The Philosophical Basis of Stopping Leaks

Consider how easy it is to clog your arteries w/ cholesterol and a sewer pipe with tree roots.

Certainly it should be not just possible but easy to plug up leaks in tires..

Try this stuff:

http://www.truevalue.com//catalog/pr..._-WhoCVZbw_wcB

Cut a 205 X 5 cm strip and stick it into your MTB tire between the tube and the tire tread. Or half the width for a road bike.

This works on hot pavement. It would be interesting to determine the minimum temperature.


Bret Cahill

On Monday, 21 November 2016 03:32:50 UTC, Bret Cahill wrote:
Consider how easy it is to clog your arteries w/ cholesterol and a sewer pipe with tree roots.

I have 15 years experience of tyre experimentation vs glass and have never had a puncture with these.

They have even got the logo of God's own county embossed on them.

http://bit.ly/2gc4u4X

Consider how easy it is to clog your arteries w/ cholesterol and a sewer pipe with tree roots.

I have 15 years experience of tyre experimentation vs glass and have never had a puncture with these.

They have even got the logo of God's own county embossed on them.

http://bit.ly/2gc4u4X

The price isn't bad either.

I just removed a goat head which had been slowing deflating the tire with the window flashing sealant. The slow leak turned into a fast leak.

Window flashing obviously isn't going to work below a certain temperature when the viscosity is a little too high to flow into the puncture. That temperature turned out to be 22 C / 70 F.

On the plus side these winter flats are easy to fix with a heat gun, blow dryer or boiling water once the glass or goat head is removed. Instead of removing the tire just heat up the punctured area and then pinch the area with your fingers a few times to work the sealant around. Then pump up immediately.

It's only been a couple of hours so I'll post back tomorrow if it is still holding.

In any event high viscosity sealants can easily be made to work in colder places simply by adding enough solvent to reduce the viscosity into the temperature range where it still flows enough to seal the puncture yet is high enough to not be runny.

A multi viscosity sealant could make this work over a large temperature range.


Bret Cahill

It's still inflated so at a minimum, even when it's cool out ( 22C), it's a quick easy way to "repair" punctures w/o even taking the wheel off the bike.

Mix the right thinner in and you never stop for flats anymore even when it's cold out.

It weighs about the same as the low viscosity sealants used in tubeless tires that dry up and need to be replaced every 2 months.

This was a direct application of bio mimicry: Rabbits, coyotes and even hikers get punctured all the time in the desert but you rarely see a freshly deflated animal. I figured something more viscous elastic like animal tissue or low sugar chewing gum might be the way to go.

Another great hack that works (OT for cycling) is my valve cover gasket was poorly designed and always leaked oil. The manufacturer recommended RTV sealant along with the gasket but I needed to re tighten the head bolts a couple of times.

Instead of spending $20 on a new gasket that would leak just as much I wrapped the old one twice with a $1 worth of teflon tape to make it conform to the head.

It worked! I tefloned the fuel pump spacer-gasket and the O ring in the distributor as well. Not one drop of oil!

The valve lash lock nut got stripped so I tefloned the bolt and it holds pretty good. I think I'll try to get another nut however.

No wonder the Germans are outlawing ICE. To much to worry about.


Bret Cahill


Consider how easy it is to clog your arteries w/ cholesterol and a sewer pipe with tree roots.

I have 15 years experience of tyre experimentation vs glass and have never had a puncture with these.

They have even got the logo of God's own county embossed on them.

http://bit.ly/2gc4u4X

The price isn't bad either.

I just removed a goat head which had been slowing deflating the tire with the window flashing sealant. The slow leak turned into a fast leak.

Window flashing obviously isn't going to work below a certain temperature when the viscosity is a little too high to flow into the puncture. That temperature turned out to be 22 C / 70 F.

On the plus side these winter flats are easy to fix with a heat gun, blow dryer or boiling water once the glass or goat head is removed. Instead of removing the tire just heat up the punctured area and then pinch the area with your fingers a few times to work the sealant around. Then pump up immediately.

It's only been a couple of hours so I'll post back tomorrow if it is still holding.

In any event high viscosity sealants can easily be made to work in colder places simply by adding enough solvent to reduce the viscosity into the temperature range where it still flows enough to seal the puncture yet is high enough to not be runny.

A multi viscosity sealant could make this work over a large temperature range.


Bret Cahill

On Friday, 25 November 2016 15:52:20 UTC, Bret Cahill wrote:


No wonder the Germans are outlawing ICE. To much to worry about.

I rode on one to Dortmund last Saturday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity-Express

No wonder the Germans are outlawing ICE. To much to worry about.

I rode on one to Dortmund last Saturday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity-Express

A couple weeks ago I was too cheap to drive into Yosemite so I cycled in. It was late in the day. I was frantically putting the wheels on when I looked back at the vehicle behind me. The occupants were really wondering about my effort just to see some big trees.

I went in w/o a water bottle, cycling shoes, etc. When I got near the Merced Grove - they don't allow bikes -- it was really quiet and pleasant.

Later I found out I should have paid the $30 and driven in to see the valley and save time getting home.

Or maybe not.

I needed the exercise.

Next week: Do they really decorate redwoods as great big Christmas trees?


Bret Cahill

On Monday, 28 November 2016 06:10:00 UTC, Bret Cahill wrote:


Next week: Do they really decorate redwoods as great big Christmas trees?

Last week: After getting off the ICE in Dortmund, we came across the world's tallest Xmas tree.

https://www.dortmund-tourismus.de/en...as-market.html

On Sun, 27 Nov 2016 08:14:34 -0800 (PST), Simon Mason
wrote:

On Friday, 25 November 2016 15:52:20 UTC, Bret Cahill wrote:


No wonder the Germans are outlawing ICE. To much to worry about.

I rode on one to Dortmund last Saturday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity-Express


Crikey - were you in Dortmund last Saturday?

I bet that cost a lot. Did you manage to find somewhere selling Vindaloos?

On Monday, 28 November 2016 17:09:54 UTC, Judith wrote:
On Sun, 27 Nov 2016 08:14:34 -0800 (PST), Simon Mason
wrote:

On Friday, 25 November 2016 15:52:20 UTC, Bret Cahill wrote:


No wonder the Germans are outlawing ICE. To much to worry about.

I rode on one to Dortmund last Saturday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity-Express


Crikey - were you in Dortmund last Saturday?

I bet that cost a lot. Did you manage to find somewhere selling Vindaloos?

Nope - we went here instead.

https://goo.gl/maps/hW5NQFbouNu

Next week: Do they really decorate redwoods as great big Christmas trees?

Last week: After getting off the ICE in Dortmund, we came across the world's tallest Xmas tree.

https://www.dortmund-tourismus.de/en...as-market.html

Single trees are taller than that although they don't have the wide base.

The problem is the trees seem to always grow in clumps. If you could get a redwood to grow by itself in the middle of a park or other public place it would make a good big Christmas tree.

Redwoods are going to be reestablished in a grove in Ireland soon. Apparently they got wiped out the last ice age but should have no problem growing there again and in a lot of other places today. 150 years ago they tried a sequoia in New Zealand and it's still growing. Sequoias are finicky specialized, hard to grow except in a few places.


Bret Cahill