'Puncture Safe' tyre seal

'Puncture Safe. puncture preventative & trye life extender' (www.puncturesafe.com) Bought this in my local bike shop to put in sons xl 250 (has had 2 punctures in last 2 months !). (We use very similar type of product in all our mowers /tractors at work but this is slow speed - lower pressure tubeless stuff and its great)
Bloke in shop said lots of motocross (tubed) and road riders (tubeless) have been buying it and reports back were v good.
Now my question is; has anyone on here used THIS product in their GS tyres (or other) and do you think there are any potential problems with big bikes / loaded up / cruising at speed !!??
At £25 for 2 tyres thats not a bad price for a guarantee of a non puncture touring trip abroad ? or at least slowed enough to get you to where you can sort it out ?
This is a product you put in the tyre, where it coats the inside and plugs any punctures as they occur, for the life of the tyre ....not a repair-and-get-you-home product.
Any thoughts, or better, experiences of it !!??

I used this product last year before an Alps/Dolomites tour on my previously owned F650FL, and oddly, not long after it being used I had a flat front! However, after re-inflation I had no further concerns for the full there and back journey.

Was talking to my mechanic, who also replaces tyres, and he says that Puncture Seal or was it Safe (?) is the only one that really works. And no, he does not sell it!

We use it our GSs, brilliant stuff, wife had a nail in back tyre, pulled nail out and done about 3000miles on it since. First 100 miles after puncture had a little of the stuff splatter on the reg plate but after that has been brilliant.

My friendly tyre fitter likes the stuff too, easy to clean up when tyre removed and he has never seen any issues with the alloy unlike with some other products. He reckoned the green stuff (can't remember name) was a pain and he had seen some corrosion in wheels with it fitted.

i use it on my gs and the mowers, quads and tractors at work it has reduced our down time due to punctures
its one of those products that you dont know is working

STUBBS said:

its one of those products that you dont know is working

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Which is exactly why I wont use it....That, IMO, is dangerous.

It does NOT prevent punctures, it just hides them.

I'd rather have a puncture that I know about immediately and can fix on the side of the road in 5 mins than a nail embedded that is further damaging the structure of the tyre until the damage is great enough to just let go altogether.

I've been with plenty of bikes with this goo in their tyres and it hasn't worked.

The classic being 8 bikes in morocco and only one with the puncture goo in his tyres. And he was the only one who had a puncture, twice.

Oh how we laughed.

I had 'Ride on" in mine, had punture....frikken useless, it doesn't work.

I now carry a plug kit and pump.

A complete waste of money IMHO

An old thread suggested there would be problems with the TPS, whether true or not I don't know.

An old thread.

Fanum, good for you that you can repair a puncture in 5 minutes. But many can't, and if in the cold and wet probably wouldn't want to.

Only if the nail were very long and not removed early enough might there be damage to the structure of a tyre. If the tip were rubbing against the inside wall at a point within the tyre, then maybe, but if it was just protruding into the tyre cavity the only point of contact with the tyre would be along the shaft, which is smooth and wouldn't cause problems.

Puncturesafe is designed to work on punctures up to 6mm and to seal around a nail until it is either pulled out or works itself loose. Screws are a different matter, as simply pulling them out creates a tear that is difficult to fill, they need to be unscrewed from the tyre for Puncturesafe to work.

The product is light blue in colour, so a quick check of the tyres before or after a ride would reveal a puncture, a nail head would be visible as well unless worn away, but a blue blob would then be visible. You do check your tyres regularly, don't you?

Yes, I have a vested interested. But not in the UK.

Here's some info from the company themselves:

Some info from the company themselves.

ExpatinIstanbul said:

Fanum, good for you that you can repair a puncture in 5 minutes. But many can't, and if in the cold and wet probably wouldn't want to.

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ANYONE could repair a puncture in 5 minutes flat, as long as they have a small bit of kit and the confidence to do it.

ExpatinIstanbul said:

Only if the nail were very long and not removed early enough might there be damage to the structure of a tyre.

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by hiding the fact that the nail/screw/whatever is there in the first place, that's exactly what does happen....and no, people don't check their tyres regularly enough to pick it up, even if they think they do.

The wording in that FAQ is crafty and misleading IMO.

Fanum said:

ANYONE could repair a puncture in 5 minutes flat, as long as they have a small bit of kit and the confidence to do it.

by hiding the fact that the nail/screw/whatever is there in the first place, that's exactly what does happen....and no, people don't check their tyres regularly enough to pick it up, even if they think they do.

The wording in that FAQ is crafty and misleading IMO.

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I still think 5 minutes to fix and ride off is optimistic for most people, and again, in the cold and wet, plus at the side of a busy road? But I'll bow to your experience.

As for your opinion on damaging the tyre, I guess it just comes down to whether you have confidence in the product when you buy it. I've not read any reports on the internet about tyre damage caused by the use of Puncturesafe, although there are people with the same concerns as you.

There are reports on similar products no living up to expectations, and a few with regard to Puncturesafe. But equally, there are reports on it being an excellent product that does what it says it will. One very important point though, is that the amount injected must be exactly as recommended by the manufacturer.

As for the FAQ. It's a bit long winded and repetitive, and as with all FAQs it speaks well of the product, but what do you expect? Can you tell me which bits you think are crafty and misleading?

Classic ask about a product and get answers that just confuse further!

I have a mate who swears by the stuff and it has worked well for him a couple of times.

I put some in my ZZR before my Alps 2010 tour and discovered that above about 140 (Autobahn of course) the front end turned into a Jack Hammer, but at all other times I would never have known it was there.

Of course it can "hide" a puncture, my mate checks his pressures religously and tells me the tyre will lose a couple of PSI before the goo seals, so if you do check the pressures daily you should notice if it has sealed - a visual inspection won't go amiss either.

Also some goo's are much better than others, my understanding is that puncturesafe is one of the best, over the years there have been many other goo's and some have been awful, others in the early days were developed for miltary use and had a habbit of rotting your alloys.

Tyre fitters will always curse it based upon coming across some right old crap out there, and also probably playing it safe (hoping for extra business?)

The chap who did mine (Shiny Biker Syndrome) has had good feedback (or so he say's) and also mentioned getting the right amount in is quite important. He also reckoned TPS sensors are normally OK, although the goo gathers in one spot so it may have an effect when you first ride off for a few hundred yards?

I think you need to make up your own mind, all your gonna get here is heresay, rumours and even the words of experience may be for a different product.

Can you tell me which bits you think are crafty and misleading?

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Certainly.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Q - Can Puncturesafe hide or mask a dangerous puncture?
A - No! Absolutely not...
It is virtually impossible for Puncturesafe to hide or mask a dangerous puncture.
[/FONT]

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Not as it happens perhaps, but by your own admission, once it has happened, objects left in and not noticed because the gloop hides the fact they are there can and often will further damage the tyre. I've seen a six inch nail go all the way through a tyre and out of the sidewall before now, but while it was sticking oout of both places, there was only a slight leakage.
If that had been hidden by the leakage being stopped, it wouldn't even have been found, until perhaps (speculation only) it had caused enough damage to blow the sidewall out.
PS the use of 'absolutely not' closely followed by the less than absolute 'virtually impossible' ?

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Q - Does Puncturesafe create a mess when a tyre is dismounted?
A - No!
[/FONT]

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YES!!

Ok, its not a puddle of sticky gloop like a lot of the other gloopy tyre treatments, but you still have to scrape it all away and sorry, but that is messy.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Q - Does Puncturesafe cause out of balance problems?
A - No!
Puncturesafe cannot create an out of balance situation.

If a problem exists then Puncturesafe may aggravate the situation, which acts as a safety warning alerting the driver that there is definitely a tyre, rim and/or suspension problem.
[/FONT]

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Hold on, it cannot, but if it does, we'll call it a 'safety feature' shall we? .....Misleading because ok, it wont 'create' it, but merely exacerbates it.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Puncturesafe is drawn into the puncture by the capillary action of the escaping air,[/FONT]

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erm...... no it's not.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica] Puncturesafe does not have any of the failings that previous and many present products have. Apart from drying and balling up in the tyre, the biggest failings of traditional tyre sealants in a high speed tyre, was the inability to seal small holes, but the ability to seal a large dangerous hole or cut, because they contained large chunks of chopped up rubber. Whereas Puncturesafe contains only tiny strands of coarse surface synthetic fibres that are stronger than steel when they interlock tightly together, but will only positively seal small holes caused by puncturing objects up to 6mm in diameter, but only in a hole that is in the tread area of the tyre, and that is shrinking in size because there is no cord damage (rubber recovery), which is 95% of today's high speed punctures.[/FONT]

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That's not even English....read it again, slowly.







If they can't even get the facts right and spout scientific mumbo-jumbo, how do they expect people to have any faith in the other claims?

EDIT: I know i'm being a little pedantic , but as it's a critical safety thing, I think I'm right to be so.