ETA: Before I get another answer of not to inject this, I know, I tried to break the bead and add it to the tire directly which resulted in 0 sealant staying in the tire. I used an injector and almost didn’t get 30ml in because this crap started to plug the bottle I use that its widest point of 1/4".
Anyone used this stuff yet?!?
Josh,
What is this carbon fiber glue slurry you have unleashed on us? My garage floor looks like I am running an artificial insemination operation for elephants, thank God it is water soluble.
I have no doubt this will see anything less than the tire separating circumferentially at the center of the tread.
All that said, I have always injected my sealant through the valve, I tried seating the tire and breaking the bead to add sealant, said garage floor mess was made. I then reseated the tire and injected through the valve stem and blew it clear with my compressor.
This crap will be my go to on the MTB but dealing with the small volume road tires kicks me right in the ass.
I think all the sealants do this. I used Orange Seal and that too made quite a mess on the floor (easy to clean though) despite using a special syringe to inject it
This isn’t Silca specific, but I usually put one side of the tire on like normal. Then I start the opposite side of the valve and start working the tire on until there’s about 6-8 inches left open by the valve. Dump the sealant in that 6-8 inch opening. Rotate the wheel 180 degrees so the sealant runs down opposite the valve. Work the rest of the tire on with your hands at the valve. Remove the valve core and use an air compressor to inflate the tire enough to seat the beads.
Then you can either let it deflate and put the valve core in and re-inflate. Or, you can try to be quick and cover the valve with your index finger once you pull the compressor chuck off. Then carefully move your index finger off and insert the valve core. If you’re quick, you hardly lose any air. Then i hook up my silca digital pump and inflate it to the appropriate pressure.
This method is usually very clean, not too difficult, and doesn’t clog your valve. If you try to seat the bead before adding sealant and take one side of the tire off, it’s going to be about 100x more difficult to get pop the other side of the tire off and on.
That works fine on tires with stiffer sidewalls, just did it with a pirelli P zero (and just realized I put the tire on backwards). Vittoria tires really give me fits.
When you say they “give you fits” do you mean it’s hard to get them on the rim because they are so tight or do you mean it’s hard to get the beads seated because they are so loose?
Hard to seat the bead because they are so floppy. I can mount/remove them barehanded on my Jet+ and Vanquish rims. The beads collapse into the center channel. I have to “pre seat” a section of the bead before the compressor can blast them into place.
What is this carbon fiber glue slurry you have unleashed on us? My garage floor looks like I am running an artificial insemination operation for elephants, thank God it is water soluble.
I have no doubt this will see anything less than the tire separating circumferentially at the center of the tread.
Sulliesbrew, thanks for the big laugh, so loved reading this post and yes, it pretty much plugs and seals everything in sight! We’re on our 7th bottling machine update and still plugging almost constantly, even the 2" ID intake hose gets plugged trying to pull the sealant from the mixing hopper!
I do agree that the ‘pour-in’ method is tougher for smaller volume tires. Having been working on this project for over a year I’m a total ninja at the process now, but the first handful of times it’s likely to be messy. I will say that best results come when you seat the tire first, then de-bead the one side and pour in… especially on looser fitting tires this just gives you less gap for spilling and a bit of an easier time when you are trying to push over that second bead.
Best of luck and we have had a few people say that if you spend enough time on it you can get a decent amount injected through the valve… I personally have had very little luck with this method but maybe 6 attempts at 10ml per attempt is less messy than one 60ml pour in?
I am glad you could appreciate my attempt at humor. My other thought was to post the Cartman snot web, because my hands were immediately tacky with sealant.
I will say, the sealant can be injected (but with a ketchup bottle or similar not with the syringe injectors), just plan on clearing the nozzle a few times to get 50 to 60 ml in. It is also why I hit the valve with the compressor before putting the valve core back in. I do not think you could run it through a fillmore valve, that would plug like a mofo. I will try and remember to coat my cores with synergetic from here on out.
I was able to break just one side of the bead to get a corsa speed filled and mounted on my ardennes with out much trouble.
I just finished a spring “refresh” on my bike with Stan’s sealant. Today I took the time to listen to the podcast about the new Silca sealant.
If I wanted to switch, what needs to be done? Can I mix the two? Is sucking the Stan’s out better? Should it be more detailed and take the tire off and clean everything?
I have GravelKing 38mm tires and they are a nightmare to seat the bead, even with a compressor. They are so loose I have to use a strap around the circumference of the tire to push the bead out to the edge to the rim, then hit it with a compressor. I’d like to not have to do that again if I can avoid it.
What is this carbon fiber glue slurry you have unleashed on us? My garage floor looks like I am running an artificial insemination operation for elephants, thank God it is water soluble.
I have no doubt this will see anything less than the tire separating circumferentially at the center of the tread.
Sulliesbrew, thanks for the big laugh, so loved reading this post and yes, it pretty much plugs and seals everything in sight! We’re on our 7th bottling machine update and still plugging almost constantly, even the 2" ID intake hose gets plugged trying to pull the sealant from the mixing hopper!
I do agree that the ‘pour-in’ method is tougher for smaller volume tires. Having been working on this project for over a year I’m a total ninja at the process now, but the first handful of times it’s likely to be messy. I will say that best results come when you seat the tire first, then de-bead the one side and pour in… especially on looser fitting tires this just gives you less gap for spilling and a bit of an easier time when you are trying to push over that second bead.
Best of luck and we have had a few people say that if you spend enough time on it you can get a decent amount injected through the valve… I personally have had very little luck with this method but maybe 6 attempts at 10ml per attempt is less messy than one 60ml pour in?
I haven’t converted to tubeless yet but I’m curious about the mess involved which is also one of the things that puts me off as I have a latex allergy.
I use latex tubes but have to wear gloves to install them and carry nitrile gloves for swapping tubes when out riding.
Could I pour this stuff into a thick straw, freeze it, squeeze it out of the straw and then pop that in the tyre.
When it thaws out it works as normal and no mess?
Silca says it works down to 10F so freezing solid seems like a low odds deal.
I was thinking, a smack pack type of system would be awesome, have them in 15ml packets, put into the tire, seat tire, then inject an activator through the valve to dissolve the capsule.
Silca says it works down to 10F so freezing solid seems like a low odds deal.
I was thinking, a smack pack type of system would be awesome, have them in 15ml packets, put into the tire, seat tire, then inject an activator through the valve to dissolve the capsule.
I want royalties on that idea Josh…
Or what if the Vittoria Airliner Road (the one that shrinks down as you inflate the tire) was filled with sealant like a hostess cupcake. You could put the liner in and keep your hands totally clean. Inflate the tire and the correct amount of sealant squeezes out of the liner like a sponge and adequately fills your tire.
m@tty, I too have a latex allergy, so you can imagine how fun the last year+ of development has been. I even had a tire full of sealant detonate on me while beading up with a compressor… fun times!
I do not think you will be able to freeze it, it’s still liquid at 0F and I honestly have not taken it down to find freezing point yet, but it will be quite low. I will say that with GravelKings I always bead the tire, then open it back up as you are at least then only trying to seat 1 bead… which is better than 2.
As others have said, it may be possible with some cleverness and effort to inject it through the valve, just be prepared for a battle!
Love the other ideas, funny enough, we actually worked for a while with the company that makes the dissolvable gelatin used to make Tide Pods in the hopes that we could have a pod of carbon fiber that would then dissolve when you pumped in the sealant, but alas, their tech would not dissolve in the sealant unless we added some stuff to it that negatively affected the sealant itself, but still a bit infatuated with the idea if I’m being honest!!
