MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I've had a Dynaplug Racer as part of my roadie back-pocket gear for ages, used maybe once and it does exactly what I want it to in a very compact package. Hurrah.
Having only punctured on the gravel bike quite rarely, and having reviewed the amount of crap I cart around with me, I got another Dynaplug setup for that. Just in time for me to start pinchflatting nearly every damn ride! Now the system still works perfectly, but I'm finding the cost of the plugs quite offensive (costing me £4/puncture at the mo) - it's fine for occasional use, but not for the quantity I'm getting through!
So are there any knockoff plugs that work, or other hacks that bypass having to use the official Dynaplug ones? It feels like the kind of thing that should be available from ebay, but nothing coming up unless I'm searching the wrong thing. Yes, I'm aware that by using fakes I'm depriving them of payment for their intellectual property, but they've had quite a lot of cash from me already in the tools themselves...
(I'm hopefully sorting out something to reduce the flats, and there's always the option to go back to anchovy kits, but the Dynaplug setup is very fast and convenient)
Thanks
I've got one of the cheap anchovie and prong kits from ebay which was less than a fiver. It comes in a small plastic box like a puncture repair kit and fits in almost any small pocket.
It's not glamorous like an anodised suppository but I've only used it once and that was to fix a puncture on the car. Dynaplugs are nice but as you say, very expensive per use.
I use anchovies, but only ever as an insurance policy. If you're puncturing enough that £4 each time is a genuine concern, surely you need to beef up your tyres (or inserts)?
FWIW I have an anchovy pre-loaded in my OneUp EDC. I can't imagine anything could fix a tyre quicker than that.
I thought the spare plugs were £1.60-2.00 not £4 - no?
Guessing that he needs 2x per pinch.
Inserts/beefier tyres/increase tyre pressure would all be higher on my list than cheaper plugs.
I thought the spare plugs were £1.60-2.00 not £4 – no?
Yes - but 2 plugs for every flat - 1 in the tread, 1 in the bead.
If you’re puncturing enough that £4 each time is a genuine concern,
£12 this last week. Gets irritating quite quickly!
surely you need to beef up your tyres (or inserts)?
Agreed - on it - just wondering if there was a cheaper way to do *actual* dynaplugs.
I've got anchovy kits - still use them on the MTBs as historically that's where I puncture most, but even with one preloaded, it's still a fag trying to fiddle the second one onto the fork (I only ever pinch - very rare I have issues with thorns), dick around with glue, and the whole package is much bulkier. Much better for dealing with big holes though, and I've no qualms about stuffing multiple ones into a hole until it's sealed, whereas £2 a dynaplug brings out the natural yorkshireman in me.
Wait, you're puncturing three times a week on a gravel bike?
Wait, you’re puncturing three times a week on a gravel bike?
You see why I'm starting to get grumpy with it?
To be fair - 3 in 8 days. Last Saturday coming down Coombsdale, Tuesday dropping off the Moss Road into Totley, yesterday doing the Hardcore 100 and on the only bit of singletrack I got a clear run at.
All front wheel pinches, all on "tired" trails where the fines have been washed out and it's just rubble remaining. Try and carry speed, stay loose, flow like a mountain biker, work the bike, and not be a stiff-back mincing dirt roadie, then sit at the side of the trail as all the stiff-back mincing dirt roadies ride past you (very slowly) with air still in their tyres.
I'm 10stone; 650x47 tyres; 32psi front, 40 rear. Same wheels & (type of) tyres I've been using for the past 3 years (with only the odd flat when I do something obviously stupid), just they've swapped from being on a flat bar bike to a drop bar one.
See also here
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/tougher-650b-gravel-tyres/
muc off are doing a kit built into the bar end plug, rats tails and insertion tool in one side and knife to cut off in the other side.
Linky:
https://muc-off.com/products/stealth-tubeless-puncture-plug
Can't see the rats tails listed there though. Must be somewhere on their site.
Sure your pressure gauge is correct? That sounds like a lot of pressure for such a big tyre for your weight. I'm a little less (I think) but run considerably less pressure in 700x40 and 700x38 on my Datum, and approx 28 rear, 25 front on 52mm Mezcals on the Pubesmobile.
32psi front
If I was puncturing, I would steadily increase the pressure until I wasn't any more.
If I then found the ride too hard, I would get a bigger or tougher tyre.
32psi doesn't sound extreme for a 47mm tyre, but I would personally never take what it 'should' do over what it actually does.
I haven't heard of a dynaplug knockoff - probably too small a market to make it worthwhile - it'd end up at similar cost. I've never been able to get my head around leaving a bit of metal inside my tyre personally.
Conversely I'd probably want more pressure on those sorts of trails if I was going to hit them at any speed. 32psi in a road-carcass tyre isn't that much IME, even if they are chunky. But on the other hand I probably wouldn't ride my gravel bike there either 😛
I just lost my dynaplug racer but have plugs left. I thought about slotting them in to some other inserting device. It seems like they will fit in an old tubeless valve ok. Should give enough purchase to push through. I guess someone could measure the dimensions of the metal inserting tube and just find something same size and like stick a cork on the end or something. Not as neat but equally not £30?
Would car plugs work ? - Seem much cheaper for the quantity of plugs you get.
IMO the car plug style noodle things are far inferior to the dynaplug setup which although expensive work. Particularly in high pressure tyres I have found the noodle ones don't stay in very well.
If you want cheap dynaplug refills you could always re-use old ones like this guy, though not sure anyone could be arsed with that!
I’ve got one of the cheap anchovie and prong kits from ebay which was less than a fiver. It comes in a small plastic box like a puncture repair kit and fits in almost any small pocket.
It’s not glamorous like an anodised suppository but I’ve only used it once and that was to fix a puncture on the car. Dynaplugs are nice but as you say, very expensive per use.
+1, big chunky ones for the MTB, small fiddly ones for the gravel/road bikes. Ive not found a cheap source of the small ones though so it's about 80p/puncture.
2 punctures in <5 hours is unlikely enough that saving the re-threading for a cafe stop isn't a problem. The whole kit, Inc glue, 2x different forks, large reamer, and tube patches fits in one of the large puncture repair kit boxes.
I use one of these for my gravel bike -
You can also get them in a Dynaplug style pill thing-
They take big old car tyre plugs, and cut the hole so it's big enough to take it. They work great and you get around 30 strips per sheet of the plugs when you cut them down to bike size-
I was puncturing around 3 times a week on my gravel bike but now I run cheap wire bead Bontrager GR1 comp tyres at 50psi and they are great. The low TPI means the threads seem to be chunkier and tougher. I've had one pinch flat on them in the last year. It might be worth stopping using posh tyres with high TPI and flimsy threads and using cheaper tyres. They still work fine tubeless (although they're only available in 700c sizes).
I just suffered my first puncture on my gravel-ish bike (cross bike) after switching to tubeless a few weeks ago. I had to use a tubeless plug for the first time* (I have the Lezyne pill shaped one linked above).
Maybe it was user error, but I found with the tyre pretty much deflated I had to unseat the bead so that I could move the tyre across, otherwise I would have been stabbing my rim & rim tape with sharp end of the plug applicator - am I doing something wrong? This is with 35 mm tyres.
*I've never actually had to use one before at all - that's after 11 years of tubeless-ness on the mountain bike.
I bought a pack of wormy/sticky things from a auto place a few years back.
Cut them in half and they fit in my old puncture repair kit.
In fact, Decathlon do a little kit. A few quid and then bulk buy some of the worms.
Maybe it was user error, but I found with the tyre pretty much deflated I had to unseat the bead so that I could move the tyre across, otherwise I would have been stabbing my rim & rim tape with sharp end of the plug applicator – am I doing something wrong?
Possibly you were too slow off the mark? They only really work if the tyre has some substance to it. On the MTB with dual-ply tyres it's usually not an issue but on a floppy-tyred gravel bike you have to get the tool in there before all the air has escaped.
Possibly you were too slow off the mark? They only really work if the tyre has some substance to it. On the MTB with dual-ply tyres it’s usually not an issue but on a floppy-tyred gravel bike you have to get the tool in there before all the air has escaped.
This +1
The idea of dynaplug is you can get it out of your pocket and shove it in the tyre before enough air escapes for it to be a problem carrying on riding, hence the "racer" marketing. And hence why us cheapskates keep an anchovie pre-loaded, it's not quite as quick but quick enough keep enough air in the tyre to make it to the mid-ride stop / end of the ride.
Right. Will try and be quicker off the mark next time! I was wondering why I could feel moisture on my calf and was looking round thinking "can't see any puddles, and it doesn't look like it's raining".
I don't think it helped that whatever sealant Hunt set up tubeless with seemed to do nothing of the kind!
Stans Race seems to do a good job at higher pressures. The downside is it can't be applied via a syringe into the valve, you have to pop the bead off and pour directly from the bottle (even doing it into a cup seems to leave half the fibres behind stuck to the cup).
Never found anchovies to be any use with a road bike tubeless set up anyway.
The stans sealant alone did better than the anchovies fitted.
Dynaplug did work though.
Doubt I'll ever rely on anchovies on my road or gravel bike again. Be cheap on the MTB just .
That's a lot of punctures! Not wanting to tempt fate, but I can count the number of punctures I've had in the last couple of years on one hand - road and MTB, and the MTB one was a bent rim caused by running too low pressure.
That said, last week I succumbed to the shiny object draw of a dynaplug "anodised suppository" so I can stop carrying a tube (although I'll probably still carry a tube!)
Pretty sure there are no 'Dynaplug plug knockoffs or hacks' so I don't think you have any choice on that front other than to carry on with Dynaplug or switch to a cheaper alternative that maybe isn't as effective.
The main issue is the number of flats you are getting, especially as you seem to be saying they are a double snake bite punctures - You have something very wrong going on there.
If your using 6 a week your tyre will very rapidly consist of nothing but Dynaplugs 🙂 But seriously with that rate of punctures you tyre will be pretty unusable very quickly I would have thought regardless of what type of 'Noodle' you use.