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Death by 1,000 cuts?

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Old 05-10-20 | 03:43 PM
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Death by 1,000 cuts?

Is this how tubeless tires and sealant are supposed to work? Nearly every time I pump a tire up to pressure, I see a frothy bit of sealant (and the occasional stream) coming out of several small punctures (1-2mm) in the tire in the same places. They generally seal up fairly quickly without a lot of loss of pressure or sealant, but, I now have five "frothy" punctures on the rear and three on the front tire. I know they are the same ones each time because I have them marked. Is this normal? I would have thought once a puncture is sealed, you wouldn't have to worry about it again. I see this turning into a premature death by a thousand cuts! Maybe try another sealant, new tires, patch from the inside? Mavic Yksion Pro UST 700x25 tires with Stan's No Tubes sealant. Thanks in advance.

Last edited by alandmor; 05-11-20 at 12:25 PM.
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Old 05-10-20 | 04:16 PM
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It's normal when you have holes in the tire The sealant is doing what it's supposed to do - sealing the leak. In "Ye Olden Dayes" when we used tubes, you'd have a hole in the tube and tire, the tube would leak, you'd get a flat, replace the tube and be done. You'd still have the holes in the tire but wouldn't care. You're call if the tire is done, though if the holes are bad enough, you can patch.
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Old 05-10-20 | 05:32 PM
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No way do I consider a sealant stopped hole a long term solution. Andy
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Old 05-11-20 | 01:33 AM
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At low psi the sealant should hold but with the higher psi of a skinny tire the cuts seem to be reopen at each pump up. If this bothers you you can patch the tire from the inside although if you get getting deep cuts this will reoccur. At least the sealant is doing it's job getting you home when you first received those cuts on the tire.
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Old 05-11-20 | 12:35 PM
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No doubt the sealant is doing its job of sealing punctures, and I've never been stranded. I guess I was just hoping for more of a permanent fix rather than sealing the same holes over and over again. Guess I'll be trying some inside patches as the tires still have a lot of miles left in them.
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Old 05-11-20 | 12:40 PM
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Originally Posted by alandmor
No doubt the sealant is doing its job of sealing punctures, and I've never been stranded. I guess I was just hoping for more of a permanent fix rather than sealing the same holes over and over again. Guess I'll be trying some inside patches as the tires still have a lot of miles left in them.
Obviously with a very small hole that seals up and stays sealed you may never even know about it, and that's fine since it stays sealed, but yeah, if you have leaks that you know about specifically because they keep reopening then an inside patch sounds like the way to go. I'm not running tubeless at the moment but I have run it, and did a couple of inside patches like this. I didn't think of it as Plan B, either: if there's a hole, patching it is Plan A. Hoping it seals during a ride due to liquid sealant inside the tire should be thought of as Plan B.
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Old 05-11-20 | 02:55 PM
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Yup with high pressure tubeless you'd probably want to use one of these:

https://www.parktool.com/product/eme...tire-boot-tb-2
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Old 05-11-20 | 10:54 PM
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"I see a frothy bit of sealant (and the occasional stream) coming out of several small punctures (1-2mm)"

Did you try Genuine Innovations Tubeless Tire Repair Kit?
I had several big holes, and fixed them using this repair kit. Very easy, takes like 1 minute to fix a hole. Works for several months.
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Old 05-11-20 | 11:03 PM
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I'm surprised no one has said it yet, but stop using Stan's. Stan's is great in an MTB tire, and terrible in a road tire. Buy a bottle or Orange Seal and your tires will stop weeping.
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Old 05-11-20 | 11:06 PM
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Thank you very much! Will try Orange Seal next time I get a serious puncture.
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