Rattling presta valves in deep section wheels - fixed!

[Fatal Swan]

I bought a set of Mavic Cosmic carbon wheels on ebay recently, and as a fully paid-up weight weenie, to offset some of the extra weight I fitted a pair of 40g Tubolito inner tubes. All is very good with wheels and tubes, only the Tubolito valve stems have no thread to secure them onto the rim with a little locknut. As a result they rattle like mad against the carbon faring - like in the picture here, only my valves don't have the thread:

Google throws up a few solutions this - blue-tack, electrical tape over the stem and rim together, 'thickening' the valve stem with some tape around it. They would all probably do the trick but are either ugly or not easy to with the tube already fitted.

A solution which I haven't seen posted anywhere already is to find some rubber O-rings of just the right size. I took the best measurements I could and came up with these at £2.50 posted for a pack of 10:

The 5mm O-rings with a 1mm thickness are a perfect fit - snug when rolled over the valve and they can be pushed to fit sungly into the gap between the stem and rim, keeping the valve stem perfectly in place and with no rattle!

Basically this is a post to remind myself of this fix when 10 years later I have the same problem, have forgotten all about it and google the solution again. And to remind myself I should have 8 of them spare in the garage already!

 

[M_Chavez]

I had a similar problem when I've drilled out my daughter's rims for schraders and then had to fit a presta into it.
You can buy wee grommets to make up for the valve diameter difference, but I needed a quick temporary fix and just wrapped some electrical tape on the valve body to make it fatter.
10 months down the line it's still holding up.

 

[d8mok]

The wheels came with some small rubber O rings when bought new as other wise they rattle like mad. They came in a little bag but no explanation what they are for and on the first ride the light bulb went off.

Other option is threaded valve stems which stop the issue completely but can be awkward to get in 60-80mm length.

 

[Hullcoureur]

2 best options for me-​

Cheapest - Heskins Black Ribbed Anti-Slip Tape, wrapped around the valve stem.​

Smartest - Adhesive Valve Patches from ‘high on bikes’​

 

[Gtpulse]

I had a similar problem when I've drilled out my daughter's rims for schraders and then had to fit a presta into it.
You can buy wee grommets to make up for the valve diameter difference, but I needed a quick temporary fix and just wrapped some electrical tape on the valve body to make it fatter.
10 months down the line it's still holding up.

I found out the hard way that putting presta in to holes sized for schrader doesn’t always work out even if you use a grommet. For me it was probably a combination of my weight/hot day/26” tyres pumped up to 40psi before I left. The rubber around the valve bulged in to the gap even with a grommet and I got through 2 tubes in 2 miles! Couldn’t fix them on the road as the valve fell off.

 

[seiben]

Ooooh, thank you for this. I've had exactly the same problem with some new carbon rims... glad it's not just me

 

[keithb]

You sir are a Legend.

I finally fitted some deep section CF Hunts to my Mason and yep valve rattle .
I did the usual Google problem search and what did I find...this very thread.
I trusted the knowledge and immediately purchased the above O-rings.
They arrived today, I popped one on/in each valve and BOOM rock solid valves with zero rattle.
Thanks Fatal Swan . You sir are a Legend