Efficacy of Sealant & Tubeless Tires

Howard70

Adventurer
Fellow Bike Ramblers:

Just for fun I spent 20 minutes this evening reviewing punctures in the rear tire (27.5 x 3" Rocket Ron) of my Salsa Mukluk as I added some more sealant. Here in New Mexico we have our share of spiked flora - Goatheads, Russian Olive thorns, Mesquite spikes, prickly pear, cholla, etc. Most of my riding is on wandering two-track in the backcountry and ditch maintenance tracks along irrigation waterways - prior to running sealant in a tubeless set up I'd given up patching tubes etc and resigned myself to road bikes. Now I'm running Caffelatex sealant, Caffelatex elastic rim strips, Schwalbe tires (Rock Rons and Jumbo Jims on the Mukluk and Thunder Burts on the Cutthroat) and I carry a Dynaplug Micro Pro for backup.

So, the rear tire in question has 2,900 miles on it since March 2017 and 258 (!) obvious punctures. 253 of those (98%) were effectively sealed with the Caffelatex and three required plugs. Tubeless tires with sealant works. I can't imagine how much time I would have spent sitting in the sun replacing tubes without it.

Howard Snell
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
I have zero complaints with tubeless, it does work. I used to use Caffelatex but have moved on to Orange Seal. That's probably just a personal preference but it does a better job for me.
 

Howard70

Adventurer
Hello Dave:

I'm interested to hear why you changed to Orange Seal? I'm always looking for reasons to try something different.

Howard
 

DaveInDenver

Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Main reason I prefer it is it doesn't seem to glop up into a mass as it dries out. It leaves a sort of skin on the inside of the tire and rim bed instead. I like the Caffelatex foaming in theory but it usually ends up as more of a mess for me. I will say that I do sometimes get a flat tire sometimes when the Orange has stopped working, usually about 6 months. It's simple to solve, break the bead, squirt some more in and reinflate. I should also admit that I don't always use real tubeless tires, which exacerbates things.
 
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