OEM wheels on 2023 Turbo Vado SL are tubeless ready

[hankj]

Just a quick PSA because I've read elsewhere that Vado SL owners have found their oem wheelsets to not be tubeless ready.

The oem wheels that came with my 2023 Vado SL 4.0 are tubeless taped and an appropriate shape for mounting tubeless tires. Tubeless valves were not included.

I'm running the oem rear wheel tubeless and it has been completely trouble free. (Not with the OEM tire! You need to supply your own tubeless compatible tire).

Mounting was medium hassle. The tire did not go up on the bead simply by pumping with a floor pump (like with nearly all Hunt wheels for instance). I needed to blow it on with compressed air. But only one shot of air, and it did not leak at all afterwards, neither from the bead, nor from the valve stem.

Tire Schwalbe Allround 45mm - of course tubeless mounting experience can very wildly depending on tire.

But anyway, before I bought this bike I read all over the place that the wheel set was not tubeless compatible. On mine, at least it is, and expressly so - not a gorilla job at all.

 

[sanyata]

I posted this on the other Vado 40. Wheel Durability thread:

The Specialized support page states, "All models of the Vado SL come with tubeless compatible rims. Note that Vado SL 4.0 models use a tubeless ready rim strip even though not called out specifically on rim tape by manufacturer."
I tried it with my 4.0 rims and it worked OK after letting the rims sit sideways overnight, one night each side. It leaked like a sieve out of the spoke holes during that time but sealed up afterward. I wasn't too happy with that so I stripped the wheels down and used MugOff tape and it was much better right off the bat. I do lose pressure over the week, but I don't mind as I check that before every ride anyway.

I even did it with the original tire, although since then I've changed to a Pathfinder Pro 42mm tire.

 

[hankj]

I'll repost my reply from that previous thread:

Interesting, what color was the OE tape? Mine is black and covers the entire rim bed. It seems very much to be tubeless tape, not a rim strip. Stans sealant, tubeless ready tires and once blown on immediately sealed. No bubbles at all with dunk in hot tub test. They hold air like champs for tubeless too. Not lossless but very good. Maybe a model year thing? I'd say tires except you got lots of leaking at the spokes.


Let me add to that that the OE Pathfinders that came on mine are definitely not tubeless compatible. Wire beads don't work properly tubeless. Likely why you got so much leaking at the beads on the first try.

But the spoke leaking, that is trickier. It doesn't have to be the tape. If the valves haven''t sealed well at the rim tape, then pressurized air invades the hollow part of the rim, and will spew out the places of least resistance. If you have a rubber grommet on the valve stem nut, the air will find the spoke holes.

If the spokes stopped leaking eventually it likely isn't sealant at the spokes, but rather the valves sealed up at the tape. But hard to say! Tubeless is totally worth it but definitely a kettle of fish