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So I have a cut about 5mm long that won't seal permanently. It's fine to ride on for a couple of hours, but loses pressure when parked up unless the wheel is positioned so the cut is at the bottom of the tyre so the goo pools around it. It's only 6 weeks old so not keen to scrap it - is there a repair option ?
Dental floss and needle stitch it up
Get onto CRC, buy a tubeless repair patch (on the inside of the tyre), and it'll be good as new.
DrP
weldtite worms
weldtite worms
Yeah, actually try these first as 5mm is pretty small..
(Get onto eBay and buy motorbike worms/anchovies, then cut them in half...austerity etc etc!)
DrP
I used thread and a patch on a cut that was about 13mm long... Oddly it survived all 100miles of the SDW BEFORE the patch, but was literally maintaining pressure via a 'latex bubble' coming from the gash!
Yup, patch on the inside. Doesn't need to be anything special, a normal large patch out of a puncture repair kit will work providing you do a few things. First, roughen the area with sand paper and make sure any ribbing or other moulded in texture is removed, then clean it very thoroughly with meths. Let it dry then smear a thin layer of vulcanising solution on the inside of the tyre, let it get dry to the touch, add another thin layer and this time just as the vulcanising solution has got so dry to the touch that you'd think it'll never work, peel the backing off and stick the patch on. Rub it down very, very thoroughly and leave it to dry for an hour or so. Job done.
Worms are best. dont even need to take the tyre off to fix, i have a few in my Hans Dampf where i had a nail stuck through.
Thanks guys. STW rides to the rescue again.
I fixed a small cut by super gluing a small square of inner tube to the inside and then filling in the split from the outside with more superglue. Has held up really well, I haven't died yet.
I do the same as GaryLake for all the cuts on my tubeless tyres. Old inner-tube cut to ~2"x2" and superglued on top of the cut (Sidewall or tread) and a bit of gaffa tape to secure. I also haven't died.....yet.
The issue I have had with repairs is that to seat my tyres properly I have to pump them to almost 80psi. This means any tyre repairs have to be super tough as splits will open up under this presure.
The last repair I did was for a cm long cut. I used a car tyre patch - mutch bigger and thicker than a bike one. This looked like it was still bulging out above 50psi so I cut out a section of an old road bike tyre and glued it onto the back of the patch for re-inforcement. So far so good.
I've always just used a patch inside the tyre
http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/tubeless-tire-mounting-and-repair
I couldn't get the weldtite worms to work at all - perhaps the presence of Stans' prevented the glue from bonding? But a normal patch stuck on the inside of the tyre seems to work fine. The need to thoroughly clean the inside of the tyre with sandpaper / isopropyl alcohol means that's hardly a 'trailside' option mind you.