Orondo Grade Tire Setup and Liners

The reception of our new road tubeless Orondo Grade tires has been overwhelming and positive, but a few customers reported that their tires were difficult to set up: Sealant was leaking through the sidewalls. We investigated immediately and found a manufacturing error: On a small quantity of Standard and Extralight casings, the high-tech liner that makes the tires airtight is missing.

Fortunately, this is not a safety concern. All tires have our new bead technology that makes them safe up to 90 psi (6.2 bar)—tubeless or with tubes. (Make sure you don’t exceed the maximum pressure of your rims, which may be lower.) However, the tire sidewalls may be a little porous, and sealant can be forced through at high pressures.

Of course this is covered by our warranty. How can you tell whether your tire is affected? Check the inside. If you can see the individual threads of the casing, the liner is missing. The black tire above doesn’t have the liner. If there’s a thin layer of rubber covering the threads, then the liner is present, as on the tan tire above. On tan tires, the liner is a darker brown color (as in the photo), making it easy to spot. The black tires have a black liner, so color won’t help you. Click on the image above to see a high-resolution photo.

The liner is missing on a small quantity of our Standard and Extralight 700C x 31 mm Orondo Grade tires, but not the Endurance version, which uses a different liner construction. No other models are affected, and all Orondo Grade tires are safe to ride. Even without the liner, most of these tires set up tubeless just fine. The liner serves as an added measure to prevent sealant from leaking through the sidewalls.

If you’re having trouble setting up your tire, and you see sealant leak through the sidewalls, check whether the liner is present. If not, please contact our customer service, and we’ll send you a return label and send you a new tire as soon as our new shipment arrives—any day now. (The tires have been so popular that they’re currently out of stock.)

If your tire is working fine, there is no need to rip it off your rim to check. Even if the liner is missing, you probably won’t notice anything unusual. Just in case, we’re extending our warranty to cover missing liners for 12 months. If your tire develops problems in the future, we have you covered. And even beyond, we’ll cover you, as long as your tire isn’t completely worn out.

If you bought a tire without a liner from a bike shop, you can either return it to the shop or send it directly to us for an exchange.

If your tire is missing the liner, we apologize for the inconvenience, and we’ll do what we can to get you on the road again as soon as possible.

Further information:

  • Contact form to get in touch if your tire doesn’t have the liner.