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Video: Prototype Boyd Cycling tubeless sealant shuts things up fast

Written by Tyler Benedict Apr 04, 2017 1:01 p.m. ET

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Boyd Cycling’s founder Boyd Johnson has long been a proponent of tubeless tires for road bikes, even offering to set mine up for me before testing his Altamont wheels years ago at the Baller’s Ride. Lately, he’s been working on his own Tickled Pink tubeless sealant, and this video test makes it look pretty impressive. If you’re near his Greenville, SC, headquarters (check out our tour here!) and want to test some in exchange for feedback, let him know. Oh, and you can vote for them to win a FedEx Small Business Grant, too!

Tyler Benedict

11,186 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com. He has been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel to killer riding locations throughout North America.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler loves family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part to make his bikes faster and lighter.

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Andrew

7 years ago

Where is the video??

TheKaiser

7 years ago

Man, with that technique, Boyd looks like he either did some time, or has been watching a lot of prison dramas!

TheKaiser

7 years ago

Forgot to add, the sealant looks sweet! We don’t know how much pressure was in that wheel, but that was a super fast seal.

Brad

7 years ago

would love to see that but spinning the wheel instead of placing the sealant right were the puncture was

Ethan

7 years ago

Reply to Brad

Agreed. It seals fast if the sealant and particulate can get to the puncture, but it cant if its rotating… Multiple revs will be needed before the puncture is sealed completely, and there is pressure lost for each rev… I still think that the wheel will have enough pressure to be ridden and then boosted with c02, but to me this isn’t really an accurate example of an on road puncture.

Boyd Johnson

7 years ago

Reply to Brad

We have done some testing with the spinning wheel as well (in a truing stand). It did spray sealant for a couple revolutions and then stopped. It was done to the same tire from the video, which now has well over 100 sealed holes in it!

We are also giving out close to 100 bottles for free to cyclists in the Greenville area to test in all road and off road situations. And probably the most fun test is I am building a board with a bunch of roofing nails sticking through and will attempt to ride over that. . .maybe even no handed!

Basically, we want to test this quite a bit before selling it. I am probably going to mix up a few hundred more 8 oz. bottles pretty soon to give away at some of the events we are doing (like Sea Otter, the Belgium Waffle Ride, and Gran Fondo New York).

Eugene Chan

7 years ago

Reply to Boyd Johnson

Hi Boyd, do you know what the tire pressure was before and after the test? I’ve had tubeless punctures fail to seal from higher pressures down to sub 60psi, spraying a bunch of Orange Seal everywhere.

Longbeard

7 years ago

Reply to Boyd Johnson

Was that you at the Assault on Currahee With those huge slick tires? How’d that go? I was directly behind you at the start line if so.

Wilco

7 years ago

How big are those holes? 1-2mm?
It’s how it handles 4mm> slashes than i’m interested in.

Antoine

7 years ago

Reply to Wilco

certainly not at road pressure.

TruckNutZ

7 years ago

Reply to Wilco

ummmm… show me a sealant that works with a 4mm gash in the tire…

Jay

7 years ago

Will this work with tubular cyclecross tyres.

Boyd Johnson

7 years ago

Reply to Jay

Will have to test! Part of what a tubeless tire seal up so well is that you only need to seal the tire itself. . .not an inner tube and a tire.

With tubular tires, you have an inner tube that is sewn inside the casing. Any puncture means that a puncture has occurred in both the casing and the inner tube. Not impossible to seal as there are plenty of good tubular sealants out there. It just becomes more difficult to guarantee a good seal. There are also different demands for sealing a latex or a butyl inner tube.

I know I have some old cyclocross tubulars laying around. Sounds like it’s almost time for a YouTube series of “Will it seal?”

ascarlarkinyar

7 years ago

Seals at low pressure, but can it hold when air back up, even just to get you home? A longer video showing air pressure, before, after and then air back up in real time, no laspes….

A true test like it happens while we ride.

Boyd Johnson

7 years ago

Reply to ascarlarkinyar

The same tire that is sitting with over 100 punctures in it is sitting in the office right now at 90 PSI with no signs of any leaks.
There are a lot more tests we have to do, and lots more videos will be made!

Dylan

7 years ago

Are there any sealant comparisons/shootouts anywhere? E.g. a controlled conditions comparison of Stans / Joes no flats / OrangeSeal / Caffelatex etc? Videos are great fun (haven’t watched this one, but guessing it’s similar to the ones Stans did a decade ago), but don’t really tell us whether one sealant works any better than another. In my own limited experience (I’ve only tried Stans and Joes, and only MTB) they both seem about the same. The only flats I have had in the last 8 years running tubeless have been due to cuts in the sidewall (no sealant up there), or so big they were never going to seal (1 cm stick through the centre of the tread). Sometimes I wonder if the sealant is doing anything at all beyond sealing the initial leaks when installing a tire. The only punctures I used to get when running tubes were due to pinch flats, we don’t have thorns, screws or nails littering our MTB tracks.

Collin S

7 years ago

Hi Boyd, what pressure was the tire at before and after the puncture/seal? Did you add any air after the test to get it to 90 PSI or did you start at above >90 PSI, and after the test, it was at 90 psi? From my experience, when you get a flat on road tubeless, it sprays until it drops to 40PSI and no matter what you do it won’t go above 40PSI without blowing the sealant plug out until it dries/cures. A day later, it will go back up to normal pressure but right after, it won’t hold.

Tell Uberti all his old riding buddies in Michigan love reading his Rocket to sprockets blog.

Boyd Johnson

7 years ago

Reply to Collin S

I did not take pressure measurements after. It started off at 90PSI, and if I had to guess I would say it went down to about 75 to 80 PSI. We need to do a test where we are riding and on purpose ride over a nail to see how it seals up with a rotating wheel. . .then take a pressure measurement after.

In the video, I would estimate that we only lost about 10-15PSI because of how quick it sealed. However, with a spinning tire it would likely take a little bit longer and a bit more PSI may be lost.

The good news is the tire from the video (that currently has over 100 punctures in it) is sitting in our office holding 90PSI for the past few days!