Sooner or later I knew it would happen. I’d get a puncture in my tubeless tire that couldn’t be repaired by the sealant alone. Since I use Stan’s sealant in my tubeless tires, I carry a Stan’s Dart tool to repair large punctures. Admittedly, I was a bit concerned about using the Stan’s Dart tool because I read several negative online reviews were users where breaking the tool or the dart during repairs. I can see how some users could break the tool or the dart if used incorrectly.
Here is how to repair the puncture without breaking the dart or tool.
- Stan’s Darts have a pointed plastic tip for easy insertion. However, as counterintuitive as this may sound, in some cases I had to make the puncture bigger to accommodate the dart’s plastic tip. Trying to push a larger plastic tip through a much smaller hole could break the tool or dart. The solution is to simply make the puncture just large enough so that the dart’s tip can be pushed through the tire.
- A Stan’s Dart has a barbed tip to keep the plug from pulling out. Unlike a bacon strip, you DO NOT twist the dart like you would a bacon strip type plug. The dart goes straight in and is pulled straight back up. Twisting the dart during installation could break the tool or the dart.
Fortunately, using these two simple tricks when plugging a tire with a Stan’s Darts tool has always worked GREAT on my road tires. In fact, repairing the puncture couldn’t be easier. Simply position the tire so the puncture is at the top of the tire and with the tool perpendicular to the tire, pushed the dart straight down into the puncture until it can’t go any further, then pull it straight back up and you are back on the road. It’s that simple!
Ken Whittaker