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Plug for 'Dynaplug'
I recently made a purchase I am so happy about I though I needed to share with NoBMoB:
Anyone who has read my blogs knows a puncture ruins my races. I’m absolutely crap at getting a tube in and getting back on the bike. My usual process is I stop and turn the bike upside down then rotate the wheel so the hole is at the bottom and hold my finger over it in the hope the sealant will block it.
After a minute or so I can assess if this will work or whether I need to get a tube in. If the sealant works it is a temporary fix. If I need the tube in that’s when I break into a sweat as I know I’m in for considerable delay…
Firstly I always find my valve is glued in by sealant so need to search for a rock to bash it out. There are many people with strong hands who can pop a tyre on and off a rim without tyre leavers - not me! Once I finally get the tyre back on it’s gas time and then pack up all my crap before heading off. The usual delay is just under 15 mins.
A few months ago I received an email from Pushy’s advertising Dynaplug which is a system similar to what they use to repair punctures in car tyres. You basically push a gooyey rubber thing into the hole using a tool then when you pull it back out it leaves the hole blocked and is a permanent fix.
I looked at some reviews on YouTube and decided this would be ideal for me and has the added benefit of no longer needing to carry spare tubes. When I do the point to point enduro races like the recent Highland Fling I carry 2 spare 29” tubes plus enough gas to fill them both to say 35psi. All of that is weight plus takes up valuable pocket space or frame space when you also need to be carrying food and first aid kit.
So I did The Fling without any spares but deep down had the worry that if I did have a puncture would the system work like advertised?
Finally yesterday I was early into my training ride when I heard sealant spraying from my rear tyre. Within 1 minute I had the hole repaired and was riding again and only lost 2-3 psi so no need to use a gas bottle once the repair was done.
No more tubes for me!
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I was looking at the Samurai product that become your plug ends but my mate said his come loose after a few insertions and end up in the kit bag or jersey.
I'd not seen the Dynaplug product yet so thanks for posting, the bike version is very neat. I've also had many many stans fails with the smallest of tread punctures. My SS is currently sitting waiting for an internal patch for the tiniest hole that stans will seal for a week or so but every now and again it lets go. This is a much less time consuming process and I can justify the expense.
Ordering today...
Nice one @Fatboy - I'm taking these to the Cape Epic in a few months (60days, but who is counting?!) - haven't had to use them in anger yet, so its good to hear of positive stories.
So are you running a tubeless set up and plugging the tyre?
... there's not much point plugging the tyre if you've got a hole in your tube. It would only be worthwhile if you were tubeless.
Yes @ PedalPumped, I'm running tubeless. As @ Lach says it is designed to plug a tyre not a tube.
@antsonline - ah so all that altitude work on Strava recently in NZ then Falls Creek is Cape Epic prep? Good luck mate.
Do you keep using the tyre or is it just an emergency thing?
I wouldn't like to have some fancy carbon rims getting poked by a pointy metal thing through rocky sections. Wonder if it could void a warranty on a rim if they find marks from something like this?
According to the sales blurb @fairy1 once the hole is plugged it is a permanent fix just like car tyres.
Re the pointy comment they have the pointed inserts for alloy rims and a round version for carbon rims. I have both but the flat yesterday was on my alloy rims so haven't tried the carbon version yet.
Thanks @fatboy - yeah - I did a heavy block over the Xmas / NY break, and am just doing some pretty regular work until another big block over the Aus Day weekend.
Its a shameful admission, but I often forget to share things on here - I just use FB and Instagram etc. I will put something up on here if people are interested.
Its going to be my first ever race as a 'Master' - and we (my team mate and I) are planning some big things.
The training, and most importantly - the tech (we are a brand new bike - not available in Aus), usually is interesting for folk - so I will try to remember to share this stuff...
Would love to hear how you are preparing for the Epic! Looks like a bumper year in terms of entrants, some really interesting names.
I could never presume to give you advice but my top tip (after my DNF last year!) is watch out for food hygiene at the aid stations! Pretty sure that's what put me out of the race.
All i got from this is: Don't use sealant. Haha.
I suppose you could take the tyre apart later and remove the metal tip without compromising the repair. The ones I have for car repair don't have a metal tip and use a pointed hook thing to push the plug in. I have noted in the past that this kind of repair is not legal/suitable for on road motorbikes, and car repair places have refused to repair my motorbike tyres. I guess not considered reliable enough or deforms the tread pattern or something. Looks good for MTB though.
If you keep getting punctures I'd say you have the wrong product for the job.
What about a tougher UST tire?
No tube, no sealant spraying crap all over your bike and hopefully no punctures.
Will be ~ the same weight and I imagine sealant sloshing in the tire has gotta add some resistance too.
The rope type plugs are a temporary solution to get you back on the road. Most car and motorbike workshops will then install an internal plug which is a legal permanent fix
I received mine today, I bought a silver pill version and a cheaper carbon (plastic) version.
Firstly, they are very beautifully made piece of kit. I've already had an issue where I pulled a pre fitted plug out of the insertion tube to take a look and couldn't get it back in easily. I may end up buying 2 more insertion tubes so I can have 4 stored plugs ready to go inside the pill. I can't see how to store open plugs in the pill without making a mess with them sticking to stuff.
They give you pipe cleaners and instruction to keep the insertion tubes clean with alcohol between new plugs.
Will be plugging my first hole tonight as I have one ready to go.
My bike shop gave me a near new tyre on the way home with damage through the tread. I threw it on the bike as I wanted to try that style of tyre anyway. Pumped it up with stans in, when it got enough pressure up I threw in a plug whilst stans was coming out, it didn't sealimmediately so I put in another plug and it sealed up. I've done well over 100 dirty wet rocky k's over the weekend and it's still solid.
On my ride this afternoon, I managed to pinch the same tyre at the bead. Quickly stopped and with gloves on I put a plug straight in and wham, no more leak and I was away. Probably under a minute easily to repair.
They are still a bit of a pain to reload, but I think that's just the heat and mostly that's done at home and not on the trail.
Proper happy, still expensive but happy.
While it sounds like a great product, what happens if you tear a sidewall?
I've never had a puncture in the tread while using Stans but I have torn a sidewall on a rock. The only way to get back on the trail was to put an empty gel wrapper inside the tyre over the tear and put a tube in.
Because if this, I'd be very hesitant to loose the tube.
Park Tools make a 'tire boot', basically a big patch for the inside of the tire. People have used $5 notes etc, but it seems a waste when a 3 pack is under $7.
Again, IMHO, If you're getting regular flats or tearing sidewalls etc you've probably got the wrong tire.
I always run the most reliable version of tyres. I've not done a sidewall since my very last 2bliss spesh tyre, they seemed particularly prone to a sidewall gash. Been on Maxxis 3C EXO TR's since and have never had anything one of these plugs I'm sure wouldn't sort out but Stans certainly struggles on most. Currently i'm playing with Bontrager tyres with the move to a Trek, my son who loves killing tyres is onto his 2nd set on his top fuel without an issue.
I'm a heavy rider at 100kg, I'm reasonable quick and cover lot's of k's off road per year, that's why I tend to see the odd flat. Most of my flats are actually on my CX bike with either my road or CX wheels fitted. That bike would see at least 6000k's per year and offroad a lot. This is where the real test will be, I'm not looking forward to having to try it on the CX but I'm certainly looking forward to potentially fixing a flat in a minute and continue on my way without stans, grease and crap all over my hands.
It's a shitty job putting a tube in with stans or waiting for stans to seal so that's why I think there is a place for plugs in my life. I'll still always carry a spare tube.
I tried a park tools tyre boot recently and it would't stick to the inside of the tyre at all until I cleaned it with solvent. Even then it looked dodgy as and peeled off very easily.
Used some nice wide gorilla tape instead and that worked way better. Easy to carry a piece wrapped around a CO2 cartridge or your pump.
Yeah, inside of a tire should still have it's waxy residue. I always carry a few alcohol wipes that come in handy for cleaning body/bike parts in the bush.
If your tire is cut badly enough to need a boot, it's really damaged enough to need immediate replacing, and is only meant to get you back, as such it shouldn't need to chemically bond to the tire, just stay in place which the tube should more than capable of doing.
For XC, I run a Minion II downhill tire on the front, the sidewall takes a beating, but the knobs start tearing off before it gives way. The Nobby Nic evo on the back had to e replaced with the sidewall starting to look threadbare.
Both are thick enough to not get punctures on WA pea gravel, and with DH tubes and good pressure, it's rare to get a pinch even from a good rock strike.
I guess the sidewall thing is probably more dependent on the type of riding. I do enduro/marathon cross country so probably not banging sidewalls on sharp rocks that much so have had very few sidewall cuts. In fact I'm struggling to remember if I've had one.
Unsprung weight is also pretty important in racing long distance so heavy tyres aren't an exciting prospect - increase say 600g of weight on your bike with more robust tyres but you would still need to carry a spare tube just in case ... These days I run the Mitas Textra tyres which are pretty light plus their value proposition is their cut resistant Textra sidewalls and so far I haven't found anyone who has slashed one so I'm willing to take the risk and carry the Dynaplug but no spare tube.
We used them for The Pioneer in NZ last year and have been using them since, and now a group of around 8 of us are using them on our XC bikes and the Mitas Kratos on the trail bikes as a front tyre.
No sidewall cuts for any of us
Pushys have them on sale right now.
http://www.pushys.com.au/dynaplug-point-tip-tyre...
So I'm still a fan but....
I had that sudden spray of sealant up my backside early one morning. I inserted a plug and it was still leaking so jammed another in next to it and it worked. As the cut was reasonably big I'd lost nearly all the air by the time I had sealed the leak. Lucky for me the tyre didn't pop from the rim or I would have been in trouble as I find I need my compressor once that happens and I wasn't carrying a tube so made me realise relying totally on the Dynaplug comes with risk.
Then a week later I started to notice some rattling inside my tyre and realised the little brass looking head of the plug must have come off. No big deal I thought until a couple of days later I got up for my morning ride and the tyre was dead flat. It turns out those little metal heads are what stop the plug pulling out....
So maybe it's not a permanent fix? I haven't had to use one yet but read the instructions (unaustralian I know) and saw they recommend to cut the little tail off that hangs out. That seemed strange to me, wouldn't that make it easier for it to fall in?
Did you trim the ends off when you used them?
I've used them a few times now. I also did a double plug repair that lasted a few hundred k's but eventually let go after I checked the sealant levels and removed the brass head's whilst there (I used sharp ones on my carbon rims so a precaution) Next ride it let go. The one in the bead on the same tyre never missed a beat. My vote is to just leave them alone once plugged.
As for cutting off the tail, this makes sense as it seals from the inside not outside, it would also be pretty rubbish plugging my 32c road tubeless and riding on the little lump till it wore down.
I did a big ride out Wisemans/Colo yesterday, plugged my mates rear 40c gravel tyre and it didn't even lose enough pressure to warrant getting the pump out. Absolutely sold on these things.
Had my first slash in the centre of my tyre today and used two of these to fill the gap. Pushed them in with my fingers and a small allen key. Tyre had deflated to unridable but couldn't get to seal with a pump. Sealed after using C02, I guess the pressure pushed them in place, and they held on for the rest of my ride. Was easier than putting in a tube and I have left them uncut.
Will leave them for now and see how they last.
Got around to a more permanent fix than the Dynaplug, they held on for many weeks of daily riding, the front tyre was very slowly losing pressure and I was inflating it every couple of days. Still had sealant inside, so not sure why it wasn't sealing but hasn't lost pressure since the permanent repair.
Dynaplugs have a permanent home in my tool kit.