Roadside Repair - Tufo sealant in a Conti Tubular?



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S. Wood

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Would it be practical to carry a small tube of TUFO sealant instead of a spare tubular? If (er,
when) I get a flat I could put in some tire sealant, add some air (CO2 cartridge), and keep riding.
The advatages of this would be not having to carry a tub spare, AND never having to remove the tire
to fix the flat when I arrive at home. My biggest concern is: how difficult is it to remove the
presta valve and fill the tire with sealant? Does the "tool" provided with the Tufo sealant work for
Conti tubulars? Could this practically be done on the roadside?
 
S. Wood wrote:

> Would it be practical to carry a small tube of TUFO sealant instead of a spare tubular? If (er,
> when) I get a flat I could put in some tire sealant, add some air (CO2 cartridge), and keep
> riding. The advatages of this would be not having to carry a tub spare, AND never having to remove
> the tire to fix the flat when I arrive at home. My biggest concern is: how difficult is it to
> remove the presta valve and fill the tire with sealant? Does the "tool" provided with the Tufo
> sealant work for Conti tubulars? Could this practically be done on the roadside?

Maybe. For a typical small puncture such as a staple or a small shard of glass yes, that's probably
a good approach.

But what would you do when you slash a tire?

Yes AFAIK all removable cores are 4mm flats.

A BMX/tandem gauge spoke wrench (or the round six-slot models) will remove valve cores. So will a 3"
Crescent brand adjustable wrench, which is a very handy thing to have around if you 're going to
carry something.

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971
 
Originally posted by S. Wood
Would it be practical to carry a small tube of TUFO sealant instead of a spare tubular? If (er,
when) I get a flat I could put in some tire sealant, add some air (CO2 cartridge), and keep riding.
The advatages of this would be not having to carry a tub spare, AND never having to remove the tire
to fix the flat when I arrive at home. My biggest concern is: how difficult is it to remove the
presta valve and fill the tire with sealant? Does the "tool" provided with the Tufo sealant work for
Conti tubulars? Could this practically be done on the roadside?


I ride tubulars, and I carry the TUFO sealant.

The sealant is good for tears up to about 2mm. You simply squeeze the sealant into your presta valve, roll the tire around a bit to distribute the sealant, then pump the tire and go.

I have not needed to use it yet, but I hear it works well. In any case, I suggest buying durable tubular tires as opposed to the ones that weigh only 120g.
 
[email protected] (S. Wood) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> Would it be practical to carry a small tube of TUFO sealant instead of a spare tubular? If (er,
> when) I get a flat I could put in some tire sealant, add some air (CO2 cartridge), and keep
> riding. The advatages of this would be not having to carry a tub spare, AND never having to remove
> the tire to fix the flat when I arrive at home. My biggest concern is: how difficult is it to
> remove the presta valve and fill the tire with sealant? Does the "tool" provided with the Tufo
> sealant work for Conti tubulars? Could this practically be done on the roadside?

I have thought about this. I have used TUFO sealant and it definitely works sometimes but not all
times, so my feeling is that it would not be worth the trouble on the road. It's messy, I used a
hypodermic without the needle to inject the goop. It seems like it has to spin around after the
tire is pressurized to get it to make the seal, so here's the problem: if it is a slow leak, do you
really want to let the rest of the air out to inject the TUFO and maybe wind up worse off than you
started? If it is a faster leak and you inject the TUFO, will the TUFO seal quickly enough after
you use the CO2 cart? If not, how will you top up the tire to a reasonable pressure? Another CO2
cart? What if it doesn't work and go through a couple of carts trying to get it to seal? So you
give up and fallback on the spare tire. That's the kind of fooling around I would rather do with a
pump than a CO2 cartridge. Then there's the practical problem you mentioned of getting the valve
out which may require a tool (I was able to unscrew it with my fingers on one Clement tire, but
mostly I use pliers).

My recommendation is to carry the spare and try the TUFO at home before going to the extreme of
opening the tire, and/or put the TUFO in as a preventative measure and carry a spare tire for when
the TUFO fails. I don't have enough experience with it to know whether it works to prevent flats but
I may try it this spring in new tires to see if cuts my rate of rear tire flats.

JP
 
"S. Wood" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Would it be practical to carry a small tube of TUFO sealant instead of a spare tubular? If (er,
> when) I get a flat I could put in some tire sealant, add some air (CO2 cartridge), and keep
> riding. The advatages of this would be not having to carry a tub spare, AND never having to remove
> the tire to fix the flat when I arrive at home. My biggest concern is: how difficult is it to
> remove the presta valve and fill the tire with sealant? Does the "tool" provided with the Tufo
> sealant work for Conti tubulars? Could this practically be done on the roadside?

As long as you have removable valve cores, the Tufo goop will work on any tire/tube.

That said, you're still better off carrying at least one spare. My suggestion would be to try the
Tufo goop first, if that don't work, change the tire. Then if you have another flat, try the Tufo
goop again. If it STILL don't work, call for a ride. This way, you can conceivably have multiple
flats without having multiple spares.

When I was riding my 'cross bike without owning a spare set of 'cross tubies, I'd carry the Tufo
goop. Luckily (knocking on wood!) I didn't have to use it.

What's that old saying? "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?"

Mike
 
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