It’s that time of the year again – race season. For many of us, race season means that we’ll dust off the ol’ race wheels. If those race wheels feature deep-section rims, that also means that you’ll likely need some sort of valve extender in order to inflate your tires.

We published an all-you-need-to-know guide about valve extenders last year. It is available HERE. Our article today is useless if you don’t understand the tips in the previous article, so take a minute to thumb through it.

Today, I’ll cover one important trick that we did not discuss in our previous article. If Teflon tape is the most important factor in valve extender performance, today’s trick is the Robin to that Batman. It won’t help you go any faster or pump your tires any easier, but that does not make it any less of a side kick.

The Most Totally Awesome Valve Trick of All Time

(Yes, seriously… it’s that good)

Allow me to point something out that may or may not be obvious to you:

This is a Hed Jet 60 with an externally-threaded valve extender from Effetto Mariposa. Just to the right of the valve extender – right where it goes through the rim, you may notice a small gap. Wheel manufacturers don’t know what valve extender you’re going to use, so they all make the valve holes slightly large. Thanks for allowing for end-user valve extender choice, wheel manufacturers!

The problem is this: When you ride your bike with those fancy wheels, the valves often make a rattle noise. As you ride along – especially on rough pavement – the bike vibrates slightly. Sometimes you’ll get a ‘tick-tick-tick’ – one for each wheel revolution – as the valve taps the rim. Sometimes it will rattle constantly.

What is a triathlete to do? Must I ride an entire 112-mile Ironman bike course with this incessant rattle? What if that distracts me from my power meter display and I pace the bike poorly?

Fear not.

Tools

Here’s what you need:

Wild stuff, huh? Electrical tape and scissors. To be precise, that’s 3M Super 33+ tape. You want to use Super 33+ for this; trust me. Don’t try to use the bargain stuff – it’s not as flexible and not as sticky.

Step one is to cut a ~2 inch section of tape. For those who prefer the metric system, that’s exactly 5.08 centimeters. Or if you’re a sailor, that’s 0.000009143268 nautical leagues. That’s how dedicated your Tech Editor is here – he’ll even convert to leagues.

Now that your tape has been cut, find the exact center of it, and press it down on the valve extender. My Effetto Mariposa extender replaces the valve core at the end, giving a nice point.

Even if you’re using a ‘tube style’ extender that does not replace the core at the end, this will still work. Just push a little harder and the valve extender will start to poke through.

Now, keep pushing the tape down. You’ll want to use two hands – I’m only using one because the other is holding my camera.

Finally, push the tape down all the way and secure it on the rim:

There you have it – instant valve extender silencer! Your competition will never hear you coming.

You can be super-pro and try to make the tape as smooth as possible. I must be a lousy mechanic, because my tape has a small fold just to the left of the valve (above). Or – maybe I put that there on purpose to trip the air into a boundary layer of turbulence for superior valve aerodynamics. You decide.

Next, repeat the process on your other wheel.

Then, sit back, pop open a cold one, and feel good about getting your hands dirty and doing the work yourself.

Will this trick work on ANY rim and ANY valve extender? I’m always willing to be proven wrong, but so far I haven’t seen a wheel or valve this won’t work on.

For example, here is the valve on a new Mavic CXR60 C wheel. Notice how big the molded-in valve opening is:

With no tape and my skinny valve extender, this wheel can make a lot of noise. With my super pro tape, however…

…Absolute silence! If you want to go crazy, you could even use two layers of tape.

There is ONE thing that I should mention about this trick. You want to do it after inflating your tires. If the tires are totally flat (or close to it), you will push the valve down in to the rim as you install the pump head. That can mess up your tape.

There you go – free access to the techniques and secrets of pro cycling mechanics everywhere. For some reason, this is something that seems to elude most triathletes, so I encourage you to try it and impress your friends.

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All images © Greg Kopecky / slowtwitch.com