The long story : A friend gave me a set of road wheels to test. The wheels had tires, but unfortunately the rear wheel was out of air and not holding air. Being of a tubeless design with 30c tires and no visible holes in the rubber I decided to open them up and see what the problem could be.
On the inside I found Peaty’s tire sealant and I decided to full remove the tire and take a look at the condition of the sealant. Given that I was going to be riding a ton of miles tubeless I wanted to make sure I could trust / rely on them, so refreshing or re-upping the sealant was an option.
Along the maintenance path I had some interesting findings with Peaty’s. I should caveat this by saying I have had quite a bit of experience with Stans, OrangeSeal and Finishline but this is my first time hands on with Peaty’s
The downsides of Peaty’s
Peaty’s is Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiick
Peaty’s is really thick (viscous), no reallly thick. Think of wood glue thick, maybe even thicker. This isn’t necessarily a downside but keep reading. The sealant doesn’t move around inside the tire very fast, in fact at first I assumed it had all dried up as I opened the tire, but it hadn’t, it was just all in one spot and reluctant to move. Viscose is the word, as in much higher viscosity than Stans.
Peaty’s is difficult to clean
When it comes to servicing, removing Peaty’s from inside a tire is not like Stans or Orange Seal where you can rinse it out quick. Oh no. Peaty’s is much more labored, ample water and more cleaning required. It wasn’t “stuck” but it did require some thorough wiping from inside the tire. However, it does mix with water, so that is good and it doesn’t ball up like stans or orange (which I have never really found a problem)
Removing Peaty’s from a rim
Removing dried up Peaty’s sealant from an inside rim surface is a bit of a nightmare. It reminded me of scraping glue off tubulars. The dried up sealant is hard, crispy and firmly sticks. Even after wet down it took a good amount of elbow grease and scraping to remove old Peaty’s.
The set of wheels I was working on was hookless, it would have been triple the cleaning nightmare on a hooked rim. Note: always be gentle and always use a dull plastic instrument on carbon.
Although I have not ridden using peaty’s, my friend didn’t seem overly impressed. It might be the most amazing on the road sealant ever, to which I’m not sure how given physics. From a maintenance standpoint it’s pretty terrible, and we all know that tubeless setups need maintenance, so it becomes an important factor.
What the F’ does Peaty’s contain?
I couldn’t find out the chemical contents of Peaty’s but it did not smell of ammonia and generally says its latex based, plus with a little help it dissolved in water. But theres something in there to keep the latex in a solution state, whatever that is causes it to dry hard as a rock and maybe also a thickening agent.
Summary
In the end, I set up the wheels with Stan’s, I didn’t want to mess with Peaty’s again. This sealant is rubbish.
I don’t often write very negative reviews. But I would say stay away from this Peaty’s sealant at given other options on the market.
What’s with the glitter?!?!
The glitter is a mechanical way to allow the sealant to plug larger holes in the tire. Some people say glitter works, others not so much. In early days of cyclocross people used to add art shop glitter to Stans sealant.
Interesting! I’ve only recently been on tubeless (MTB) and have been using Stans. Am yet to remove the tyre and inspect, but no complaints so far.
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How old was the Peaty’s? I’m wondering if it was towards the end of its life. Would be interesting to compare with a fresh bottle. Either way, looks like a headache to clean up.
The Peaty’s was very new.