Tufo question

[Mud]

I have been very happy using the Tufo 215 gram tires. They sound weird but they seem to be more than a match for the crap left on the North Jersey roads.

I am not a minimalist, but short of having our own team car to follow us on rides I do carry enough stuff to change or seal a tire, until I noticed something on Biketiresdirect.com. There is a little tool for removing the valve stem to add sealant to the tire. I honestly did not know the stem was removable.

Anyone with some wise words concerning removing the stem would be most appreciated, and of course, how it works with using the sealant. :confused:

Bruce

[11.4]

The little black plastic Tufo wrench tends not to be strong enough to remove a valve core that's tightened well. The wrench simply deforms. Plus, you need one wrench to hold the valve stem, another to hold the core. The idea is more that you put the sealant in when you mount the tire on the rim, and from then on you have the protection. If you have a puncture, you might hear a quick psst and see a little spray of some of the sealant before it closes the cut. You'll lose 5-10 psi if everything goes right, but you can keep riding reasonably.

You definitely want to remove the core before adding the liquid Tufo sealant; otherwise it either just clogs up immediately in the valve assembly or it causes the valve to glue itself together afterwards. Personally, I've tried to work with this stuff quite a bit, and always found that at low pressures (like in cyclocross) it works great, but above 90 psi or so, it becomes increasingly unreliable. It may get you home, but it isn't a permanent tire fix, and it may not get you home. If you think about how it works, it remains liquid inside the tire until it coats the edges of a cut and sticks them together. If the tire is thin, or the cut is at all large, it either doesn't seal or doesn't seal 100%. So you may have a slow leak, a big leak, or it may work, but potentially pop free later. It'd be nice if this kind of product could really work on high-end road tires, but I haven't seen it yet.

The plus of the Tufo S3 Lite's is that they give a decent ride with amazing puncture resistance. They put up with just about any road hazard. So I'd suggest you simply carry a spare. Tufo's can't be repaired with the usual patch method, so if you can re-seal a punctured tire it might serve as a spare. Hobson's choice. If you don't know how to repair a tubular, or don't want to, it's academic and the Tufo is just fine. If you are OK working with a needle and thread, you could look at other tires as well.

Tufo is great for not being averse to new ideas and trying to find better solutions for tire problems. If the sealant works for you, I'd definitely encourage you to use it.

[Mud]

I am a belt and suspenders person. I have the sealant and we carry a spare for each bike. The bags are ugly but I see where Wallingford has a new one that is nice. At some point I will get two of the super light tubies to carry as spares rather than the 300 gram whatevers we have now. But after all the grief with flats with clinchers I am happy with the Tufos. Hopefully no rain tomorrow. I will have to be off the bike for a while after that but the end result will be worth it.