Tubeless tyres are great things and once they’re mounted and lined with juice, they’re reasonably impervious to the rocks and thorns of the world. However, sometimes they do get a flat and there are several ways to fix it. Sometimes a bit of jiggling of the tubeless fluid around and over the hole can get it to seal, but sometimes you have to admit defeat and throw in a tube. Sometimes it won’t seal because all your fluid has dried up into little Stan’s Monsters, but other times, the hole is just too big to seal.
Putting a tube into a tubeless tyre often leaves you and the tube covered in tubeless slime as you’ll have to pull it out again to re-tubeless the tyre, so a couple of companies have developed tubeless repair kits that can be done trailside without removing the tyre (and breaking the all-important bead seal).
The Genuine Innovations kit is the most stripped down of those available, consisting of a tiny fondue-fork tool and what looks like five, 5cm bits of rubbery, hairy string (or ‘anchovies’). However, these really can save your bacon on the trail (and have done so for me).
Find the hole. Stick a pointy tool or small hex key in to make sure you’ve got a clean hole, load up a bit of rubbery string in the tool, smear a little glue around the hole to taste and plunge it, fondue-style into the hole. The tool will come out, leaving a loop of rubbery string inside the tyre and two ends poking out. Job done, tyre sealed. You can trim the ends if you have a knife, or leave them to erode. I’ve fixed several tyres this way, usually when time was of the essence, and I’m a convert.
Overall: The cleverest little accessory you possibly didn’t know about. Essential trail spares.
Review Info
| Brand: | Genuine Innovations |
| Product: | Tubeless Repair Kit |
| From: | Zyro, zyro.co.uk |
| Price: | £4.99 |
| Tested: | by Chipps for Five months. |
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Correction. These don’t actually need glue, they’re pre glued. Some other kits do need vulcanising fluid. If you want to keep it tight and light in a pocket, they will fit in the little plastic test tube type container that my kids glitter shakers come as, available from craft shops. That way, it keeps the adhesive strips dry and functional, and more importantly the little fondue fork isn’t going to puncture your kidneys in a crash! Great for racing with a co2 capsule.
haven’t tried this kit… but right now both of my main rides have several sticking out of the tyres… some have been there already 1000km or more so they last well. (also for bigger holes the ‘worms’ designed to fix 4×4 car tyres work well too)