When a tubeless tyre finally reaches the end of its life, or you’re swapping between treads as the seasons change, you’ll often be surprised to find lots of invisible holes marked by clumps of sealant. Would be punctures you never even knew you’d had.
However, even with the best tyres and tubeless setups, you may still be unfortunate enough to encounter an adversary too big for the tyre to seal by itself – so in steps the Dynaplug to keep you rolling!
Our latest staff pick comes from mechanic Steve, and it might just save you a messy and far more fallible mid-ride inner tube insertion. In Steve’s words…
“Tubeless tyre setups are truly one of the best innovations in cycling, especially for gravel and mountain biking. But sometimes even the best sealant fails and you need to plug the hole with something.
When I first went tubeless I spent quite a bit of time trying out all manner of “bacon strip” style plugs, which when the proverbial hit the fan had either dried out or just flat out failed. There’s only so many times you can sit at the side of the trail covered in tyre sealant sobbing into your bacon strips… Dynaplugs were a bit of a revelation for me and like anything, when you have a really positive experience, you want to share it with others. Dynaplugs have a brass tip, when you push one into a tyre casing it holds fast. They also come with a natty tool that houses multiple plugs as well as other bits and bobs that help to get the job done. I’m a massive fan of Dynaplug and they’ve saved me from a major faff, many times.”
So, what is a Dynaplug?
A Dynaplug is a simple and effective tubeless tyre puncture repair tool, which works by depositing a plug into the cut, which fills the hole entirely, or enough for the sealant to take over and close up the breach.
Unlike other tools aiming to achieve a similar goal, Dynaplug has a patented design that combines a piercing element (a brass or aluminium bullet tip) and a plug element (viscoelastic rubber-impregnated cord) into one component.
The Dynaplug Racer Pro has four pre-loaded plugs inside the tool itself, and you can easily refill it with replacements should you need to deploy one out on the road/trail. Snap-on caps protect plugs from dirt and damage. When you’re ready to make a repair, just pop off a cap to deploy either a standard size plug (with wheel-friendly soft brass tip) or the aluminium Megaplug for mega-big punctures. If you need more plugs just unthread the Twin Tube and flip it around for more plugging action!
Deploying a Dynaplug:
Step 1 – If there’s a puncture object, such as a nail or screw, note its angle while removing from tread and insert in the same path.
Step 2 – To make a repair, firmly push the insertion tube straight through the puncture until the tool bottoms out on tread.
*Don’t twist or turn the tool when inserting a plug; this can cause the tip to separate from the cord. Don’t extract before bottoming out or you might deposit the tip in the rubber without the cord.*
Tip: If tyre pressure is very low, squeeze outside walls of the tyre together to keep tread raised when inserting plug, and add a little air through the valve stem if possible.
Step 3 – Extract the tool from the trye, depositing the plug as you do so. If a single plug is not quite enough to seal the hole, fold the cord tail flat onto the tyre, hold tail firmly with your finger, and insert another plug alongside.
A tail pressed into the tyre does not need to be trimmed, but if you do want to snip the end off then ensure you keep around 6mm visible.
Step 4 – Top up the tyre pressure with your pump if needed, and ride on!
Tip: After repair, spin the tyre to disperse remaining sealant before putting your weight back on the bike.
