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Safety notice for Cannondale’s Slate adventure bike - due to tubeless rim problems

Cannondale Slate rims to be replaced with Mavic rims under safety notice issued today

Cannondale has issued a safety notice affecting its latest Slate adventure bike, due to some customers removing the inner tubes and running the wheels and tyres tubeless, resulting in a few cases of the tyres coming off the rims.

The Slate is sold with Cannondale's own-brand tubeless compatible rims and, depending on the model, Cannondale's own Panaracer tubeless tyres. With inner tubes fitted, there have been no issues, but a few customers have experienced problems when removing the inner tubes and converting to tubeless.

- Road tubeless: everything you need to know

Speaking to Cannondale, it appears the fit of the tyre and rim isn't quite good enough to ensure a tight fit, such that is necessary to ensure an airtight seal and keep the tyre bead locked into place and prevent it from becoming detached.

Far from ideal, and it does highlight the lack of a standard for tubeless rims and tyres - we've experienced compatibility issues with some rim and tyre combinations, while other setups have caused no trouble at all. It could be a lot better, and greater compatibility would definitely make tubeless more appealing.

Cannondale Slate - 1

As a result, Cannondale is urging Slate customers to stop riding immediately and have inner tubes installed before riding again. It’s offering replacement Mavic XM419 rim, which is tubeless-ready (or UST in Mavic speak). It’s a mountain bike rim - there aren’t many 650b rims available at the moment, but plenty in the mountain bike world where the wheel size has become the new standard. 

If you’ve got a Slate, get yourself along to your local Cannondale dealer and get your rims swapped pronto. More details at www.cannondale.com/en/International/Safety-Notices-and-Recalls.aspx

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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5 comments

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Gutsibikes | 7 years ago
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Does anyone know of a tubeless failure on the Slate? I've been running mine tubeless for several weeks on the OE Panaracers and Schwalbe G-Ones and they've been great. I'm wondering whether the failures have been at low pressures. I'm also unhappy with the  replacement rims as the Mavics are much heavier, I'm waiting to hear back from Cannondale after complaining...

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zett78 | 7 years ago
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Old rim inner width 22mm

Mavic rim 19mm

Bad upgrade!!!!surprise

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edscoble replied to zett78 | 7 years ago
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zett78 wrote:

Old rim inner width 22mm

Mavic rim 19mm

Bad upgrade!!!!surprise

Not necessary, when it come to balloon tyres, you'd be hard press to tell the difference between 22mm and 19mm.

You'd  notice if it's running on standard road rims, otherwise it's fine.

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Initialised | 7 years ago
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UST is a standard, Tubeless ready, TR or TLR means you milage will vary and you may have fitting problems. Once all rims and tyres are UST the problem will fade.

Avatar
STATO replied to Initialised | 7 years ago
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Initialised wrote:

UST is a standard, Tubeless ready, TR or TLR means you milage will vary and you may have fitting problems. Once all rims and tyres are UST the problem will fade.

 

TLR tyres should have a ust style bead, but the casing may be porous requiring sealant to hold air.  TLR rims arnt really a thing though, too many variations in design away from ust.

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