Joe's No Flats Road Racing Sealant

Joe's No Flats Road Racing Sealant is designed especially for the high pressures found in road tyres, though its abilities there come at the expense of just how big a hole it can plug. With limits at 130psi and holes up to 3mm wide, it's very capable – it covers most normal road punctures, and does it well.

One downside of nicking sealant from our friends at off.road.cc is that it can't always cope with the pressures we run. Whereas mountain bikers are in the region of 20psi, it's still commonplace to find 90psi or even higher on the road. I've experienced first-hand sealant failing to plug fairly minor holes at road pressures...

Joe's No Flats says Road Racing Sealant works up to 130psi, and is suitable for use in tubeless-ready tyres, tubular tyres and tubes. Quick note: our test bottle says 'Road Leader,' but since we got ours it's been renamed. It's all the same stuff, though.

> Buy this online here

The trade-off for it being able to coagulate at such pressures is the size of holes it can plug. But even though 3mm is relatively small (typically you'll see limits around 6mm), in my experience it's more than enough for 99% of road punctures; they're usually caused by thorns and flint, instead of the gnarlier things you find off-road.

Over six weeks of testing, this stuff successfully plugged multiple holes that would have otherwise required a tube change, so personally I'm more than happy to take the compromise.

I'm also impressed with how quickly it seals. Although not quite instantaneous, as per Joe's claim, more often than not I could continue without having to stop to add air. If I noticed a puncture I would pull over and check – in general, I found my 75psi race tyres would be down to about 60-65psi, which I think is pretty impressive considering how fast the air blasts out.

> Tubeless tyres: 14 hidden pitfalls you should try to avoid

I could then happily pump my tyres up to 90psi (the highest I dare with my rims) with no issues. It also sealed a 100psi tyre on a different rim after I attacked it with a drawing pin.

Use

Application is as easy as it gets. The spout is good for squirting between a rim and unseated sidewall, or straight in through a removed valve core. As one bottle (60ml) is good for one tyre, there's no measuring required or spout clogging to deal with.

Compared to other sealants' instructions, 60ml does seem on the high side, but in my experience it's about what is actually necessary. For example, the Juice Lubes Tyre Juice bottle recommends 30-50ml per road tyre, but as far as I'm concerned you really need all 50ml.

After only six weeks I can't comment on its longterm ability or how long it takes to dry up, but I haven't needed to top up at all, which is promising – especially given the uncharacteristically mild weather. Joe's recommend replacing the fluid every 3-6 months, depending on conditions.

Unlike some sealants this one is compatible with CO2 canisters, too.

Value

Road Racing Sealant is a little pricey. At £5 per 60ml bottle it's more expensive than Panaracer SealSmart (£7.99 for 120ml) or Hutchinson Protect'Air Max (£6.95 for 120ml), though it is cheaper than Schwalbe Doc Blue at £7.99 for 60ml.

Overall

Joe's No Flats Road Racing Sealant works well at high pressures, or at least as high as 100psi – I couldn't go any higher, but suspect few riders today will want to either. It proves consistently effective at my more typical pressures of 75psi, too, which is not always the case with other sealants.

For road use the 3mm hole limit is no particular drawback, although arguably the price is – at the time of writing there was no option to buy in larger quantities, and doing it one tyre at a time is not the most economical way of keeping your wheels turning.

Verdict

Road-specific sealant that works really well at high pressures, but the tiny bottles work out expensive