How to make a greater tire sealant. That’s a query as outdated as tubeless-ready tires themselves. To date, we’ve seen quite a lot of completely different formulation. Some have caught round, others evaporated shortly. Now, Silca is mixing up their very own system–which they name the Ultimate Tubeless Tire Sealant.
What makes it the Ultimate? Well, when setting out to create the sealant, Silca actually dove into what makes completely different formulation profitable. Sealants based mostly on a pure latex system typically have higher sealing energy, ready to seal larger holes quicker. But in contrast to sealants with artificial latex or different formulation, pure latex sealants sometimes have a shorter lifespan and don’t work as nicely at decrease temperatures.
There’s additionally the query of particles and components used to make sealants plug holes higher. The drawback? In Silca’s testing, most of those particles are too heavy to truly transfer to the puncture when the tire is spinning. They declare that particles will solely work in the event that they’re cellular, and since the bicycle wheel acts as a centrifuge because it’s spinning, these particles are caught to the within the tire and unable to transfer till you cease. By then, you’ve in all probability misplaced quite a lot of air and sprayed sealant throughout your bike and your self.
Looking at the efficiency of artificial latex sealants, Silca claims that Cafe Latex has the greatest sealing energy of the artificial sealants they examined (Slime, Finish Line, WTB & Milkit). The purpose? It all comes down to the foaming motion. Silca then surmised that in the event that they have been ready to come up with a particle that was mild sufficient, the excessive floor space of the foam mixed with the low density, excessive floor space of the particle would permit the particles to stay cellular–even whereas the wheel is spinning.
But what particle can be mild sufficient to work? The reply is carbon fiber. Specifically, pyrolyzed carbon fiber. Typical sized carbon is just too heavy. But pyrolyzed carbon from CarbonTech is recycled from issues like race automobiles, planes, and even outdated bicycles & elements. The pyrolyzation course of removes any resin or supplies that aren’t the carbon fiber itself via the addition of warmth, whereas the uncooked carbon itself is left intact. The result’s carbon fiber that may be very mild with a excessive floor space. Combined with what Silca calls their FiberFoam know-how, the sealant claims to seal up to 6+mm punctures up to 80-90psi and is efficient down to 10ºF/-12ºC.
In addition to staying cellular, carbon fibers produce other benefits as nicely. As the mix of 6mm, 9mm, and 12mm lengthy fibers circulate into the puncture, Silca claims that they stack up and create a dam seal of structural carbon fiber that’s 3x stronger than typical latex seal. Their declare comes because of puncturing tires, permitting them to seal, after which making an attempt to puncture the tire once more in the very same spot.
As an attention-grabbing facet impact of the sealant’s plugging energy, Silca says that you simply can’t add the sealant via a tubeless valve. It will merely plug up the valve. Instead, you may have to add it immediately to the tire by opening up a sidewall. When requested what the sealant would do to the valve from the inside, Silca claims that in testing it wasn’t as a lot of a problem.
However, there is a means to refresh your Silca sealant via the valve thanks to their Ultimate Tubeless Sealant Replenisher. Essentially a excessive solvent, excessive glycol product, Replenisher can refresh the unique sealant for a yr – 18 months relying on the atmosphere with 2-3 replenishments.
At this level, we have now not tried the sealant so we will’t affirm any of Silca’s claims. But they have been in the strategy of bottling the sealant at the time of the presentation and will have it obtainable quickly. Available in 8, 16, and 32oz bottles, the sealant is priced at $18, $24, and $38 respectively. The Replenisher is bought individually for $12 for a 4oz bottle.
