bit more torque than most - I believe they recommend 54Nm, so much higher than conventional ISIS or square taper cranks. If it's a bit under, it may have that tiny bit of play that could lead to creaking. mark@inspiredbicycles.com

Hopefully a bit of grease and the right torque spec will sort it then.

Mine also has a slight creak, greasing didn't didn't help. Definitely worth trying though. Worth having a good look around the cranks for tiny cracks as well.

Interesting read.