Tubeless Winter Storage

Question

With winter approaching up here in Canada, I was wondering what steps if any I should take before storing my tubeless bike for winter. I store my bikes in my non-insulated (house attached) garage, so it gets pretty cold in there. Is there any maintenance I should be doing before letting it sit for a few months, regardless of temperature? Should I remove any extra sealant and refill in the spring?

Answer 1

This may vary by sealant manufacturer. Here's Orange Seal's advice (from their FAQ):

If you are hanging your tires up for the season, it’s best to open up the tires, rinse them out with a water hose and let them hang dry. When it’s time to ride again, add sealant and go!

There's a good chance that the sealant would dry out over the winter months, so you'd probably want to refill when the weather warms up in any case.

Answer 2

I would suggest hanging the bike/wheels so there's no weight on the tyres

If they are kept fairly dark they won't degrade much. I would suggest removing the old sealant and rinsing the tyre as you will find some of it dries out and will create a dead weight in the tyre that will be harder to remove in the spring and may leave a section of the tyre heavier. It depends what sealant you use.

If you have the time it always pays to leave everything clean ready for next season.

Answer 3

I suppose you have a few options:

1. Just leave it. At such cold temperatures, evaporation will be minimal and the rate of chemical reactions will be very low. There’s a chance you’ll be fine in the summer, perhaps needing just a bit more sealant added.

2. If you want to save the old sealant, you could suck it out with a syringe or something and then store it in a bottle.

3. Lastly, you could just rinse it all out and refill in the springtime.

Answer 4

For what it is worth, here is what I just experienced...

In September, I setup my MTB tires with 3oz of new Stans sealant in each tire. I did about a half of a dozen rides before putting it away for winter. The rides were on well known trails to me that have no goat heads. I have never gotten a flat on these trails even when I used tubes. The bike was stored in a garage where temps dropped down to about 15 degrees F at the lowest days that winter.

In March, I pulled my bike out. The tires were still inflated, having dropped only a few pounds of pressure. I pulled the valves and sucked the sealant out with a syringe to see my levels. I had less than 1oz in each tire, the sealant had turned from white to grey color, and there were a few small chunks that kept plugging my syringe.