Mountain Biking product shot in the studio 4. Milkit Tubeless Conversion Kit Everything you need to go tubeless in one kit If the container you're looking at simply says "Stan's NoTubes Tire Sealant" on it, you're holding what I call the "standard" formula. If you walk into a bike shop and ask for "Stan's", this is likely the version they'll hand you. The quantity and size of crystals in this special formula mean that Stan’s Race Sealant can only be installed directly into the tyre. As a result of its immense sealing capabilities, the Race Sealant will clog injectors and smaller bottles almost immediately. Stans are now making their Race Sealant available to riders everywhere and is only available in 32 oz. Quiet Formulation The tubeless sealants that sealed the biggest holes, or held the most pressure with a given size of hole, were deemed to perform the best.

Slime is the least expensive per ounce, but you need to use more of it. Orange Seal is the most expensive per ounce.The problem with real-world testing is that it’s impossible to test each sealant in the same conditions. After we’d finished testing a sealant, we cleaned the tyre thoroughly with water and rags, plugged the existing holes in the tyre with tape, and tested the next sealant on a different section of tyre. Since it doesn't claim to seal holes as large as the Race sealant, with the Standard sealant, you're more likely to have to interrupt your ride to seal and re-inflate your tire for bigger punctures. You can continue to expect small holes, like those from thorns, to seal on the fly with either.

The quantity and size of crystals in this special formula means that Stan's Race Sealant can only be installed directly into the tire. As a result of its immense sealing capabilities, Race Sealant is not compatible with injector or other valve installation methods. Race sealant should be inspected every 2-3 weeks for best performance. Be sure to rinse race sealant out of used tires intended to be stored/reinstalled. Stan’s No Tubes Race tubeless sealant comes from the brand many would agree is the most well-known proponent of tubeless bicycle tyre use. No Tube’s produces two versions of tubeless tyre sealant, with the Race version tested claiming to seal larger punctures, and this may be true but other areas of the performance severely limit the overall appeal in the highly competitive best tubeless sealant space. To begin, we poured 100ml of each sealant into the tyre (27.5×2.3in) and inflated it to 30psi, ensuring the tyre was thoroughly coated. Also, as latex based sealants function by drying / curing to seal holes, eventually they will dry up and this is made worse if the liquid and crumb have separated. Most sealants use the coagulating properties of natural latex to clog punctures. Latex is a dispersion of polymers (long-chain molecules) in either water or a water-based solution of ammonia. Inside a hole in the tyre, the air pressure drops and there is a rush of air. This causes the water/ammonia solution to evaporate, leaving the latex molecules to coagulate (knit together), plugging the hole.

Most latex-based sealants also contain small particles, such as glitter or small fibres, suspended in the liquid. Stan's NoTubes tire sealant is one of the most popular tire sealant solutions on the market today. It's become so ubiquitous, in fact, that many riders automatically think of the Stan's NoTubes brand when someone says "tire sealant", the way "Xerox" is synonymous with "photocopy." All of the sealants claim to be able to seal punctures up to about 6mm. Stans and Orange Seal claim they can do a bit better, at 6.35mm and 6.5mm, respectively. Race sealant also requires more maintenance. Stan's suggests inspecting the sealant every 2-3 weeks, and removing it completely if you don't plan to ride for a while.

Pit Stop TNT is a thin sealant and it retained this viscosity when chilled, however we noticed a skin had formed over the sealant when it was heated. During our test, Stan’s No Tubes Race sealant performed well, instantly sealing the smaller hole and forming a seal on the larger 5mm puncture with minimal air loss. This seal also remained in place with no leaking. may not be precise; use as a relative measure **based on price of 32oz size Slime “All Tire” Sealant Green smoothie, anyone? Can I convert my non-tubeless mountain bike rim to tubeless with tape and valve only or will I need a rim strip? To test the sealants’ operating temperatures, we put each of them in a freezer set to -18°C and an oven set at 50°C. Not exactly a real-world simulation, but it gave us an idea how the sealants would behave in warmer or colder climates.Under the microscope I saw what appear to be fibers of some sort. Muc-off says the sealant contains “cutting-edge molecules,” though I don’t think that’s them since my microscope was only set to 100x magnification. There’s also UV dye in the Muc-off sealant which is supposed to help identify leaks, and I’ve tried that, but haven’t found it to be very helpful compared to a good old fashioned soapy water test. In spite of all this tech, Muc-off is notably less expensive per ounce than all but Slime. I’ll continue using Muc-off at home, though I think I’ll add an extra ounce or so just to make sure it keeps flowing inside the tire. Some riders are not aware, however, that NoTubes actually makes two different, and distinct tire sealant formulations: The first, "Race" and the second, what might be called the "Standard" version. Depending on your terrain and riding style, one of these two options will likely be a better choice for your bike. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of each formula. Stan's Race tire sealant - pros and cons From this test I learned a lot about how tire sealants work relative to one another, and perhaps the most telling test was actually the drip test shown above.

You might also call it their "classic" or "regular" formula tire sealant. Unlike the Race sealant, you can inject the Standard sealant right through removable core Schrader and presta valves.Most have liquid latex in them. If you have a non tubeless tyre that you want to set up as tubeless you really want to use a latex based product as the tyre side wall will be porous and the bead to rim interface will be pretty rubbish. Therefore you need a glue like liquid ( latex ) to dry in all these imperfections to create a seal. In the spirit of full transparency, Muc-off has been my go-to sealant for a while now. I haven’t had any unreasonable flats with it, and I think I just like the look and the smell, like a pop of neon with that new wall-to-wall carpet smell. That being said, based on my test there doesn’t seem to be any real performance benefit to it, and because it works a bit differently than the more mainstream sealants, it might not be for everyone. After switching sharp implements, he reinflated the tyre to 80psi. Between sealants, Will cleaned and patched the tyre. Setting a tire in the sun can raise the internal pressure fairly significantly. This could come in handy when every psi counts.