[DirtyDog]

I have always used a cup of Stans in my UST tubeless to prevent leaks. It definitely relieved the problem of frequent tire inflation, and I assumed it was keeping me from a lot minor puncture problems, but there was no way to know. I have also had, and seen, spectacular blowouts where the Stans sprays all over the place and the tire is DOA. However, what I have not seen is what I experienced a few days ago: a seemingly serious tire puncture with stans flying out everywhere, all over me, all over my bike, then a miraculous "healing of the tire" with most of the tire pressure intact. I was able to ride it home over several miles with no problems. Several days later I checked it again and it was fine. A check of the tire pressure revealed I lost less than 5 pounds of pressure. I am completely amazed at this result and I think I will keep riding it as is and see what happens.

Anyone else have this kind of luck on Stans sealant?

 

[sanjuro]

I was riding in Portland with a messenger friend, him on his road bike, and I did a curb hop and I started spewing air from a tread cut. I remember he figured I was dead in the water, but we rode a mile to the gas station.

I lost 10 psi from a half inch gash, but that was it. I filled it up and kept riding. My messenger friend, who knows nothing about mountain bikes, was shocked.

 

[dexterq20]

I've had this happen several times. It seems that, once some dirt gets packed in with the Stan's sealant, it is able to seal surprisingly large punctures.

 

[Mike B.]

Man, that must be some good stuff :biggrin:

Your tire should be fine but keep an eye on it. If you ever get a really large puncture that won't seal, such as a sidewall cut, it can be patched with a traditional tube patch on the inside. I've done trail side repairs of the sort and continued to ride the tire for six months or more with no ill effects.

One of our racers had a particularly nasty tread cut in a race and stuffed some dry grass in the cut, let the sealant soak the grass and hit it with a CO2 to carry on and secure a victory.

 

[Westy]

Whenever I have gotten a puncture big enough to have sealant come out it just keeps coming out. I'm sure it has sealed millions of holes I never knew about but once I realize something is wrong I start reaching for a tube.

I've given up on the rimstrips though. They seal up with the tire beautifully but constantly leak into my rim. My wheels probably have half a pound of dried latex inside the rims.

 

[Arkayne]

I was riding in Palm Springs and took a short cut through an empty lot. When I got to the sidewalk, I found out that the lot was full of goat heads and had about 100 in each tire. I simply pulled them out and slowly spun the tire. It seeped enough to see a small dot of moisture at each puncture and that was it! I went on my merry way.

 

[pedalkicker]

Ran Stan's NoTubes with the rims strips a few years ago and they worked good on the first set of wheels I put them on. All thorns or small punctures sealed no prob. I cased a cement edge hard enough to give my rim a nice flat spot and put a hole in the tire sidewall which spewed and didn't seal, so that's pretty impressive sealing a 1/2 inch cut! I couldn't get the rim strip and tire to seal on my next wheel after going threw enough soapy water for a bubble bath. They now sit in a parts box somewhere. I don't run tubeless for anything but XC now. I've got a set wheels using Mavic UST 819 rims with Larsen TT UST tires that have stans sealant and they have worked stellar.

 

[sanjuro]

My only trick for sealing tough tires is if doesn't work after a million tries, put a tube for a week and see what happens next.

I had a tire that would not fit on any rim, including a 819, and I just put a tube, rode it for a week, and it sealed on the first try.

 

[pedalkicker]

My only trick for sealing tough tires is if doesn't work after a million tries, put a tube for a week and see what happens next.

I should have tried that. How many people still use the NoTubes rim strips compared to using UST rims?

I decided it wasn't worth the hassle vs just running tubes, especially for my tendencies to destroy stuff.

 

[dhpete93]

I've had a few ride saving seals from the wonderful fluid that is Stans, I started off cautious of the whole concept on trusting something that isn't there to keep my tire up, but after riding over a few nails I realized that I could rely on it, and rely on it I have.

I have had countless times where I thought that my tire could never had been sealed from the holes and the Stans fluid just keeps sealing them, most spectacularly would be when I made the mistake of hitting a drop in which I had no idea of what was below, so upon coming off the edge I saw below me was one gnarly rock section, and the correct route into it was to the left of said drop. I landed pretty hard on the rock and the rocks cut 2 1/2" holes in my tire, 1 was on the tread and another on the sidewall, but instantly, on the next rotation they sealed, I have never been so amazed! The only problem I have had is when I land a whip wrong or hit a corner a little hard, this is the time where a decent sized spray of Stans comes (pun not intended) out of your rim, but a few PSI and a few ml of Stans later you are back to normal.

Now I just need a new valve or to modify my dud to make the front tire tubeless.

 

[Quo Fan]

Stans is hit or miss with Kenda tires. I had good luck with a couple of Kendas, but the last set didn't want to seal at all.

 

[Serial Midget]

Last year I was riding in a subdivision with with my parents - I was bored and decided to ride in the dirt beside the trail. Within 2 minutes I'd collected 100s of goatheads in my front tire (a Continental Vertical Pro) It took me at least 5 minutes to pull all the goatheads out of both tires - I didn't lose much pressure at all. Just afew months ago I took the tires off to renew the sealant and was amazed at the hundreds of little plugged holes I saw. I've never had a flat with stans.