The only tires I've ever had a hard time seating and sealing (after the first time) are Pathfinders. My wife's 700x43 and my 700x38 tires would not reseal until I painfully removed the massive buildup on the beads. I've never seen that kind buildup on gravel king sk 43, WTB resolute 42, Maxis refuse 40 or Conti GP500 32. All those others are easy to clean up and remount, I don't understand why the pathfinders are such a hassle.
I had a set of Gravel King SK+ (700x38) that were perfectly seated...zero leakage for at least a week at a time. Last week I decided to try the Gravel King SS+ (700x38) tires. New rim tape (same as before, 1" Gorilla Tape). First sign of difficulty was actually getting enough air into the tire to seat the beads...no amount of air I had available (and I was using a compressor) could do it. YouTube to the rescue, used a tire lever to get the beads "pre-seated." Finally was able to inflate and seat. I then put the sealant in, reinflated, shook the tire, etc. Next sign of difficulty was seepage of sealant through the sidewalls. Not too much and will probably seal with time, but the previous SK's never did this. Even with sealant, they are not holding air very well, either...seepage at multiple parts of the rim. The tires appear to be seated (reference the molding strip), but reading through this, I don't think I've inflated the tires past 60 psi so maybe they're not really fully seated. I'll try that. I'm hopeful these SS tires will be as reliable as the SK's...I enjoyed not having to pump in a few psi every day.
My SKs also hold air well. A couple of things to add: They were very (very) difficult to seat and I finally did it by inserting a tube, inflating, deflating and removing the tube carefully leaving one side seated, and as much of the other as possible. It was quite a headache. The tire lever trick didn't do it (on my WTB rims). Also - as I recall 60 psi didn't fully seat them. Closer to 80... All's well that ends well, though - great tires and quite durable. I'll try SS next as my riding is very road-biased of late.
After my above post, I pumped the SS tires up to 100 psi (yes, way above the normal advertised tubeless rating). Never heard any pops, but things seem to have sealed up nicely. I took them out for a rough 50 miles yesterday and am not so sure the Kansas Flint Hills are where these tires shine. The SK+'s felt much better going down hills, a few of them I had to use the brakes as the SS's just felt too loose.
