mtnbud

I bought a Trek Slash a little while ago and am running tubeless. This is my first experience with tubeless (and disk brakes also). I found a small pinhole leak in the sidewall. I took it to the bike shop I bought it at and the guy who helped me said I needed to buy a new tire.
​tire.
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I asked if maybe some fresh sealant in the tire might do the job. He put a little sealant in the tire and pumped it up. He then spun it around and the sealant was spraying out of the small hole. The only tire he had in 29 by 3 was $95. He didn't seem to know anything about patching the tire.

The hole is very small. Can't I simply patch the hole? Would putting sealant in and leaving it set at a low pressure until the sealant has had a chance to congeal do the job?

DrIsotope

You can patch it as you would a tube. On an MTB tire, you could probably just slap a piece of Gorilla Tape on the inside of the hole. The most time consuming part of it is cleaning the area well enough to get the glue to bond.

dsaul

I have patched the inside of many tubeless tires with regular tube patches and glue. As mentioned above, you just have to clean the area well before patching. I clean off the old sealant and wipe down with acetone before patching. I usually put something heavy on the patch and let it sit overnight before re-mounting the tire.

dsbrantjr

For best results use proper vulcanizing fluid, not rubber cement. Vulcanizing fluid makes a chemical bond between the tire and patch. I use Rema brand.

mack_turtle

There are several tubeless tire "plug" kits on the market for just this purpose. Your LBS is quite ignorant if they don't know about these. Some riders call them "bacon strips." The Genuine Innovations kit is less than $10 and will plug five times or more.

drlogik 

Patching on the inside as mentioned above is the best method. A plug is an emergency type patch if your on the road or trail in my opinion. They generally work fine but I think a patch is a better more permanent repair. And as stated above, you really need to not only clean the inside of the tire but you have to sand it also to expose bare rubber. Regular sandpaper will work fine,

Clean first with alcohol, then sand then apply a light coat of vulcanizing fluid (as also mentioned), let the fluid dry completely then apply another coat of fluid, let dry then the patch. Once applied you'll need to "stitch" the patch to make it sticks really well. I use a quarter (the coin), roll the quarter's edge all around the patch, pressing as hard as you can. Don't drag it, roll it. (Best to do this on a hard surface). If you can, let the tire sit for a couple of hours before mounting and inflating but this isn't mandatory.


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mtnbud

Thanks guys! Sounds like it should be fairly easy for me to fix!