Tubeless Repair Kits

How does a tubeless plug work?

You push a strip of soft rubber or a plugged barb into the hole from the outside, and the tyre's own pressure plus the sealant around it holds the plug in place while the sealant skins over the join. The repair takes under a minute and you do not remove the wheel or break the bead. Reinflate afterwards, because you will have lost most of the pressure while finding the hole.

Strips or a pre-loaded plugger?

Bacon strips are the cheap, universal option: a fork-shaped tool, a sticky strip folded over it, and a shove. They work on large holes and you can double up strips, but the tool is bulky and the strips dry out in the packet over a couple of years. Pre-loaded systems such as Dynaplug carry brass-tipped plugs in a compact aluminium body that pushes in and pulls out cleanly, which is faster and far easier with cold hands, at a higher price per plug. Stan's DART takes a third approach with a coated tip that reacts with the sealant. All three want the puncture found before your pressure drops too far to hold anything.

Tubeless repair kit or a patch kit?

They fix opposite problems. A patch bonds to the smooth inner surface of a butyl tube and is useless against a tyre casing full of wet sealant. A plug fills a hole in the casing itself and does nothing for a tube. If you have converted a bike to tubeless, the tube repair kit in your saddlebag is no longer the right tool, though a spare tube still is.

When is the hole too big to plug?

Sidewall cuts are the main one — the casing there is thin and flexes with every rotation, so plugs work loose even when they seem to hold at first. Anything over about 6mm, a split along a casing thread, or a tear rather than a puncture all mean the same thing: boot the inside of the tyre, fit a tube, and remember to pull the valve stem out first. A plugged tread hole, by contrast, will often outlast the tyre.

What else should be in the kit?

A valve core tool, because you cannot add sealant or fit a tube without one, and a reamer to rough up the hole so the plug grips. Sealant dries out over roughly three to six months depending on temperature and how porous the casing is, and a plug relies on sealant to finish the job — a tyre that has run dry will weep round the plug indefinitely. Trim the protruding tail of a strip flush once it has held for a few miles, and check the plug is still there next time you clean the bike.

How much should you pay?

A basic strip-and-fork kit costs little and is genuinely effective; a machined pre-loaded plugger costs several times that and buys speed, compactness and neatness rather than a better seal. Refill plugs are sold separately for all the common systems, so replace the consumables rather than the tool. Check the date on any kit that has been sitting in a bar end for years — the strips harden and the sealant-reactive types lose their effect, and both fail quietly until the moment you need them.