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On my morning commute I burped my rear tire twice having never had that issue before. The rim is a wtb i23 (taped from factory and rate "tubeless ready") and it has a Wtb Riddler tire mounted (also "tubeless ready"). I've had the tubeless setup a bit less than a year with no issues to date, though I haven't ridden the bike in a few weeks. With my laptop etc I was a bit heavier than usual but I've never run into this before on my gravel bike.

First time I was going up a curb and turning (resulting in a sharp off-camber situation). The second time was similar (also a sharp turn) but I didn't lose as much air. The valve is fine so I assume it was a true burp (air out of tire bead).

Is this just a case of not running enough pressure?

I'll top up my tubeless sealant tonight, check the bead and the trueness of the wheel (just trued it, but who knows).

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    Burping is normally because the tyre isn't seated on the rim quite right. Maybe there is damage to either the rim or type bead?
    – Hursey
    May 4 at 20:32
  • My experience with mtb is too much sidewall deflection and too low pressure. I'm going to do my best to narrow down the variables tonight. I did have a fairly loose spoke last time I trued the wheel.
    – shox
    May 4 at 20:39
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    I should point out that if you search for "WTB i23", there are two other recent instances of tubeless problems. Treat as multiple anecdotes, but you have to start to wonder.
    – Weiwen Ng
    May 4 at 21:15
  • @WeiwenNg thanks! There are plenty of examples. The first one I read was very similar to my experience. Not all tubeless rims are created equal.
    – shox
    May 4 at 21:29
  • What air pressures were you riding on? What are the dimensions of your tyre ?
    – Criggie ♦
    May 19 at 20:55

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I have a potential answer as the tire is currently holding air and has survived faster speeds and more bumps for quite a few rides since my episode of multiple tire burps.

My pressure was too low on the initial ride and I suspect when it burped it unseated. Pumping up with a mini-pump to proper pressure wasn't enough to properly reseat the tire. When I took the bike home I used the compressor and pumped it up like when I'm seating a tubeless tire then let out air to a proper psi. I didn't get a pop like when initially seating a tubless tire, but it appears to have solved the issue. No slow leak and no more burps.

I am running a bit more pressure than a normally do out of caution, but I'll slowly lower it down to my preferred pressure and update if I run into issues. As pointed out by Weiwen, it may be an issue that the particular rim (WTB i23) doesn't do as good a job holding onto a tubeless bead at low pressures compared to some other rims.

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  • Can you say roughly what pressures were involved?
    – Weiwen Ng
    May 19 at 19:48

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