Stans standard vs race Sealant

I use race and haven’t checked mine for months.

Not a direct answer to the question (sorry!) but it may be worth considering using tubes in that situation.

What about just using tubes if it rarely gets used? Maybe Slime Tubes?

I have standard Stan's sealeant and still need to top up the air once a month.

I used Race initially and its very good. Little loss of pressure and it seems to last for many months. I'm now using the ordinary as they had run out of Race when I last bought some. Still get some pressure loss so I check before each ride if its been more than a week or so.
Big advantage of the ordinary is that you can inject it through the valve. Race says not to do that although I never actually tried.

I find I need to top up my tyres everytime I ride - using Stan’s normal sealant - always lose a few psi. Found that over 5 years of tubeless with various brand rims / tyres / take etc.

I’ve not found normal stan’s dries out that quick but never tried race.

Used Stans Race for the last two years and it's been very good, previously used the Standard version. All punctures sealed and stayed sealed, did have two splits about a 1cm long which it didn't seal, but I patched the inside of the tyre and it's been ok since then.

Once left Stans Standard for 9 months without checking and it was fine and still plenty of fluid in the tyre.

For info I normally ride a couple of times a week, average ride 20-25 miles, mostly off road. The main puncture reason around my local trails is Blackthorn.

Big advantage of the ordinary is that you can inject it through the valve. Race says not to do that although I never actually tried.

I've tried and race will not physical pass through the injector.

As I've found out to my cost Stan's race certainly dries out a lot quicker than original, it certainly lasted longer than two weeks but not longer than two months. YMMV

I'd say mine lasted close to a year, maybe longer as it was a while ago now.

None of this is worth it for the price over caffelatex

I've been using Stans Race through a few bottles. Seems to be the only thing that will reliably keep road tyres from puncturing.

Not had any problems with it prematurely drying out, just topped up my bikes which I think were last done last August and they were still liquid inside.

The crystals look like a fine fiberglass or silica fibre? So no, they won't go through a syringe, the only way to add it is to break the bead off. Makes sense when you think that what you want it to do is seal a hole about the size of a syringe nozzle!

Infrequently used bikes though, just use tubes.

If its a road bike, waste of time going tubeless for the sake of a ride every coupe of weeks. Just put a tube in. Less hassle.

MTB, IMHO stans is poop. Never sealed anything properly for me. Orange seal I used for a while but Muc-Off has been the best by far. MTB’s lose about 5psi a month when left standing.

But FWIW, after 3 yrs of tubeless commuting, above 50psi on the road bike and nothing will seal a typical glass shard puncture. Seems the pressure is too high to let sealant do its job. Once pressure drops to less then it starts to seal. Only a plug combined with sealant seal works well on the road bike at what I consider road bike pressures. Everyone says “tubeless road bikes…great….can rhn at 50psi and feel the comfort.” For me, comfort for 5mins then an hour of smashing rims on potholes and worn out country lanes!

Best sealant experience I have had is with the OKO stuff, (Hi-fibre Magic Milk).  It's sealed a couple of punctures that I'm aware of, who knows how many I'm not. Have tried a variety over the years, from Stan's (dried out into 'bogies' too quick for me) through Orange Seal (great stuff and seems to last but a nightmare to clean off the inside of a tyre if you change), to Muc-Off (awful, didn't seal a thing and let air out almost as fast as I could put it in, wouldn't seal a tiny nick in the tyre that all the other sealants would have sealed no issue, likely without me even noticing.. oh and it turns into a nasty looking gelatinous goop inside the tyre, not quite liquid but not quite solid).

#EDIT : oh and I'd agree with others re. road tubeless, not worth the hassle. Feels lovely to ride on, possibly even nicer than latex tubes, until you puncture, sealant goes everywhere, hole doesn't seal or if it does the tyre is flat by then, and you have to clean goo out of your tyre at the roadside to fit a tube, or worse, endure dirty looks from SO after she had to stop what she was doing and come pick you up.!)

#EDIT2 : Sorry, forgot to mention that the OKO is still liquid and coating the inside of the tyre after up to a year in my experience.

I set my wife’s road bike up tubeless because she often rides on her own and struggles to replace tubes. No punctures in a couple of years. She weighs about 52kg so pressures are low at around 60psi. I’ve used standard stans and it’s lasted a long time, I probably check it ( break the bead ) every 6 months. I’ve used race on my road bike on the initial set up but topped it up with regular as i didn’t want to break the bead.

Thanks for the replies everyone! I guess my question is mainly why the Race dries out more quickly compared to standard while it shares the same base.

But it's good to know some people on this forum have no problems with the race for months!

I think i'll just put a lower amount of crystals in the tires and check what happens.

@ Claudie: thats also my reason I want to make her tires tubeless. So do you think the Race without the crystals is actually standards? And does the standard Stans even contain a visible amount of crystals!?

I set my sister up with tubes and proper puncture resistant tyres. She's not precious enough to notice any subtle deficiencies in ride quality, and has never had a puncture.

@ sjors, i don’t honestly know but I think it’s unlikely that stans would have developed two different formulations. I didn’t see any problems with mixing when I inspected it recently. I think this is the best belt and braces solution for road but I do find that regular stans works fine on road tubeless on 28mm min Gp5000 and Pirelli p zero tlr if the pressures are below 75 psi and will probably just stick with the regular for the future as its cheaper and one less thing to think about. But tubes / tubeless is a fine line, @ Montgomery above makes a good point ! There are some very good clincher tyres out there these days, I really like Pirelli 4s

I'm using Regular Stans on road with Pirelli P Zero TLR tyres. They hold air much better than the latex inner tubes I was using before. I did have a slow flat which I had to plug - possibly had I found it and left if with the hole at the bottom it might have finally sealed but I just plugged it with an anchovy. NB I don't run the tyres any higher than 55psi (front is 50 psi).

Road tubeless is a bit of an experiment for me, never had that many punctures with latex tubes (1-2 a year), so just giving it a go out of curiosity. I reckon over all weight is actually higher due to carrying CO2 cannisters and an innertube.

So do you think the Race without the crystals is actually standards? And does the standard Stans even contain a visible amount of crystals!?

Same basic liquid (it says so in the blurb). But the crystals are very different. You can't really even pour the Race stuff into a cup to measure because it'll leave a handful of what looks like chopped fiberglass behind. It's a case of shake the bottle and put a good glug straight in the tyre. The normal stuff just appears to have a bit of precipitate by comparison.

You could "filter" it, just pour it in slightly slower from the bottle so the crystals are at the bottom. But I don't see the point. If it's "drying out" at all I suspect it's just the added turbulence of the crystals causing quicker stanimal formation.

Quick thread hijack - Maxxis has started to recommend on their website not to use Stans or any other ammonia-containing sealant with their tyres due to the chance that it can weaken the rubber. Has anyone else seen / had issues with this?

Used the regular Stans with Schwalbe tyres for many years without issues. Sealed allsorts of punctures. Never felt the need to go with the more expensive Race version.

You got a link to that @devash

Maxxis used to sponsor a stans notubes team:
https://www.maxxis.com/int/maxxis-sponsors-stans-notubes-pivot-team/

So I don't buy it. It'll be companies being dodgy if they are - blaming sealant for poor manufacturing.

@chevychase good theory, you're probably right. Thought I'd seen that warning on the Maxxis site but I can only find it on some retail sites now;

R2 Bike - "Note: We strongly advise against using ammonia-containing sealant. Ammonia has been shown to attack the carcass and, depending on the amount used, can weaken it by up to 30% after only a few months."

Bike-Components.de - Note from the manufacturer:
Maxxis strongly advises against the use of ammonia-based sealant. Ammonia has been proven to attack the carcass and can weaken it by up to 30% after only a few months, depending on the amount used.
Maxxis recommends using Tire Plasma.

tbh it would be really worrying if ammonia is harmfull for the tires.. Almost hard to believe since it are all rubber / plastic like materials.

Btw to be clear my GF's setup will be Cross country MTB (2.25" schwalbe 27.5 inch tires).

I'll just remove the majority of the (big) crystals and see how durable this solution is.

Dunno, the only tyres I've had crack in a visibly worrying way were On-One's, which IIRC were made by CST (Maxxis is their western facing brand). That wasn't the sealent though, the spare set developed cracks just being stored.

There's always some scare story about some other sealant ingredients causing issues. If Stans was corroding tyres/rims someone would have noticed it by now, it's been the de-facto sealent for most people for 15+ years now.

If Stans was corroding tyres/rims someone would have noticed it by now, it’s been the de-facto sealent for most people for 15+ years now.

Yep, been using it with Maxis tyres for 10+ years....

Total random aside, Stans used one of my photos from the London Olympics for their Ad campaign that year...

[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/8440/7791054464_b14e9ae46f.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/8440/7791054464_b14e9ae46f.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/cStc4f ]This Ad will appear in Mountain Bike Action in September 2012[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

I read loads of threads on the two versions and ordered standard, plus a couple of syringes.

On arrival, they'd accidentally put a bottle of Race in the package. I'd timetable a space to do my wheels so just got on with it.

Using a syringe through the valves was near impossible. You need a second pair of hands to constantly unclog the end of the nozzle so you can suck up. Squirting it out is easier. Got there in the end. I'd poured liquid out into a container to work with and there were these huge chunks left as I removed the liquid.

I will be checking by cracking off a bead. Awkward with my rear wheel combination (Duroc SD42 and Maxxis Aggressor. Front has an Assegai) Probably going to have to do it quite often because of the sub-tropical climate where I am, and with Race formula supposedly drying out faster than Standard.

All in all though, first ever ride tubeless and it was fine. I was riding street: stair runs and drops. F27/R32 psi. Eyeing up Tannis Armour Tubeless for the rear wheel now (£40 over here)