[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