Cleaning Tubeless Sealant off Carbon Rims

[CPRam]

Anyone have any tips on how to remove dried tubeless sealant from my rims? I've tried proper elbow grease, and scraping it off with a credit card, but it's not budging.

I'm thinking some powerful solvent but I'm a bit worried that it might compromise the carbon in some way... Anyone else had any success getting rid of it?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Don't worry about using solvents. You have nothing in your shed or under your sink that will damage carbon wheels.

You don't say what type of sealant that is, but I would try some acetone or white spirit or petrol. Some of this stuff will obviously remove decals and paint, but not harm the carbon.

 

[Milkfloat]

I have two approaches - sometimes I sit in front of the TV and just pick it off slowly as a relaxation aid - when I am in a rush I use acetone. I used to use the wife's nail varnish remover, but now buy in bulk on eBay as I use it for other jobs.

 

[fossyant]

Thank goodness it didn't blow off the rim and cover your garage/kitchen/lounge !

 

[Nigelnightmare]

Don't use it in the first place and it has no chance of getting on there.

Stick with tyres & tubes, it's a lot less mess & hassle.
Just carry a spare tube for the fairy visits.

I recon those little buggers look through your kit and if they see that your well prepared they leave you alone.
I say this because every time I go out without a spare tube or puncture kit I get a visit.

 

[CPRam]

I'll pick up some acetone. Thanks all.

Also, I have abandoned the venture into tubeless, primarily because it's too messy.

 

[RMFrance]

Have you tried the tape method, rather than goo?
I might go down that route if it's dependable, as the mess really gets to me.

 

[CXRAndy]

Don't use it in the first place and it has no chance of getting on there.

Stick with tyres & tubes, it's a lot less mess & hassle.
Just carry a spare tube for the fairy visits.

I recon those little buggers look through your kit and if they see that your well prepared they leave you alone.
I say this because every time I go out without a spare tube or puncture kit I get a visit.

Every time I go out without an inner tube and get a puncture, I just carry on. When I get home, I say, look I've had a puncture on my tubeless tyres.

Ive not had to stop on a ride for several years now with using tubeless. Where as Ive had failures with tubular and inner tube wheels.

Once you master the method of setting up tubeless, its simple and extremely reliable.

 

[Milkfloat]

Have you tried the tape method, rather than goo?
I might go down that route if it's dependable, as the mess really gets to me.

This is tubeless rather than tubular.

 

[Nigelnightmare]

Every time I go out without an inner tube and get a puncture, I just carry on. When I get home, I say, look I've had a puncture on my tubeless tyres.

Ive not had to stop on a ride for several years now with using tubeless. Where as Ive had failures with tubular and inner tube wheels.

Once you master the method of setting up tubeless, its simple and extremely reliable.

Now you're really upsetting the 'P' fairies.
Watch out or they'll get their mates the Gremlins onto you.

P.S.
You're putting hard working Fairies out of a job.
Just think of the trouble they could get into, they might even join with their mates^^ and start breaking other things!!!
And we don't want that now, do we.

 

[colly]

Anyone have any tips on how to remove dried tubeless sealant from my rims? I've tried proper elbow grease, and scraping it off with a credit card, but it's not budging.

I'm thinking some powerful solvent but I'm a bit worried that it might compromise the carbon in some way... Anyone else had any success getting rid of it?

I'm not sure about carbon rims but I cleaned all the old dried on sealant from the insides of my tyres and alloy rims using just an old towel.
I tried various cleaning agents, everything from, WD40 to Acetone, meths, and god knows what. I gave up on each because it was clear nothing was working. Picked up some old toweling and rubbed it. The alloy gave it up fast but the tyres took a little longer.
Even so 15 mins later both tyres and wheels were clean and sorted.

 

[Globalti]

I thought the latex was water-based? Where's @Yellow Saddle ?

Somebody sprayed latex on my neighbour's car but after a couple of hot washes and some rain it had all gone.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I thought the latex was water-based? Where's @Yellow Saddle ?

More like, where's @winjim. Isn't he the resident chemist here?

Somebody sprayed latex on my neighbour's car but after a couple of hot washes and some rain it had all gone.

Yes, latex is water based. It is natural, organic, made-by-trees, non-cross-lnked polymer dissolved in water (NOMbTNXLP). Once it dries out, it cross-links (plasticize) and is no longer soluble in water, hence the references here to try all sorts of solvents.
Basically, in full scientific terms, it is a bitch to get out off anything after it has dried.

In tyre sealants it usually mixed with an ammonia solution to prevent it from rotting. It is plant-juice, after all. The ammonia acts as a preservative in this case.

When inflating it with CO2 bombs, the CO2 reacts with the ammonia and changes the solution so that it becomes alkaline and can no longer suspend the latex and it "Crashes" out of the solution. I'll leave the exact reaction to the resident chemists. I need a refresher in organic chemistry.