Safe Speed Forums

Flat Free

I was flicking throught the channels and happened to see this product being advertised. At first I thought it was just one of them tyre welds that can be used to inflate a tyre following a puncture to get you to the nearest garage. But apparently it's something you put into a tyre via the valve(after using a supllied tool to temporarily remove the valve core) and then if you do get a puncture it seals within half a rotation, or so the tv channel claimed.

This then is sealed for the life of the tyre meaning it doesn't need to be replaced and pressure is maintained within the tyre. The cost worked out at about £5 per tyre, which is cheaper then a repair. However the real benefit would be not having to deal with a puncture on the move.

Has anyone heard of this? Would this really make driving safer, or are serious blow-outs as a result of side-wall tears which (I assume) this product won't deal with.

Is it useful or a gimmick?

When we see it as original equipment on up market cars we'll know it isn't a gimmick.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

They are increasingly getting runflats as OE now anyway.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Sorry I probably didn't explain it very well - the tyre stays perfectly inflated and can be driven on for thousands of miles at normal speeds. As I understand it run-flats are limited to 50mph and 50miles?

Yeah I take your point Paul that when it's OE it should work as claimed, and the reason I'm sceptical is because it's being "launched in the UK" via a home shopping channel.

The demonstration did look impressive, they stuck a screwdriver in and pulled it out and it was sealed straight away, but then these demonstrations are surely very stage managed.

I remember seeing this on the QVC Channel some time back, very impressed, so I bought one of their can-openers instead, and that works just as well as advertised.
This channel does have a reputation to uphold, so although wary of buying stuff like this, if I could have afforded it at the time, I would have bought it.
I seem to remember them driving Army trucks over planks with 6 inch nails in, the white liquid was visible oozing through the holes, but the vehicles carried on being driven.
Wonder what the Plod would think, along with the use of "Stinger" strips, or are the holes created by "stinger" too big for this substance to be useful?

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World Rally Championship cars run tyre "mousse" to stop punctures on rough stages. It's not 100% effective but then again it's an extreme situation and the failures may well be where it has failed to cope with a sizeable rip as opposed to the typical run of the mill nail etc.

Runflats are a poor compromise IMHO, giving an extremely harsh ride 100% of the time in order to deliver just a "get you home" standard of solution to a puncture.

Wife's car was supplied with no spare, just a tin of mousse and a compressor. In reality we've always assumed that a puncture would just mean a recovery callout, as wife feels there is little possibility of her successfully completing all the steps necessary - ie removal of valve core, insertion of tin of gunk, driving 20 yards with flat tyre to spread it around, then re-inserting valve core and successfully inflating it with said compressor. Imagine pissing about like that with a flat offside rear on the hard shoulder of the M6 in driving rain? I think not...

There also remains the dubious question of whether the tyre would then be able to be repaired afterwards. I never got a straight answer from the dealers so I presume that means "no". So it's a no-brainer really - hide the tin of gunk then get the car brought back on a transporter under breakdown cover and get the tyre fixed the next day probably for less than the price of the tin of gunk, let alone a replacement tyre!

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Seen similar stuff when I used to work in a bike shop called slime - aimed at mtber's, limited effect, also the stuff goes off after a couple of years.
Wouldn't wnat to use it makes a bloody awful mess and makes it hard to carry out a conventional repair.

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I think stingers are hollow and take a 'plug' of rubber out of the tyre.

Not certain, but for total safety of the stinger flinger (hey, I like that ) I would have thought that stingers would have sacrificial collars around the spikes.

I think the stinger spikes are sacrificial and break off in the tyre allowing for deflation through the hollow spikes.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Ah yes, that would do it, and even safer than the collar as the break point could be defined more accurately than attempting to rely on taper friction.

alot of MTBs now run tubeless rims & tyres with a silicon based liquid in which seals any punctures (hopefully) without losing too much pressure.

the advantage of tubeless here is it eliminates the possiblity of pinch punctures so you can run lower (i.e. grippier) pressures without increased risk of that.


.. this sounds like something similar. can't imagine why it wouldn't work in this situation although of course it will increase your rolling resistance & unsprung mass..... and whether its a good idea to encourage people to keep going on damaged tyres is worth considering (probably why it's not OEM fitted.. think firestone).

Yes, if it was a good idea it would become commonplace OE. But it isn't while runflats are. I wonder why.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

I remember doing a proper demo (of the stuff in the first post). The guy handed me a full inflated quad / grass tractor wheel and a thin screwdriver and told me to stab away. I obliged & sunk it in an removed it, just the tiniest little glob of goo came out and the tyre was sealed. Told to repeat it I did - same thing. He reconed that particular tyre had been stabbed over 30 times before and never reinflated once.

Our company didn't go for it as at £70 a corner it was going to be a tad expensive...and no free samples. It seems the 'stuff' reacted with the air somehow. Anyway, it did actually work!!

hate to say this but:- no defence of the tyre sealants but, they ARE being supplied in a few cars standard. I worked for a while for the breakdown company responsible for a number of manufacturers (the three years cover you get with a brand new car). Some have run flats and some have the sealant. Sealant first - the official stand point is that if you have the sealant as standard (EG smart) you MUST use that before recovery is an option, saying you don't have it won't work, they know what models have it.
with run flats come the tyre presure monitors, this must be fitted to all cars with run flats from the factory. This is think is law. The reason run flats are fitted despite the drawbacks is you have an extra gadget as a selling point which we all know men like The other point is that most of the time you can only get these replaced at a dealer as most tyre places would need to order in so you get the dealer mark up. If you run the selant you get your new tyre anywhere you like.

Oh, by the way - Hi everyone!!!

I think the goop in the first post is pre-puncture goop, while you're talking about post-puncture goop.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Motorcyclists used to be able to avail themselves of a product called FINILEC. It consisted of a goop with fine short fibres in, which you pumped into the wheel through the valve stem, then replaced the valve.

It was reckoned to aid the balance of the wheel, as well as acting as a sealant if you got a puncture, and allow you to get a good few miles out of the damaged trye. While not as extensive as the product described here, I suspect it was the forerunner by a good few years.
The fibres acted to clog any hole while the goop seeped into it and dried, with minimal loss of pressure.
The demo I saw worked well on a commuter bike, and survived multiple punctures and still ran.

I see it is still available as a puncture repair - but a google search did not turn up the original bottled pale green stuff which you left in the tyre.
http://www.thorncraft.co.uk/acatalog/TYRE_REPAIR_KITS.html

A further search has turned up SLIME which apparently is green goo, pre-inserted into a motorcycle tyre, and does not need to be replaced until the tyre wears out. (Courtesy of VisorDown forums)

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spot on

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And this amused me - see the badge available at the bottom of the order sheet. I wonder if In Gear has one, and if he gets his spikes free for life?
I'd like one of these badges too!

IG - I wonder if you could use the spikes on golf shoes?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

we recently got a smart (4-2) and were not told it had any kind of sealant.... and nor did they provide a can of the emergency seal & inflate stuff (we had to buy our own).

can you confirm what basis you make the EG smart statement on, thanks.