Feeling Flat? 12 Tubeless Repairs that nearly all work

Back in the not so dim and distant past, when it came to repairing punctures, life was pretty simple. Pull out your half deflated tube, pore over it to find the offending hole (or two if you had experienced a pinch flat), open your Chemco puncture tin, look at the stub of crayon and strange Woods Valve section of rubber hose before tossing them to the side, roughen up the hole with that peculiar piece of rough metal that could double as a cheese grater for The Borrowers, apply the glue, wait a bit, curse the patch as you struggled to get the backing off, put the patch on then put the tube back in the tyre. Of course, you didn’t really give the glue enough time to cure and thus had to repeat the process. Well, that or you missed the tiny pin prick hole which meant it was time to get the car wash bucket out from the garage as you went dooking for air bubbles.

Did I say simple? Clearly I meant infuriating. And don’t get me started on the trauma that is fixing a tubular tyre. That’s a whole new level of frustration and creative misuse of the English language right there.

When tubeless came onto the scene, some of us (well, perhaps only me) rejoiced at the thought of no more tubes to fix. I was an early adopter. Promises of supple tyre casings and the ability to run my tyres at a lower pressure didn’t float my boat. Rather, the thought of a tyre that self-seals and only requires a quick blast from a mini pump to get back on the trail was the clincher for me. No more (mostly) unintentional glue sniffing, no more wondering who still uses Woods Valves, no more manky hands from wrestling off a dog poo laden tyre on a cold and wet February night ride.

No siree, tubeless was destined to be more futuristic than garlic bread. Except, of course, it just brought a whole new set of issues, particularly when it came to cuts in the tyre that sealant couldn’t cope with. With this in mind, I set out to see whether there are any quick fixes that could be cobbled together out on the trail. Read on, dear reader, and let me take you on a journey of discovery.

1. The Traditional Approach

In the interests of scientific rigour, I had to set my control marker. For this I employed the services of the curiously named Maxalami’s tubeless repair set (Not as curious as how it sounds – Max Salami – Ed). Comprising two different sizes of sticky repair strips (Like salamis perhaps? –Ed) and a pronged mini screwdriver style poker, the means of repair is simple. Find the hole (that can be the difficult part, particularly when the wind and rain are blowing in sideways such that even Peter Parker with his Spidey Sense would struggle to see the gently bubbling sealant escaping from the tyre and hear the tell-tale hiss of air as your tyre embarks its inexorable journey to floppy despair), put the sticky strip in the middle of the hole, force it through the hole et voila! Job done.

Now for most folk, that would be the end of it but when I was challeng to find an alternative repair that would work just as effectively, I considered the gauntlet thrown down. My inner Professor Heinz Wolff spark was ignited. I was determined that I would find a solution and claim my place in the pantheon of great minds of our time. Ok, maybe not the pantheon but definitely more Joey Tribiani than Joey Essex!

2. The Plastic Bank Note

This I approached with particular apprehension. After all, bank notes do not grow on trees and with the sad demise of the pound note (still good for confusing London shopkeepers who sometimes mistake them for fivers – not that I would ever do that), I was forced to use a new plastic five pound note. Carefully removing it from the glass presentation display case chez Sanny, remembering of course to switch off the motion activated laser detection system and deactivating the homing beacon, I took it out on the trail. As a true Scotsman with a touch of Yorkshire in him, I like to treat every five pound note like a dear and trusted friend, albeit a friendship based on what might be regarded as a little bit of clingy stalkery-ness.

“Would this work?” I thought as I gently pushed the middle of the fiver into the hole. Funnily enough, no it didn’t! While I was able to gently force the fiver into the hole, the plasticised outer simply didn’t have enough grip to stay in place. It was a valiant attempt but it ended in failure. On the plus side, at least the tubeless sealant washed off easily enough!

3. The Pipe Cleaner

Readers of a certain vintage will no doubt recall the pipe cleaner from the formative years of their childhood. Along with sticky backed plastic, it was a staple of Blue Peter projects and would inevitably be used in some festive candle holder involving wire coat hangers and tinsel. Wire on the inside and rough synthetic fibre on the outside, they look not dissimilar to sticky repair stripes. But do they work as well? Inserting it into the hole was remarkably easy. So far, so good. A jiggle of the tyre followed by a quick blast from my pump was all that it took to effectively seal the hole. In the interests of scientific rigour, I let the tyre stand for twenty four hours and when I returned to it, it was still inflated. Huzzah! Attempt 2 – Total success!

4. The Rubber Band

Readily available, cheap, coming in all manner of sizes and able to fit into pretty much any void, the humble rubber band was my ‘Most likely to succeed’ choice from the selection so far. Finding one that had been discarded by my local postie, I carefully eased the rubber band into the tyre sidewall. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite careful enough and managed to tear it. Bugger, I thought. Undeterred, a second attempt proved to be considerably more successful. Being made of rubber (who knew, eh?), it expanded to fill the void which enabled the sealant to do its job. It might look a bit Heath Robinson-y but it definitely works. 2 out of 3 – I was on a roll! So much so that I repeated the process using a slice of old inner tube. Guess what? It worked too! Huzzah!

5. The Used Gel Wrapper

Right. Hands up, this wasn’t my idea (thanks Hannah) but in the tradition of not knowing until you try, I sacrificed a gel in the name of scientific endeavour. Not being a fan of the cloying sickliness of energy gels even when caught in the unyielding grasp of hunger knock, it was hardly a tough ask. Squeezing the last of the evil concoction out of the wrapper (your view may, of course, differ from mine although you are probably, definitely, maybe wrong!); I pushed it in, sticky goo to the outside. It was all going so well right up to the point that the wrapper punctured. Repeated attempts proved equally fruitless leaving me with a deflated tyre and hands covered in sticky gel. Safe to say keep your gels for the bonk and not puncture repair.

6. Gorilla Tape

No fix it experiment of mine would be complete without recourse to the wonder material that is Gorilla Tape. Over the years I’ve used it for everything from emergency tyre boots to binding together a cracked rear hub. It’s one of those products that you somehow manage to find a whole load of unexpected uses for. But would it work with a tubeless tyre puncture? Just sticking it on the sidewall was, as you would expect, a waste of time. With only the adhesive strength of the tape to attach it, it was only a matter of time before it came off. On the inside as a tyre boot is a different matter but for the purposes of this experiment at least, that would be missing the point.

So sticky side to the outer, I proceeded to force it into the hole to see if it would work. It just about went in but the thickness of the material combined with the super sticky glue on the outside meant that I was on a hiding to nothing. The yellow bird of happiness had clearly left me only to be replaced by the blue chicken of despair.

7. Old School Puncture Kit

Ok so it isn’t exactly the norm but how about using a patch instead of a salami? Like a rubber band, it is, errrr, rubber (Good start – Ed), flexible and comes with a wee tube of glue that could potentially help seal it in place. Ignoring the fact that I was using the self-same puncture kit that tubeless was meant to eliminate, I selected a suitably large patch and applied it. Re-inflating the tyre, things were looking promising. The patch was holding, albeit with a bit of a bulge. Everything was going swimmingly until I rode the tyre at which point the patch blew off and I was back to square one. However, never one to be deterred, I tried using the patch as a plug and in this instance, it actually worked. Rather like the rubber band in fact, albeit a bit more footery (That’s Scottish for fiddley – Ed).

8. The Chocolate Bar Wrapper

Energy bar wrappers could also be used but when it comes to using something from the murky depths of your ride pack, let’s face it, you’re more likely to find an old Cadbury’s chocolate bar wrapper than some perfectly nutritionally balanced, pro vitamin, high carb slice of recycled cardboard. Taking one for the team, I forced myself to crack open a large bar of Cadbury’s finest confection. As it transpires, the wrapper was a total failure. Every time I tried to force it in the hole, the wrapper would tear. On the plus side, I wasn’t really caring as after a full bar of chocolate, I was rapidly approaching diabetic coma. The things I do for you, dear reader. No need for thanks, just send money.

9. The Yoghurt Pot Wrapper

Completely incapable of being recycled, the lids of LIDL Greek Yoghurt seem to be made from a mixture of kryptonite, cellophane, Kevlar and depleted uranium proof plastic. Ever tried to tear one with your bare hands? It is nigh on impossible. Which is what makes it potentially THE perfect repair material. Well it would except the tear strength doesn’t translate into screwdriver proof strength. Another attempt, another glorious failure.

10. The Hair Band

This was a bit left field but grabbing my daughter’s hair band (from her box of hair bands, not her head, I’m not a monster!), I popped it in the hole and to my delight, it just worked. I used a blue one but you can use any colour you want. Just don’t reuse it for hair after you get home otherwise you will have a long and awkward conversation about why your daughter has tubeless sealant in her hair.

11. The Self Tapping Screw

Ok so this is probably my most hair brained option but hear me out. The logic is actually pretty sound. Having punctured my car tyre by running over a screw, I found that I was able to get to the garage by skooshing in tyre sealand and leaving the screw in situ. Of course, this begs the question whether I could do something similar with a tubeless bike tyre. Finding a stubby, tapered self tapping screw, I set about carefully screwing it into the sidewall. Inflating the tyre to the point that I could ride it, I set off and found that it held air for a reasonable distance. Ok so it is nowhere near as effective as the rubber band or pipe cleaner technique but in an emergency, it may just get you home as long as you don’t try and ride too fast or hard.

12. The Nuclear Option

If all else fails, there is one option that will bail you out – the inner tube. Ok, ok, I know, it goes against the perceived simplicity of self-sealing tubeless solution but sometimes you have to just admit defeat and pop in an inner tube. Of course, you’ll end up looking like you’ve just escaped from an explosion at the Copydex factory (and smelling like it too) but if the alternative is the long walk home of despair; it’s a small price to pay. It works too!

So there you have it. Twelve ways (or not) to fix a tubeless puncture. As we have found out, you don’t necessarily have to use a dedicated tubeless puncture kit, but unless your name is Rick McGuyver, you’ll find life considerably easier with a dedicated tubeless repair tool. If you have one of them, chances are you will also have remembered to bring the tubeless salamis too. If you’ve got the right kit, you will of course use it but for that one time you forget them or run out of salamis, you’ll now know what works in an emergency.