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The most common defects when biking are tyre damage. Thorns pierce even the densest carcasses, sharp-edged rocks cut through the rubber and roots crush the inner tubes when the rim punctures. What to do? Fit downhill tyres? You can do that. But they are heavy and roll slowly.
It is smarter to swap hoses for sealing milk, i.e. to use a liquid hose instead of a solid hose. The concept is impressive. The liquid hose cannot be crushed and allows lower pressures. In the event of a leak, the milk flows with the escaping air towards the hole and seals it in no time at all. A welcome side effect is a weight saving of 100 to 300 grams per wheelset. In addition, getting rid of the inner tube reduces rolling resistance by around two watts per tyre. The biggest disadvantage of milk tyres is their limited durability of typically only 2-6 months. For this reason, there are hardly any bikes that are supplied by the manufacturer without an inner tube - even though most tyres are now tubeless ready ex works and can therefore be converted quickly.
You can find out which of the nine tubeless fluids tested are best at sealing holes in tyres in the PDF below for €1.99:
- Conti Revo Sealant
- Effeto Meraiposa Caffélatex & Vitamina CL
- Fun Works Pink Shake
- Mavic Tyre Sealant
- Peaty's Tubeless Selant
- Schwalbe Doc Blue Professional
- Stan's Tyre Sealant
- Stan's Race Sealant
- Vittoria Pitstop TNT
You can read this article or the entire issue of BIKE 8/2018 in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the issue in the DK shop reorder:
