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IB17: Flat Stopper has a dry tubeless tire sealant you mix at home

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During the media preview at InterBike, we came across The Flat Stopper. It’s a tire sealant that plugs holes nearly instantaneously – at least under ideal circumstances. But it also has a few ingredients that may surprise you.

The Flat Stopper tire sealant Consumer Packets

The company has been supplying flat protection for everything from bulldozers to horse trailers for 40 years and now they’re focusing on bicycles. They’re attacking the industry with dry powder options for shops that are mixed with water or propylene glycol (found in environmentally friendly antifreeze) and claims it’ll last more than a year when stored in a sealed container. Because it’s shipped dry, it should cost a lot less to get to its final destination. Its expected yield is five-gallons when properly mixed and can be stored indefinitely when in powder form. Plus, it claims to cost shops about half as much as other products.

TFS had a demo rig set up at the show where they repeatedly punctured a tire to show how the sealant would instantly plug the hole. It certainly worked right away, though since it works a bit differently than other sealants, it made us wonder how it would work in real world conditions. However, essentially the same sealant has been used on much larger tires for years, apparently with much success.

THE PROOF IS IN THE CLAY

The Flat Stopper tire sealant

Premixed units are available for consumers and are made with 100% bio-friendly ingredients. The liquid is composed of mainly clay-based mica fibers and blended with 16 other ingredients. Being clay, you can expect the fluid to weigh more than latex-based sealants, but it does its job a bit differently. Jack, from TFS, described the clay working with compression rather than adhesion. So as the clay fibers are forced through the hole they intertwine and clot together, compared to latex which he said may require some time to dry and adhere to the tire. It’s said to seal up to 3/16″ holes and has lasted – so far – a year in their tires. The Flat Stopper currently costs $12 to seal two 27.5 x 3 tires.

TheFlatStopper.com

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11 Comments
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ColdFeet
ColdFeet
6 years ago

I’m skeptical this will work as well as latex but I’m extremely hopeful too! Anything to bring the cost down is a win by me.

JBikes
JBikes
6 years ago

Neat. Any reason they won’t sell the dry product to end users? Bike shops where I currently am are frankly horrible.

Goliath
Goliath
6 years ago

This took me 8 seconds to look up on their website: http://theflatstopper.com/contact/

For more information or to order give us a call.
1340 Running Creek Ln
Upland, CA 91784
702-573-5288
jack@theflatstopper.com

MTB-Stone
MTB-Stone
6 years ago

40 bucks for a gallon – Thats pretty good compared to others. – http://theflatstopper.com/purchase/

MGK
MGK
6 years ago

Nice. I’d try it.

RobertW
RobertW
6 years ago

“Flat Stopper currently costs $12 to seal two 27.5 x 3 tires”

If that was “half the cost” it would take $24 of Stans to seal two 27.5 x 3 tires!!

My home brew does it for $3/tire. Works fine.

Larry
Larry
6 years ago
Reply to  RobertW

Can you share the recipe

Patrick Dougherty
6 years ago
Reply to  Larry

I checked their website other than whats already in the article the are intentionally vague about the rest

TheKaiser
6 years ago
Reply to  Larry

Not sure what RobertW is using, but there is a plethora of home brew sealant information with a ton of different formulas on MTBR. The thread is huge, and has been going on for years.

RobertW
RobertW
6 years ago
Reply to  Larry

I just do the bare bones 1:1:1 water rv propelene glycol and latex mold builder from amazon. Use the 12oz gatorade bottles with Sharpie marks. 6 oz per tire.

The guys who experiment have their chunkulation additives worked out.

Fedor Zakharov
6 years ago

We break their site ))

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