ptempel

Just watched a GCN video talking with Keith Bontrager.


In it he talks about his homemade sealant. Here's the recipe:

2 cups / 480 ml water
1 cup / 240 ml ethyelne glycol
1 cup / 240 ml latex
2-3 tbs cornmeal or static grass

Anyone ever try this? Looks interesting but I haven't gone tubeless yet. Don't even know what "static grass" is. Will have to look that one up...

TimothyH

It will make the spokes fall out of your rims and then, as is typical of Keith Bointrager, he will blame the failure not on his poorly engineered product but on the rider, that you didn't rinse the salt off your rims after riding in winter or some such nonesense.

popeye

Oh, those paired spoke wheels with self ejecting spokes?

bobwysiwyg

I didn't know what static grass was either...

"Static grass is used in model railroading and miniature wargaming to create realistic looking 'grass' textures. It consists of small threadlike particles charged with static electricity, making it stand up when glued to a surface."

ptempel

Interesting that it can be used instead of cornmeal. I wonder if Bontrager made this up himself or got it from another biker geek.

gsa103

Most likely something he had lying around. The mountain bikers have a wide variety of junk that they toss in the sealant to help it clump better for larger holes. Glitter is another popular option.

chaadster

The Bontrager commercial sealant seems to have a fine glitter particulate in it.

Pendergast

I was slightly amused when GCN was talking about fit and showed a graphic of knee over pedal spindle. Bontrager wrote a fairly well-known article debunking that.

ptempel

The video was really too short and glossed over a few things that could have been developed more. They could easily have made an entire episode or two with Bontrager. I think he's an interesting character.

indyfabz

I had a set of new tubleless tires installed a few weeks ago. The shop actually charged me for sealant this time. It was $4, or $2 a tire. For that price, I am not going to bother making my own.

gsa103

For 1-2 bikes it doesn't make sense. If you're maintaining a fleet (or family) then the $2/tire every 2-3 months starts to add up pretty quickly, especially for mountain or fat bikes which take 2-4x sealant. It looks like Bontrager probably uses the stuff by the gallon.

indyfabz

Two to three months? People add new sealant that often. I only get it when I get new tires, which is about once/year. Been riding tubeless for years and never had a problem with that frequency. Indeed, punctured just before I got my new tires. Sealant hadn't been added since last year. Puncture sealed. I didn't even realize I had punctured until I stopped, looked down, and noticed some liquid on my front brake.

Hiro11

GCN: so Keith, what are your maintenance tips?

KB: actually, if a bike fits I don't really care if it works. In fact, I'm terrible at maintenance.

GCN: ... ... ok then.

therh

Ya, I don't know where that guys mind set is. I mean I think he just likes money coming in, and if it doesn't work, get a new bike.

SpeshulEd 

There are several sealant "recipes" on a certain well known mtbr message board.

SpeshulEd 

This kind of depends on where you live and the makeup of the sealant.

With Stans, I get maybe 2 months tops out of sealant before it starts to clump in the Phoenix summers, in the cooler months, I can easily go the entire winter without putting sealant in the tires.

I've heard orange seal is better in the heat, but after having such negative experiences with their tape and stems, I have no real interest to try their sealant.

indyfabz

Interesting. I always assumed it would last longer in the heat and that cold would make it clump up or harden.


Orange Seal is what is on the receipt I got from my mechanic/frame builder. Had never heard of the stuff before. I just hand him the wheels and let his people take care of things since he never charges me for mounting the tires. Before his former manager left to start his open his own shop I never got charged for sealant either.

Darth Lefty 

It would take you a long time to read that whole MTBR thread but fortunately it's pretty easy to find the nut. The recipe needs latex, antifreeze, ammonia, and some solids. All the rest of it is people trying things, suggesting things, looking for sources, asking for help and getting it. Really, it's a gem of Internet cooperation.

SpeshulEd 

I bet the extreme cold would probably do the same as the heat, maybe?

We're talking Phoenix weather here, haha...the Stans seems to like being stored at room temperature. The 110 degree heat out in the bike shed just doesn't cut it.

The amount of riding the wheels see might have some affect as well. My mountain bikes are hung up for most of the summer because it's too hot to ride dirt. Without the swishing around, it seems to dry up even faster.

Maybe I'll buy a bottle of orange seal next and see how it goes. I've heard reports from others that it works better in the Phoenix heat.

gsa103

Nah, he just rides his bike. He mentioned that many frequent bike riders are very tolerant of imperfect shifting, etc. He's experienced enough to know the difference between annoying and dangerous issues.

DXchulo

Orange Seal has glitter in it.

chaadster

I think it also depends, and perhaps primarily, on the porosity of the tire.

Some tires, like the Schwalbe One and IRC Roadlight, utilize butyl liners which retain air very well. Others, like the IRC Formula Pro Light, may use different casing liner materials other than butyl (e.g. IRC NR-Tex) or no casing liner at all, like the Schwalbe Pro One, either of which will diffuse air more quickly through the casing.

I suppose temperature and initial setup volume of sealant are factors, too, but if you want to reduce the service interval, butyl lined are the way to go irrespective of those factors.

SpeshulEd 

That makes sense, it always seems to dry up fastest in my tires that aren't tubeless ready.

1242Vintage

Just for kicks a while back i made my own sealant with glitter. Then I made the I'll fated decision and bought what I thought was a tubeless tire. It wasn't. End of the story was I blew the tire off the rim with a huge bang at about 70 psi and along with it the sealant with green glitter all over Garage walls, ceiling, and of course my wife's white car.

That was the end of my experiment with homemade sealant.

Now I just buy a small jug of Stans sealant and it's all good.