I see a lot of sealants in regards to tubeless tires, but how about us old school people who still ride tires with tubes.
I would love to use Silca but it seems that the particulates are too large to go through the valve stem even with the valve removed.
Suggestions, aside from getting a new ride and new wheels, are appreciated.
Thanks!
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I searched around here and there was some saying it works great others saying it’s dumb. I ended up using orange sealant in latex tubes and as far I know haven’t had a flat, and don’t think it has to have been used. Roughly 150 miles on my race wheels.
I’ve also used Orange Seal with butyl tubes. Remove valve core and it goes in easy. Worked great for me!
Muc-Off has a sealant designed specifically for going in tubes. I only know this because I accidentally bought it instead of the regular sealant. It’s definitely different - kind of foamy rather than liquidy.
No idea how it actually performs, as I’m pure tubeless. I’ve been using it in a few non-competition bikes as regular sealant just so I don’t throw it away. Not sure if it works as regular sealant - don’t think I’ve flatted yet.
Slime make inner tubes with sealant already inside. They are rather thick and heavy in my experience so probably best for training.
I don’t see any point to run clinchers with tube and sealant. If you do it, go tubeless, don’t overcomplicate things.
However, if you’re still riding tubulars for whatever reason (like I do, with some 12+ years old wheelsets still being used), Orange Seal is a godsend thing. Ever since I’ve had it, I’ve yet to bin a tubular, even the high pressure 23mm ones have sealed small punctures really well. That doesn’t mean I’m actively buying new tubs or tubular wheelsets :), however, to maximize the ride-return of long-ago invested money, sealant works brilliantly.
Slime make inner tubes with sealant already inside. They are rather thick and heavy in my experience so probably best for training.
Yeah, the Muc-Off tube sealant is quite different. More light and foamy, a bit like Stan’s put through a whipping cream whisk. I can now confirm it works well as regular tubeless sealant. No idea how long it lasts, etc, though.
Sadly, someone threw tacks or they fell from cars/trucks(I doubt it but…) on Waco 70.3 bike course last Sunday, and I saw someone posted tubes with sealant saved him. I thought it was dumb but as long as it works, why not?
I have used caffelatex to seal a very slow puncture in a rather expensive tubular, it worked well unfortunately the tube eventually failed at the valve. It’s frothy and thinner that other tubeless sealants.
Silca says you can’t inject the sealant through the valve stem, which is probably true, but you can get it in there. I used the top of a sealant bottle with fill tube as a little funnel, added a bit of sealant at a time and used a small zip tie as a plunger to push any clots through. It took a bit of patience, but worked fine.
The reason I did this was I was racing the Veloflex Records. Those thing are paper thin and have no protection belt. The Silca sealant has saved my bacon with other more delicate tires, like the Corsa Speeds, so I figured it was a decent safety feature.
I don’t see any point to run clinchers with tube and sealant. If you do it, go tubeless, don’t overcomplicate things.
I bet there are more than a few of us who don’t have TLR wheels and tires.
I was thinking along the same lines. Get the Silca sealant and try to force it in with air pressure or such. I was also hoping that Josh would see this and share his experiences if any.
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I don’t see any point to run clinchers with tube and sealant. If you do it, go tubeless, don’t overcomplicate things.
I bet there are more than a few of us who don’t have TLR wheels and tires.
Right, and I think his point is that if you don’t, then don’t bother. You’re doubling the tube-caused part of the rolling resistance (for latex), and (more on this below) getting some fraction of the flat prevention odds of true tubeless. Albeit doubling latex rolling resistance is a pretty small hit.
Before road tubeless was ever a thing, I ran Stan’s in latex tubes for 4-5 years. Now after 5-6 years of having run true road tubeless, I can confidentally (but anecdotally) state that true tubeless flat mitigation is significantly superior to sealant-in-latex. Hand-wavingly, I think sealant-in-latex saved maybe 30% of flats. While true road tubeless saves something like 90%. I don’t know why. It just worked out that way. Also you go through expensive tubes pretty fast as the sealant dries. You can add more, but at some point it gets silly in terms of probable rolling resistance and weight hits.
Maybe Silca sealant changes those numbers. No idea.
I also run Veloflex Records and Corsa Speeds in non-tubeless form in certain cases where I don’t use those tires often enough to justify maintaining a full tubeless setup. E.g. race-only. Or in my case, having a few sets of the non-TLR Records that I can’t set up tubeless at all.
In my case for a super-duper A race where I’d want extra flat insurance, I’d just run Corsa Speeds (or the TLR Records) tubeless rather than run the Records with sealant-in-tubes. It seems counter-productive to buy crazy-low-RR tires, then add watt-per-tire sealant to the tubes.
If it’s someone without TLR wheels, I could see that little bit of flat protection being worth buying, though.
So far - knock on wood - I have yet to flat on tubed Veloflex Records except once on the track where I stupidly hadn’t checked the (very fast) wear, and wore all the way through the casing into the tube. I did not crash on the banking, thankfully.
I was thinking along the same lines. Get the Silca sealant and try to force it in with air pressure or such. I was also hoping that Josh would see this and share his experiences if any.
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I wouldn’t use air preasure because the sealant is designed to clog when under preasure and being forced through a hole. Any rough areas will catch the fiber and it should pack solidly. Gently pushing any of the lille clogs with a small poker did the trick and it probably took less than 2 minutes per tube to get 1.5 oz in there.