Stan's Race is what I have been using. Don't know if it's the best, but haven't had any issues and doesn't leave a residue as bad as Orange Seal, which is what I was using before.

 

They all suck. That's why we watch pros flat out pretty much every single race from XC to DH. They all start with fresh sealant but it rarely works.

 

They all suck. That's why we watch pros flat out pretty much every single race ...

I'm not pro, my guess is that's why Stan's works for our bikes

 

im still having good luck with wtb

 

Make your own. Save $$

 

With what?
Serious please.
dwb

 

My advice is stick around a buck an ounce or less. Spending more isn't going to save the day. If you get a clean puncture that doesn't cut too many threads and ideally doesn't cut across the threads most will work well enough especially with plugs which in my experience are required 99% of the time. If you get a puncture that cuts across the thread pattern or just cuts too many threads you're using plugs for sure and even then the sealant might not be able to complete the seal.

Especially when the casing flexes on the trail. A rubber clot just isnt' robust enough to cope with flex. This is why sealant tests look great on YouTube but in the real world not so much. Stab a tire with a nail or screwdriver on an unweighted tire and sealant works amazingly well! Too bad during these sealant shoot outs they don't ride the bike on uneven surfaces to show if the seal actually holds up.

 

Usually when I hear the hiss, I stop. Then I angle the tire so the sealant pools over the hole. If I lose too much air, I add some. I plug when the hole won’t seal. Can’t do all that when racing. I would like better sealing without clogging the valve stem, but for me tubeless is better.

 

Since they all suck, I'm mixing 50/50 of Stan's regular and Race. Kinda works...kinda doesn't...but better than Bontrager and Orange Seal.

 

Forme its either Stan's race or regular or my go to is EnduroSeal from MTBAfrica. Best sealant and on par with Stans but cheaper due to supply chain being just down the road from me rather than a ship and customs&excise

 

Try e*thirteen Tire Plasma. It's $20 for a liter bottle and it seals punctures amazingly well. One of my bikes recently got a pinch flat in the rear tire puncturing through the tread area and at the bead. The tread area puncture sealed up instantly. So did the one at the bead with some shaking of the wheel, but when I pushed on the area with my fingers it would start leaking again. So I pushed on the sidewall causing it to leak as I shook the wheel. It instantly sealed and after that no amount of flexing or pushing or rolling of the sidewall made it leak. I'm at 40 miles of trail riding later without any issues.

 

Can anyone else confirm this stuff works better than Stan’s?

 

orange seal endurance. best ever

 

Stans has served me just fine.
dwb

 

everyone seems to like whatever brand they use, which leads me to believe they all work fine.

Personally, Orange Seal works for me so I've stuck with it. Definitely not the cheapest though.

 

everyone seems to like whatever brand they use, which leads me to believe they all work fine...

^^This. Seems like any thread on MTBR titled "What is the Best This or That" might as well be titled "What This or That are You Currently Using".

 

I live in a very harsh environment for tires (very sharp and pokey rocks). I use Orange seal and get get punctures quite regularly, they often seal up by themselves. Those that don’t, get a plug which the sealant helps a lot! I would never not run sealant

 

I ask again,
Home brew formulas please?
Merci
dwb

 

Plugs. Sealant is good for the smallest little holes. Maybe. I still wouldn't run without it. I've had the best luck with Orange.

 

Stans
Bontrager
Muc Off
Joe's
Peaty's

Never noticed a difference between any of them other than smell and colour.

Also interested in this homebrew secret sauce people are talking about.

 

Over the years I've used Stan's, TruckerCo, Orange Seal, and Orange Seal Endurance, Squirt and am currently using Muc-Off. Muc-Off is by far the best I've ever used. A few weeks ago it actually sealed a slice on a gravel bike tire that I generally would have plugged. The tire only dropped 2 psi. Last weekend the same tire got tangled up in a cord that completely collapsed the tire into the rim and took a chunk out of the tire. Again, the Muc-Off sealed it with minimal pressure loss. This last incident pretty much has me thinking that Muc-Off is the best out there and it's among the cheapest.

 

I had some mystery sealant installed by a bike shop that dried into black, flat hard slabs. They definitely were not "stanimals" balls of sealant. Stanimals usually feel like a bouncy ball, these were hard and didn't feel like rubber.

If anybody knows what sealant does that, I'd advise staying away from that one.

 

WTB. It’s typically the cheapest.
I’ve tried a fair few different ones and they seem to generally work similar. Some are easier to clean up or peel off a tire when dried. But it really just comes back to price. For the holes I notice, WTB working fine.

it’s cheap enough in liter size I can add the appropriate amount and top off without trying to cut the amount. I swap tires frequently and it’s cheap enough to just use new.

 

People ignore wtb for some reason. maybe cause its on amazon? But yeah works great. much much better than stans at weeping sidewalls.

 

i've heard a lot of people bad mouth muc off. in general i think their products are poor but the sealant has worked well for me. only issue i had with it was that between the pink colour and its nature, it stains really badly if it sprays on your clothing and is hard to get off your frame even. lasts really well and seals decently

since so many people seemed against muc off i tried silca original (good when fresh but dries out quicky) and am currently trying barkeeper - first puncture the other day on the road bike, wouldn't seal properly roadside despite being very small, yet to see whether it will form a lasting seal given time to set properly.

 

update on my barkeeper experience:
my road tyre is more or less holding pressure at 55psi, however the pinprick hole is still seeping sealant. barkeeper just doesn't seem to set.
as an experiment i put a think layer of sealant in the bottom of a jar and left it for ~20 hours. it is now mostly gone (evaporated?) but what is left is still liquid.
i don't see how this stuff can work as an effective sealant.

to me, there are 2 ways a sealant can form an effective puncture fix:

1. like glue - dry out and set on contact with air to form a sealed patch
2. carry particles to the hole which plug it

i think generally its a combination of both.
barkeeper however does not seem to dry and set, ever, let alone quickly at the side of the road/trail and it has minimal particles to plug a hole.

i'm reluctant to form a definitive opinion on the basis of one puncture but my initial reaction is this stuff is rubbish. the only good thing i can say about it is that its easy to wash off your bike when it sprays all over the place, since it doesn't set

 

 

I make my own, have been for 10+ years.

16oz latex mold builder
16oz propylene glycol RV antifreeze
16oz automotive Slime
32oz water
4oz ammonia
Some people add glitter, I dont.

It costs me about $35 to make 84oz and it works as good as anything you can buy off the shelf. I mix it and keep it in a gallon RV antifreeze or windex jug, keeps until you use it up.

 

so one of the ingredients in your sealant is someone elses sealant?

oookay.

 

I never tried anything else than Orange since I started riding in 2020. The reason I started using it was that I saw Steve on Hardtail Party (YouTube) show an old tire with dried up Orange seal inside and he showed how it just peels away like a sticker. Now I use it in a gravel bike and four mountain bikes (my bike and my kids). I've had four mountain bikes since 2020 and used it in all of them. I've never had a flat. I'm riding mostly trail and enduro. Some gravel. I have no reason to try anything else. Maybe it's the best. Maybe it's not the best. It's so good that I wouldn't intentionally go and try anything else since it's never let me down.

 

One example of how poorly sealant works is the popularity of plugs. In what world does it make sense where sealants claim 6mm puncture repairs yet we have to plug punctures much smaller?

Plugs have been a game changer because sealant really only takes care of thorns. Consider yourself lucky if it fixes anything past that. Sometimes sizable casing damage on the outer casing is just a tiny puncture on the inner making it seem like the sealant worked on a big one. That happened to me in the late 00's. I was really impressed then I saw the inside of the tire and realized it was the equivalency of a thorn prick. I was an early adopter of tubeless suffering through the ghetto years. I suspect I've pinched more tubeless tires than tubes at this point. Sealant absolutely sucks when it comes to pinches. If it works it's likely because the inner damage was much smaller than the outer damage would suggest.

 

One example of how poorly sealant works is the popularity of plugs. In what world does it make sense where sealants claim 6mm puncture repairs yet we have to plug punctures much smaller?

Plugs have been a game changer because sealant really only takes care of thorns. Consider yourself lucky if it fixes anything past that. Sometimes sizable casing damage on the outer casing is just a tiny puncture on the inner making it seem like the sealant worked on a big one. That happened to me in the late 00's. I was really impressed then I saw the inside of the tire and realized it was the equivalency of a thorn prick. I was an early adopter of tubeless suffering through the ghetto years. I suspect I've pinched more tubeless tires than tubes at this point. Sealant absolutely sucks when it comes to pinches. If it works it's likely because the inner damage was much smaller than the outer damage would suggest.

what is a "pinches"

 

Bontrager works great for me. I add a little extra glitter but the overall result has been reliable.

 

I still use Orange Seal. It coats the tire with a rubbery thin layer that you can peel away, as it dries. The fresh stuff you put it will seal practically any hole.

 

It is also latex based (like pretty much every other one)

With what you are describing, the tire composition seems to have the biggest effect. I get tires that do just what you say with stans, my own formula, or others that I use...but with other tires, it doesn't happen like that. There may be something they are coating the inside with?

 

My last 3 punctures were so small that I had to use a reaming tool that came with my plug kit just to get the thinnest plug in. And, the Orange seal did absolutely nothing but make a mess of my bike and my pants. The smaller the puncture, the further the sealant squirts all over the place. That’s why now, I literally only use enough to coat the inside of the tire, let it dry and ride. I can put a plug in if needed.