lupo68288

The question is sel explained. I wonder what Sealants they use if they ride their Bikes tubeless.

Maelochs

Whichever company will supply sealant in exchange for a decal on the bike or jersey, I'd imagine.

Iride01 

If you'd put your question in this other sub-forum, you might have got attention from just the people that will answer more seriously. Professional Cycling For the Fans

You can find the standard equipment used by teams here.... https://www.procyclingstats.com/teams.php

After selecting a team, then go to the <more> tab. Not the one in the black band at the top, but the more on the line below and select <Gear> from the drop down box.

No sealant's listed. Maybe eventually that'll get added as tubeless becomes even more entrenched. You can also become a member at that site and maybe add the info if you happen to be at a race and see what the mechanic's are using as they prep the bikes pre-race.

wheelreason

I don't know, but I would suspect that they use whatever sealant they find to work best. Unlike wheels, pedals and other sponsored items that can't be really hidden or disguised easily, it would be easy to be sponsored by one brand, and use another. When I worked with the equipment of professional athletes (in another sport) this sort of thing went on all the time. I will also say that most times for the average enthusiast, using what the pros use isn't a good idea.

chaadster

It’s highly likely that EF/EasyPost team uses Muc-Off, as tou can see from the vid below that they are the service truck sponsor and that the tubeless wheels seen in the truck use MucOff’s trademark pink colored valve stems.

msu2001la

Agree. Pro teams will often run "non-sponsor correct" equipment with blacked out logos if they think it'll work better for them. Tires often fall into this category - teams will run whatever tire they want and just use a sharpie to black out the logos if it conflicts with one of their sponsors.

I have to assume things like chain lubes/wax and tire sealant are tested and used based on performance, regardless of who's sponsoring the team.

wolfchild

What difference does it make what the pros use or do ?

icemilkcoffee 

They will most likely use the sponsors' bottles. But inside those bottles they will for sure use whatever they have had success with.

Because the pro-teams have done way more study with the different sealants than you and I.

Leisesturm

The little I know about pro road-racing comes from the days when, if a rider flatted, a team mechanic quickly got a new wheel/tire combination into the bike and the rider was back to it with as little time lost as possible. Has that changed? Are pro roadies now using the kinds of tires and pressures that allow sealant to work in the way most of you use it? My gut says no. My educated guess says pro teams are not using much, if any, sealant in tubeless race tires, because if they flat, wheel/tire replacement has still got to be faster than finishing on a tire that is 10psi to 20psi down from optimal because of a (self sealed) puncture.

msu2001la

Does it have to make a difference?
I haven't ever thought about sealant specifically, but generally speaking I find it interesting to see what kind of equipment the pro teams are using. I don't think it has much impact on the equipment I choose to buy as a consumer, it's just cool to see what the latest tech is and what kind of setups pro teams are running, what they're experimenting with, etc.

Maelochs

This is an interesting thought. Tire pressure is really important to racers .... It would be much faster to change a wheel at the top of a mountain than to limp down on a half-deflated tire.

I don't Know .... but based on @Leiseturm 's post, i kind of doubt sealant would be used ---- just excess weight. However .... sealant might be used to keep the tire aired up enough to keep it on the rim until a replacement could be made .... having a tire come completely off the rim would be disastrous.

Hmmmmm ..... who knows pros? Guessing has pretty much reached its limit I think.

Koyote

Decals and jerseys notwithstanding, I'd guess that the top pros still use any sealant they prefer in their own tires. I mean, who's gonna know?

Remember that, back in the day, Team 7-11 rode on frames labelled "Huffy."

msu2001la

I'd be surprised if any pro teams are running tubeless setups without sealant. The main benefit over tubulars is the flat protection. They'll still swap bikes/tires if there's pressure loss, but being able to continue riding until there's a good time to do that swap is a major benefit.

Most (if not all) pro teams are running tubeless for the majority of stage races now:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features...hat-with-what/

msu2001la

I have a feeling these setups are tested extensively by the teams during off-season training and doubt the riders themselves actually get much of a say in what type of sealant goes into their tires.

Koyote

You could be correct. If they are running their own sealant choices (rather than a sponsor's choice), we'd never know.

L134 

I was watching a replay of the last monument race of the year and Phillipo Ganna flatted with his tubeless and had to stop and take a neutral service vehicle wheel rather than continue until the team car could get to him. Moments later, another rider flatted with his tubeless and it appeared one of the beads had come off the rear rim and he almost went down while trying to ride it. The commentator, Brian Smith I think, was saying "just stop! Please stop!" He did. Not being a star, the camera cut away and we didn't see how his situation played out. There was no mention of sealant. Of course, what went through my mind was "I thought tubeless wasn't supposed to flat??"

veganbikes

Like others have said probably whatever but we tend to use Orange Seal at two of the shops I have worked at, it seems to do a good job and is made in 'Murica,

In terms of what the pro's use it matter only to a slight point. Most riders will never do what the pros are doing and the pros have team cars and a lot of support behind them so if something goes wrong they are getting a new bike or wheel or something and they have budgets to experiment but also sponsors to appease. Not saying they don't run good equipment but they may not run good equipment for the average cyclist who doesn't have a team truck with pro-mechanics and massive budgets.

For me personally road tubeless has a way to go before I would want to use it. Gravel and MTB stuff is great but skinny tire high pressure stuff could use some more refinement for me. I am not opposed to it but I think a big part is running lower pressures which I wouldn't want as much on a road bike. Sure there is some puncture sealing which is great but honestly the lower pressures are the thing for me and I don't want super low pressures on skinny road tires.

Mtracer

Keep in mind that what may be optimum in a race is not necessarily optimum for the average Joe rider. In a race, I would expect you'd want the very best sealant for plugging leaks even if it meant easily clogging a value core. Or a sealant that may work really well, but dry up rather quickly. For the average Joe, there's a balance we want so that we don't have to service our tires daily, other than adding some air.

My experience with road tubeless is most leaks drop very little pressure. I'm only aware I've had a leak if I find some dried sealant on my bike. I would assume a pro rider is sensitive enough to tire pressure that they would know when it is too low and they need to swap wheels. But I'd bet plenty of them finish a race never knowing they punctured.

I think road tubeless is great. 28 mm is a common road width these days. And optimum tire pressures are in the range of 60-75 PSI. So, while much higher than MTB and higher than 40 mm gravel tires, it's certainly not high pressure by traditional road standards. Rolling resistance is quite likely much lower overall on a variety of road surfaces, and likely only a very slight penalty on super smooth surfaces.

You might be interested in this video from NorCal Cycling. They ran some real-world runs on their bikes to see if lower tire pressure made any measurable difference in time over a course. Spoiler, it didn't. Conclusion was the lowest pressure (50 PSI) ran great, but wouldn't use in a race (they do crits) for concern of rolling a tire in a corner.

Branko D

Pro teams juggle a lot of bikes, and keeping sealant fresh in all of them is too much logistically. Hence they use tubeless liners a lot, spare bikes / wheelsets might not have any sealant bar the minimum just to fit the tire.

They don't cause any extra rolling resistance, add minimal weight and enable you to ride with a puncture.

surak

Pro teams aren't as smart as people want to give them credit for when it comes to new tech. I've both read and heard that some teams use (arguably less than) the bare minimum of sealant because they're still overly obsessed with weight, and you can look at some of the flats that happened at the most recent Paris-Roubaix for instances where the tires came off because no tire liners were used. They'll eventually catch up with mainstream cycling -- it took them a while to adopt tubeless 28mm and wider tires.

PeteHski

This^
Ineos rider Luke Rowe commented on his podcast about some teams being stupid for not running liners at Paris Roubaix, in a vain effort to save maybe 1W of power.

The funniest part was that Geraint Thomas wasn’t even aware that his team was using liners. Pro riders are not all focused on the tech. Some just ride and leave it to the engineers.

msu2001la

EF's team mechanic discussed this on a podcast a few years ago and said they were running inserts with minimal sealant, but I thought I had read/heard that they stopped using the inserts because riders didn't like how the tires felt. I don't think this is common among the pro peloton, but maybe you have more info than I do on this topic.

I don't really see how sealant would be a logistical problem. I doubt they keep tires on wheels long enough for sealant to dry out. It's not like they mount up a bunch of wheels in the spring and then run them all season - these guys are likely running brand new tires for every race.

msu2001la

I'm not saying they're wrong, but pro riders chirping about the supposed dangers of tubeless tires reminds of me when they were all claiming that disc brake rotors were dangerous because they would cut people's fingers off during a crash.

Branko D

Riders can be a superstitious lot. The kind of inserts which shrink under pressure, I don't see how you can feel it unless the tire is punctured.. well, except by someone telling you it's there. Then you can not like the feel. I use them and I can't feel the difference.

Anyway, a team is going to have a lot of spare wheelsets and a lot of spare bikes, and I don't think tire spomsors are going to be thrilled if they throw away hundreds of perfectly fine tires, not to mention the extra labour.

SW84

After reading this thread I think I'll start stocking up on tubes and tires, just in case all the mfr's goes tubeless......