ModeratedUser

Hello all,

I hope all is doing fine and surviving the onslaught of marketing hacks.

I have a question and I haven't really found any solutions on my own and this is in regards to maybe having a road wheel that is a little more impervious to flats.........without the added weight penalty. I'm looking at doing a little added protection by using Stan's No Tube solution in a regular inner tube. I'm thinking of splitting this bottle and use it for two wheels. I haven't really found any videos on doing this, but I did find this one and it's kinda what I want to do. (can fast forward for the first 1 min)

Doing this would probably not protect me from nails, screw and railroad spikes, but that's not what is causing just about all my flats. I get them from thorns and glass. This would give me some protection I would think.

Is there any gurus or experimenters out there that have done something along this line? Am I late to the party and I just can't find the info?

Thanks for reading this and I wish you the best.

WheresWaldo

I have done this with my tubular tires for years, but since Stan's evaporates and dries after about 6 months I don't put any in until I have the first flat. Tubulars are very expensive, tubes are cheap, why mess with sealant if you can just as easily replace a tube.

Bob Dopolina 

Why did he take the tube off in the video? He didn't need to.

We did this with SLIME for MTB tires in the 90's. It worked pretty well but I don't know how well against thorns.

bt

he has a road bike with discs, that should tell you something.

Bob Dopolina 

That he is a forward thinker who embraces change?

Doge

I do the same. I buy used Veloflex tubulars for cheap for training and then use Stans at first flat. A 1/3 to 1/2 tube will do the job. As 6 months = 6,000 miles for us the tire dies first.

chaadster

User1,

what is your current rolling stock and how much does it weigh? It's hard to devise alternatives that don't involve a weight penalty without knowing starting weight.

K.Katso

In my own experience, it worked pretty well against cactus needles

Lazyass

Ah, Hope and Change. It's always for the better and not up for debate. The non believers are backwards heh

Doge

I do this with 23 mm latex tubulars - 200-250g each and 1/2 bottle of Stans after the 1st flat/slow leak. I am often lucky enough to not have to remove the tire. You must remove the valve core. Vittoria Pit Stop works better for core in on the road small failures and smaller holes without removing the core - and you get free air. My son has fixed three flats on the same tire this way, but the tire gets wobbly when mixed with Stans after they 2nd/3rd time - we tossed it.

chaadster

Don't you have anything better to do?

ModeratedUser

I'm looking at it as having less flats to deal with. Seems like sometimes they come at the wrong time. Like learning you have a flat when you pull your bike off the rack and trying to make some deadline.

Edit: sorry this was suppose to be a reply to post #2 .

ModeratedUser

Well ok there is a weight penalty. It would be half of the Stan's NoTube (2 oz?) bottle. So I guess an oz of the stuff?

Brian Ratliff

Those of you who use Stans in latex tubulars, is this considered a permanent fix? Will this, say, fix a pinhole flat well enough to withstand a season of riding this tire at 150psi (for the tire pressure nazis, this is on the track)?

Doge

You should not be hitting too many thorns and glass at the track I would hope.

Having used Pitstop and Stans - neither at much over 130 I would guess Stans - yes, Pitstop no. But I would not suggest 150. I used to run Tufos at 200 and the Tufo sealant would work to about 180.
Stans has got nodules in it that plug. There was a review on another orange sealant with sparkles that was supposed to work better - I can't remember. Some holes take 130+ psi fine - and some don't. a true pin hole IMO would be plugged with Stans. I am a weight weenie of weight weenies (for example I had Francois of FMB build me tubulars without coating on the sidewalls and ultra thin tread to save weight). But less a consideration than weight is balance. I counter balance valve stems on race wheels. Get much goo in there and over time it tends to concentrate mass in one area. The ride is annoying - to me at least.

Net is - don't race with it.

Brian Ratliff

^^^
Thanks. That was my instinct, but I was wondering about people's experience.

I ran over an open safety pin of all things during a race. That was almost immediately after I clipped another guy's front wheel with my pedal (everyone kept upright); I heard *tinking* coming from my rear wheel and I thought I broke a spoke during the paint exchange. I was truly on fire that day.

I'll probably just send the tire off to that Florida company to get re-tubed. Better than losing a $100+ tire over a safety pin.

Doge

Road 3 laps (6 miles) on this before getting a replacement.


I used Vittoria Pit Stop and it worked till about 90 PSI. I think Stans would have worked better for the larger hole.

Note that the guys I spoke to at TireAlert would use a Butyl tubes. I actually broke down and got out the needle and started patching my own again while watching the evening soaps with the wife.

ModeratedUser

Orange Seal?

You were mentioning something about the sealant not giving you the top PSI needed. It would seem that once the sealant plugs the hole, the PSI can be raised to needed pressure, yeah?

StanSeven

After learning how to replace tubes from lots of bad experiences, it takes maybe two minutes with CO2. To me it's a lot easier just to pull out the old, put a new one in, inflate and be on my way.

Sealant is okay but it usually gets a little messy and it does dry out over time. Those are things most users quickly forget.

Doge

Orange seal is what I was thinking of - Thank you.
A seal at low pressure <> a high pressure one. The sealant will often plug quite large (say a mm - as in the picture with the pin) hole at 50-60 PSI, but when pumped to 120PSI - the plug blows out. So what may work fine for getting you home is not fine for starting a race (as implied by the OP). My son has raced on sealed tires. I put the sealant in (Stans or Pitstop) and rotate the tire at about 50-70 PSI and get it sealed. Then (maybe 10 min later) I pump to 130PSI. About 50% of the time it leaks again. If it doesn't then I mark the tire as a sealed one - just a red sharpie on the casing where the hole was and we use it for local races at about 100PSI. For an important race - he gets a new tire and the sealed tire goes into the been-sealed pile. That actually works OK as these are used on his training wheels. With this rotation I need to buy about 4-5 new tubulars / year for 10,000miles of riding. While not cheap, 2,000/tire all-in is not bad.

Doge

Some of the posts here were about Tubular tires (Track and Weight-weenies) All min were.

WheresWaldo

Okay, this thread did get a bit off track (pun intended). The OP, user1, asked about sealant in regular tube tires. I suggested that while riding tubulars sealant is a good thing, on a tubed tire it is far easier and less messy to just replace the tube. As another poster mentioned, CO2 makes quick work of emergency inflation. So to user1, it just isn't worth the hassle for tubed tires. If you really want to go the sealant route, then try some road tubeless and use sealant to your hearts content.

chaadster

I tired to open that discussion with them in post #7 , but got shot down.