(whooshing) (slamming)
(light music) - Tubeless tires are
certainly becoming increasingly popular
with the drop bar fraternity,
and with that punctures are becoming less popular
which let's face it, is great news.
But a question we do get asked over and over is,
how do I clean dried up tubeless sealant from a bike frame.
So today, I'm going to run through a few different options
which I use myself.
Let's talk about actually what happens then
with tubeless sealant.
Well, most of it tend to comprise of two parts.
So you've got a watery-type substance,
or at least I'm lead to believe it is water,
and it looks like a milk in appearance at first.
Inside of that, you've got tiny little particles
of solid latex that are simply floating around.
Now, if it's just the water and those particles
of latex you're going to end up
with something called tire bogies pretty soon.
Now, it's not the nicest name for it
but unfortunately that name has stuck.
And what happens is that the water
in the actual tire sealant evaporates leaving you
with clumped up bits of latex.
So, what the manufacturers then do is add little bits
of ammonia into the actual mixture itself,
helping those little particles of latex repel
from one another, keeping them nice and small,
and then avoiding the tire bogies for quite sometime.
Although inevitably it is going to happen at some point.
There is another type of sealant as well,
and it's simply some liquid rubber,
and that tends to be a slightly thicker format.
But sadly, sometimes the actual tire sealant itself,
which is often a milky color,
spurts out of a tiny little hole
and covers your seat tube or chain stay in particular
leaving you in a bit of a mess.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for me,
I didn't have a bike actually I could display
this on because I haven't had a blowout,
but, I borrowed this bike from Doddy on GMBN,
and I've poured some on the actual chain stay there.
Initially I wanted to use some of the
Continental Revo Sealant from our friends over there,
but unfortunately, that stuff's biodegradable
so it easily washes off, so the purpose
of this video wouldn't really quite be the same.
So I've used a different product
for the purpose of this experiment.
The first port of call I would always say is try
and use some normal bike washing product,
or car shampoo, something like that.
It's going to be nice and safe for your bike
as well as its paintwork because
some specialist products can actually have
an adverse reaction with the paint or lacquer
and cause you, well, a little bit of distress
down the line, so that's just something
to bear in mind, do so at your own risk
if you are going to use any.
Here's a few which I've used in the past,
and let's run through exactly what they are.
Right the first product then is this,
it's Sticky Stuff Remover.
Now I've got a couple of bottles of this at home
which I use for all sorts of different tasks
around the home.
Just reading on the back here it says, a powerful solution
to those icky sticky problems around the home.
Sticky Stuff Remover zaps even difficult deposits
such as tape, sticker residue, tar, grease,
chewing gum, makeup, adhesive,
from glass, wood, metal worktops, fabrics,
tiles and much more.
Believe me, this stuff does the job.
Next product is this Max Strength Degreaser.
Pretty similar to the Sticky Stuff Remover
in with what it can actually tackle
but it does say at the end here,
sealants, although I don't recon they mean tire sealant,
they probably mean silicone sealant, that sort of thing.
Does say it's very effective
around the home, garden or garage.
So this one is always one of my go-to products
for cleaning up messes.
Next one is this, IPA, isopropanol.
Now this is a general cleaning sort of product.
Mostly I used it for actually making a surface really clean
before applying some decals, or the sort of thing you put
on a chain stay, on the little chain stay protector there.
Does say on it however, leaves no residue,
none corrosive on metals and safe on most plastics
and fibers and it's a highly effective cleaning solvent.
The guys on GMBN, they recon this stuff works really well
so it's certainly worth having a look at it.
And the next one is some of this.
Soudal PU Foam Remover.
So think about that expanding foam you can use
around the house to fill gaps,
that stuff is sticky, it's horrible, it's messy,
and generally you can't remove it.
Put some of this on and it's going to start breaking it
down nice and easily.
Plus they sponsor a bike team
and that's pretty cool isn't it.
And lastly some of this stuff, WD-40.
It's said to have over 2,000 uses,
and a thousand of those have been proven by Sy Richardson.
I jest, although he does absolutely love it.
But it does break down tar, adhesives,
gums, all those sorts of things.
So it's certainly worth giving it a go.
There we go, some different products
that you can use to remove some tubeless sealant
from your frame.
I can't guarantee it will work
with every single sealant out there
but generally, for me, they've worked pretty okay.
Another question actually I must just say
that we get asked is how do you remove it from clothing?
Well, the honest answer is I don't know,
but I have heard people use some hand sanitizing gel
and rubbing that on gently, tends to free up the little bits
of latex from the fibers of the clothing.
But who knows, I've not tried it myself.
Right, let me know what maintenance videos you would like
to see next here on the GCN Tech channel
down there in the comments section.
Don't forget also to like and share this video
with your friends, give it a big old thumbs up.
And why not check out the GCN shop at
shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com where we've got
such products like a workshop apron.
So, you wouldn't have to worry
about tubeless sealants going on your clothes after all.
Don't forget, checkout two more videos.
How about clicking just down here, and just down here.