Cyclist
Silca’s new Ultimate Sealant lasts longer and can be installed through the valve
Silca has updated its Ultimate Sealant, with a new latex formulation that the brand says doesn’t need topping up for six months or more, and new single strand carbon fibre, which is said to seal punctures up to 6mm, is less prone to clumping and allows you to inject the sealant through the valve.
Richard Pool, Silca’s marketing director, said, ‘Sealant is a tough category of product. More so than anything else on the bike, you want people to forget about it. Even with a puncture, you want it to act quick enough and work well enough to never see it doing its job.’
The qualities of being able to seal well and to last long have until now been mutually exclusive, he says – a problem that the new Silca Ultimate Sealant is aimed at solving.
Silca’s original sealant formulation, which we rated among the best tubeless sealants in our buying guide, needed to be put directly into the tyre, as the 6, 9 and 12mm carbon fibre strands in the FiberFoam, responsible for plugging any holes in the tyre, were prone to clogging valves.
The new Ultimate Sealant uses single strand carbon fibre, rather than the original’s shredded carbon fibre composite. Silca claims that the new composition helps to reduce clumping and ensures that the carbon fibres are more evenly distributed.
The previous carbon fibre mix was reclaimed from recycled carbon fibre from bikes, wheels, race cars and aircraft components, but there’s no word of whether this new formulation carries that over.
Low maintenance formulation
Silca says its new sealant is the first to combine synthetic and natural latex, and that it doesn’t need any maintenance for six months. There’s no need for a separate replenisher product, as was the case with its original formulation, and Silca claims more even coating of the inside wall of the tyre and better compatibility with CO2 use for inflation.
The new formula is also free of ammonia.
Silca is so confident in its sealant that it’s putting its money where its mouth is, saying it will pay $500 to any pros who get a flat that doesn’t seal at a Life Time Grand Prix race while riding tubeless tyres with its new formulation.
It has already been tested by Silca’s sponsored pros at Unbound 2024 and other gravel and MTB races, though the brand hasn’t revealed if there were any flats.
The new sealant is available in 65ml, 500ml and 1,000ml sizes, with US recommended prices from $6 up to $42.
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