Poked a hole in my GR SKs that wouldn't seal. ☹️

So, don't know what happened, but jra and my rear tire feels a little low, I pull over, don't see anything serious, keep going. Later, the rear tire is definitely feeling low and squishy, but I'm close to home (it's 32 degrees F and the wind is blowing hard), so I stop and pull out the co2 and fill it up and try to get home.  When I get home, the tire is completely flat again. I look at the tire and there is sealant leaking out around the whole rim on both sides.  I'm guessing because the tire got too low and the sidewalls started coming loose?  So... I try to pump the tire up, and at about 35 psi I hear a pop and sealant squirts out of the center of the tread (into my face coincidentally). I took the tire off, cleaned it out, new sealant remounted, pumped it up and it just kept leaking.  I get my plug tool (gummy worms) and tried to get that to fix it, and it temporarily did, but still seepage of sealant around the plugged hole after 2 rides. I decided I needed a better fix.  I ordered some sidewall patches from tiptop and hope I can salvage the tire.  In the mean time I also found some Conti Terra Trails on sale and I'll slap those on and see how they do. Any  suggestions on hard to seal holes?

mike wrote:So, don't know what happened, but jra and my rear tire feels a little low, I pull over, don't see anything serious, keep going. Later, the rear tire is definitely feeling low and squishy, but I'm close to home (it's 32 degrees F and the wind is blowing hard), so I stop and pull out the co2 and fill it up and try to get home.  When I get home, the tire is completely flat again. I look at the tire and there is sealant leaking out around the whole rim on both sides.  I'm guessing because the tire got too low and the sidewalls started coming loose?  So... I try to pump the tire up, and at about 35 psi I hear a pop and sealant squirts out of the center of the tread (into my face coincidentally). I took the tire off, cleaned it out, new sealant remounted, pumped it up and it just kept leaking.  I get my plug tool (gummy worms) and tried to get that to fix it, and it temporarily did, but still seepage of sealant around the plugged hole after 2 rides. I decided I needed a better fix.  I ordered some sidewall patches from tiptop and hope I can salvage the tire.  In the mean time I also found some Conti Terra Trails on sale and I'll slap those on and see how they do. Any  suggestions on hard to seal holes?

many sealants don’t do well in cold temperatures. 

I have repaired hard to seal holes with a plug made from an old inner tube. Clean the rubber well. Cut into a strip about 4mm wide and 50mm long. Put it in your plug tool. Coat the strip with rubber vulcanizing fluid  (automotive patch cement). Insert into tire and let cement dry. 

Sealant does not like co2 either.

Btw, where did you find the conti's?

BikeTiresDirect had them for 51.96 ea. and I had about 30 bucks in points to apply towards purchase also so i picked up 3.
I bought them on the 28th and it looks like they are no longer on sale. 

By the time I plugged it, I had already replaces all the co2 (and old sealant), with fresh sealant and good old fashioned air. 😉

I don't see in your description how large the hole is---but, when bacon strips don't work or if a larger hole, I use a dart (stan's dart).  This has always worked for me.  BTW, was this tire a GK SK or GK SK+??   So far, I think the + version is substantially better on my bikes.  Never a flat yet on 2 bikes and over 3 thousand miles.  

It was an SK (not +).  I saw the stan's darts when I was looking for solutions.  Those look pretty good.  The hole wasn't that big maybe 1.5-2mm.  I have some tiptop tubeless patches now though, so I'll probably tear it down today sometime and install one of those.

FWIW I had a similar issue with a GK SK (no +) where I punctured and the Orange Seal Endurance couldn't quite stop the leaking.  It was in an event and I was able to make it to an aid station where a mechanic stopped the leak with a "bacon strip" plug.  The plug held for a few hundred miles and I replaced the tire when it started leaking again.

I've since read about methods to patch tubeless tires so I'll be interested to hear how the TipTop patches work.

FWIW I've had great results with Rema Tip Top patches on butyl tubes.