Silca Ultimate Tubeless Sealant

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CyclingGiraffe
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by CyclingGiraffe

MikeD wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 5:19 pm
Mocs123 wrote:I'm not 100% sold on road tubeless either, and currently am running tubeless on one bike (with about 60 days on them) and latex tubes on the other. Both 25mm tires. I run 95/100psi in the tube tires and 80/85in the tubeless (79kg) and I can say the lower pressures in the tubeless are more comfortable. The tubeless setup does lose air faster than the latex tubes though - to the point that if I don't ride it for a week it's flat.
Tubeless shouldn't leak faster than latex tubes. I find the leak rate is about the same as using butyl tubes. I say either you have a leak somewhere or your tires are porous.
Same here; I decided to try tubeless for the new year, and now, with the better part of 2,000km on two different sets, I'm generally pleased with them. One set of Mavic Yksion Pro UST II (on Mavic Ksyrium Pro Carbon SL UST wheels using Mavic's sealant), and one set of Hutchinson Fusion 5 11 Storm 28/25 (on Fulcrum Speed 40 DB wheels using Orange Seal, per this forum's preferences). One thing I really like is that they hold air much better than latex and better than lightweight butyl tubes, too. I generally only have to top off a small amount once a week.

The Mavics were factory-mounted, but I mounted the Hutchinsons myself. They were not terribly difficult to install, likely helped by Fulcrum's sealed rim bed which negates the need for tape. An Airshot seated the bead easily and I injected the sealant through the valve stem (with the core removed, obviously). That being said, the tires were tough enough to install that I don't think I would want to try to install them while also having a bunch of sealant in the tire/rim bed at the same time.

Unfortunately, that sort of negates my interest to try out the new Silca sealant (unless it turns out that in actual use it is really heads and shoulders above, say, Orange Seal).

RDY
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by RDY

bobones wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 6:09 pm
RDY wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 4:42 pm
Doubt it's anywhere near as good as OKO Magic Milk Hi Fibre - which for some reason seems to be barely used outside of Pro MTBers ... probably because their marketing budget is virtually zero and cycling isn't their main business.
Planet X sells it. I bought a litre a couple of years ago and still have 0.9 litres left because it is rubbish compared to Orange Seal.
Orange Seal is awful ... moreover, some people who are sponsored by them don't use it.
Last edited by RDY on Wed Mar 16, 2022 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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joshatsilca
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by joshatsilca

wheelsONfire wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 8:02 pm
Mocs123 wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 5:04 pm
I'm not 100% sold on road tubeless either, and currently am running tubeless on one bike (with about 60 days on them) and latex tubes on the other. Both 25mm tires. I run 95/100psi in the tube tires and 80/85in the tubeless (79kg) and I can say the lower pressures in the tubeless are more comfortable. The tubeless setup does lose air faster than the latex tubes though - to the point that if I don't ride it for a week it's flat.
I think you can ride the lower pressure using tubes. Atleast i use same pressure as you, with inner tubes, and it works very well.
If you are losing air that quickly in tubeless you have a small leak somewhere.. we've setup and tested close to 100 wheels over the last year of testing sealants on top of our personal wheels and can't say any of them, even wheels that we puncture the heck out of to look at sealling times, don't go flat in a week. I'd guess valve stem or tape as the sealant will seal most other issues.

I still have personal wheels with fine cotton tires and latex which I love, but the best of the new tubeless stuff is pretty remarkable even on the road, and it's untouchable on gravel.
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ryanw
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by ryanw

Amen to that. Turbo Cottons and latex will always hold a place in my heart, but a Corsa Speed on a fine summers day can not be beat (IMO).

Just ordered my first load of sealant from the team at SaddleBack. Looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for pushing the envelope as always, Josh :thumbup:
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TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

RDY wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 9:30 pm

Orange Seal is awful ... moreover, some people who are sponsored by them don't use it.

Lol. WTF are you on?

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nickf
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by nickf

Orange seal is by far the best out there that I have used. I have tried pretty much everything out there even my own homebrew sealants. Silca might actually convince me to give theirs a try. The thought process behind it makes sense. For me I have always been turned off by Silcas marketing, trying to convince you they are a premium brand to justify the prices.

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by TobinHatesYou

RDY must have gotten fake Orange Seal or something.

FlatlandClimber
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by FlatlandClimber

Just wondering, is this sealant compatible with inner tubes?
I feel like the pointy crushed pieces of carbon would not mix well with an energency inner. This better work flawlessly!
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MikeD
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by MikeD

From watching the video, it looks like it seals faster than Orange Seal. I recently got a flat (rear tire at 80 psi, 700x29) and there was a lot of Orange Seal all over the back of my bike. Pressure didn't come down much to notice as I finished the ride without noticing that I had a flat though.

MikeD
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by MikeD

FlatlandClimber wrote:Just wondering, is this sealant compatible with inner tubes?
I feel like the pointy crushed pieces of carbon would not mix well with an energency inner. This better work flawlessly!
Yeah that's what I was thinking too. Can those carbon fiber pieces puncture the skin?

TobinHatesYou
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by TobinHatesYou

MikeD wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 11:15 pm
From watching the video, it looks like it seals faster than Orange Seal. I recently got a flat (rear tire at 80 psi, 700x29) and there was a lot of Orange Seal all over the back of my bike. Pressure didn't come down much to notice as I finished the ride without noticing that I had a flat though.
Though it was a gravel tire at 40psi and a round puncture right in the centerline of the tread cap. I’d love to see the demo repeated with a popular 25mm tire with a puncture at the shoulder of the sidewall/tread cap…starting from 85psi.

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by CampagYOLO

bobones wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 6:09 pm
RDY wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 4:42 pm
Doubt it's anywhere near as good as OKO Magic Milk Hi Fibre - which for some reason seems to be barely used outside of Pro MTBers ... probably because their marketing budget is virtually zero and cycling isn't their main business.
Planet X sells it. I bought a litre a couple of years ago and still have 0.9 litres left because it is rubbish compared to Orange Seal.
My findings as well. It's not bad for MTB tyres but useless for anything at higher pressures.

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wheelsONfire
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by wheelsONfire

Well, i have used inner tubes and tubeless. To be honest, the most secure set up i have used is inner tubes and then use Tufo if a punture appears.
I've had several flats with sealant and tubeless which just doesn't get repaired. Even with dynaplug!
I don't ask for some shitty comments about this since i just mention what has been the best option for me.
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bobones
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by bobones

wheelsONfire wrote:
Thu Mar 17, 2022 7:50 am
Well, i have used inner tubes and tubeless. To be honest, the most secure set up i have used is inner tubes and then use Tufo if a punture appears.
I've had several flats with sealant and tubeless which just doesn't get repaired. Even with dynaplug!
I don't ask for some shitty comments about this since i just mention what has been the best option for me.
I respect your opinion, but if a puncture still leaks after inserting a Dynaplug, just fire in another one. Also, if you're not using a road proven sealant (i.e. Orange Seal), then your tubeless experience will be compromised.

aeroisnteverything
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by aeroisnteverything

joshatsilca wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 7:39 pm
TobinHatesYou wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 6:24 pm
aeroisnteverything wrote:
Wed Mar 16, 2022 1:04 pm
I am a bit put off by not being able to use an injector. Seems like potentially messy especially with small volume road tyres and not something you want to do on a living room floor.

Also: if the thing is so good at plugging large holes, won't it clog up the valve from the inside? This already happens to some extent with orange seal, and it seems to me like this one is bound to be even more prone to this issue. Josh does not address this in the video.

This. I don't care if it's a little longer lasting than and a little better at sealing than Orange Seal if it's a huge faff to use.

1) Having to buy two different bottles is annoying, especially since the "Replenisher" has a premium cost an is essentially just more carrier (less latex, no fibers.)
2) Not being able to use an injector stinks.
3) The video demo used a thick gravel tire at 40psi right down the center of the tread cap. Show us a puncture on the shoulder of a 25mm road tire at 85psi.
4) Why does the Replenisher only come in a small bottle when most people will end up using more Replenisher than Ultimate sealant over the life of a tire? A lot of talk about being environmentally friendly, but that's wasteful packaging. Reduce > Reuse > Recycle.
The carbon fibers just don't seem to enter the valve.. they form a wall on the inside of it that gets blown away when you add air, we have seen less valve plugging than Orange seal over our testing year and way less than something like Stan's race day.

As for the replenisher, it contains more of the time and oxygen sensitive ingredients than the standard sealant which have to stay pristine in order to 'rejuvenate' the old sealant, so you want it to be as fresh as possible when adding. It also comes in a bottle with injector cap with tube that somebody is likely to not replace after using, so we wanted to minimize the risk of somebody adding replenisher that had sat in the injector bottle on a work bench for 18 months.. it wouldn't be very 'replenishing'. As for the cost, 4oz of replenisher is $1 cheaper than the 4oz of Orange Seal in injector bottle, and the other sizes are within a dollar of Orange Seal or Stans MSRP for same size, more notably our $32 oz is $6 cheaper MSRP than Stan's race day which will last 2-3 weeks in your tire and seals with similar effectiveness at low pressures and not quite as well at higher pressures.

Comparing apples to apples, I think we represent a very good bargain.

Thanks Josh. I think only time will tell re valve clogging, unfortunately.

But how about that video Tobin is asking about? I think it would be a sight more convincing than the gravel tyre demo! Maybe even a do back-to-back comparison vs a popular brand that likes the colour orange. Or show off how it handles a cut puncture by putting a bad-ass pair of cable cutters to work on the edge of the thread or the sidewall? Or even do a GCN equivalent demo of riding over some nails, screws, broken glass, etc - all on road tyres.

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