Q: Why is
such a
product needed?
A:
There
were several aspect of current tire sealants that we felt we
could improve. We wanted a sealant to be more effective (being able to
be there everywhere in the tire when punctures occurred), more stable
in time and temperature, without any chemical potentially dangerous for
tire/rim.
Q:
How
much easier is it to set up a tubeless tire?
A:
Tubeless
conversion of
standard tires has a lot to do with the tire you're using and its bead
diameter. Once inflated, a better sealant will seal the tire faster,
but has a lesser influence on the primary inflation (where bead
diameter/rim used play a major role, instead).
Q: Do
you intend it to be used like Stan's Notubes, both as a sealant as well
as to allow tube type tires to be run with out tubes?
A: We officially recommend Caffélatex
sealant and KIT for Tubeless Ready (Hutchinson, Bontrager,
Specialized...) or TNT (Geax) tires, where beads are tubeless-like.
Caffé Tubeless Tape is quite thin, and for the tubeless conversion of
standard tube-type tires a compressor is going to be a must. The
advantage of Caffé Tape, beside the low weight and resistance, is
that it's easy to mount TR and TNT tyres on 'converted' rims, something
very difficult using rubber sealing rim-strips.
Q:
In
motorcycles there are similar products, foaming tire sealants, is this
an adoption of that?
A: The base
formulation we started
with to develop Caffélatex comes from the automotive field, where
sealant stability, effectiveness and chemical compatibility have very
high requirements.
Q:
How important was it to get
the ammonia out?
A: Very important. That obliged us to stay
away from natural latex
formulations and turn to synthetic latex, which has some other
advantages as well. The ammonia content of current latex sealants is
not dangerous for tires/rims in the short period... but some concerns
start to be raised from long-term users. We prefer to avoid any of
these potential problems from the start.
Q:
Will it dry up as fast as other latex-based sealants?
A: Synthetic latex lasts longer than natural
latex... although it's difficult to give
numbers here, it depends a lot on tire/wheel/external conditions. During our field-testing Caffélatex has stayed liquid
over 12 months in thick-casing tubeless tyres on UST wheels.
Nevertheless, in the impossibility of knowing our
customers' specific
application (kind of wheel/tyre set-up, tyre sidewall thickness and
porosities, external temperature and humidity, bicycle storage
conditions...), we recommend checking Caffélatex every 2
months, to make sure it's liquid and therefore retains its 'puncture
preventive' action.
Q:
How is the Caffelatex
tubeless kit different from other tubeless kits?
A: The kit includes also an injector, which
is normally not included in
other kits. We think an injector is a must to do a clean job and
perfectly control the quantity of latex you're using.
The sealing tape, although
similar in function to exisiting products like Stan's Yellow Tape,
is of a completely different grade: it's fiber-glass reinforced and can
stand 9 bar with a single turn. That will potentially allow road-tubeless
conversions as well, as soon as more road tubeless tire options will be
available.
Beside injector and tape, the
kit
includes Caffélatex sealant and high-quality tubeless valves
with replaceable valve core. All the elements of the kit are made in
Italy. |