GreenPlease wrote:
🤷🏼♂️ maybe there's differences between batches. Certain sealants perform better than others?
I'm curious about that too. I was one of the first to post here (August 2016) about racing the production Corsa speeds and having a miserable time with them. I had a flat on something I couldn't see 45 miles into a 70.3 ride and barely managed to get a tube in there. The very next ride, a piece of chip seal went dead center through the tread and it wouldn't hold a seal above ~65 psi. Two flats within 60 miles. Held up fine for another 70.3 race on some rough roads and then a pinch flat (double punctures in the casing) somewhere in the 85-90 psi range the next ride after that. I had no had a single flat in at least 4-5 years and then had 3 on those tires in <120 miles. They were all cleaned and patched from the inside and sat on a shelf until June when I realized I had a race in a week and new-to-me wheels without tires.
I bought a HED disc H3 combo this year and could get those CS tires on without a tire lever. I almost cried when I slipped them on with just my thumbs. It took lube, a bead jack and prayer to get them on and off Swiss Side Hadrons. I could get them off the HEDs with a single lever and re-thought about using them since it was no longer a lever snapping affair to put a tube in. Two 70.3's, a TT and a 40 mile joyride this year (about 10 miles on a couple day old chipseal) and no problems. The only weird thing is that these two year old 23c tires measure 27.5 mm wide at 85 psi on HEDs at this point. I think that super thin casing has stretched a wee bit. I'm probably going to run a 23 front and 25 rear CS next year for the couple events I do. I'm not convinced that a 60 tpi butyl lined Conti 5000 is going to be a miracle tire and at my weight, I'll take any help in the rolling resistance department I can get.
As for sealant, I think the ones with more 'stuff' in them are crucial for higher PSI applications. Bontrager TLR, Orange Seal, Stan's Race and Cafelatex seem like good options. The caffelatex with the addition of their vitamina cl seems like something I really want to try if I didn't have a full 32 oz bottle of TLR and an open bottle of Orange Seal sitting around.