Tubeless Tire Sealant Shoot-Out!

Which Sealant has to go?

Enough Already! Last month I posted a few comments on different tire sealants. Stans, Orange, Finish Line and Serfas. I tried them all and had reasonable success with them. The problem I encountered was adding sealant or refilling a tire again... 3 wheel-sets made it hard to keep track of which sealant was where. I ended up writing sealant name and amount on the tire. That worked good. Buying the different sealants didn't work out well at all. I finally decided to change all wheelsets to ORANGE ENDURANCE.

T-Rex Tape looked good, but pulled loose at the edges

I pulled all the tires and cleaned out all the old sealant. Quite a project. Some of the rim tape pulled loose with the tight sealing tires ... so that had to be replaced also. The slippery T-Rex tape pulled loose and didn't stick as well as the Gorilla Tape. I also tried some more expensive Stans Tape. It was thinner and stuck well, but I never could get it to lie flat in the rim grooves without some bubbles, no matter how much I worked it. Shaun from Temecula Bike said he has the same problem with Stans Tape. Out it came. Gorilla Tape it was.

MTB woes: Wood clamp needed to remove tire!

I also noted that sometimes the edge of the tape would pull loose with tight fitting tires. If I didn't check closely, then new sealant would leak under the edge and eventually into the wheel, with usage.



After carefully cleaning the wheels and a final alcohol wipe, I put in 1" Gorilla Tape. On one wheel-set, I didn't trim the edges of the tape at all, but l let it ride up on the sides a bit. Hopefully the tire will seal OK and I'll be able to pull the tire off later without the sticking tape coming loose. I added 5oz instead of the usual 4 oz.



- randorides