milKing the System: Part Two

Following through with a promise, I messed with the milKit System (again) when I got some new rubber bits from Maxxis.

Here's something I was looking forward to... a (possible) clean tire swap.

I went ahead and hung the bike and then weighted the valve stems to get as much of the TruckerCo Cream to settle right below the valve stem.

Then take out the funky looking core using their supplied removal tool.

Break out the syringe, the the valve bit, and the needle bit.  Assemble.  Five seconds.  Mebbe less.

Word to the wise, I saw the part in the manual that suggested there should be no more than 22PSI in the tire before using the syringe.

It's only the very first rule of milKit Club, but the very first time I played with it?

I normally only have 17PSI in my front tire, but I forgot that I had set up the whole thing the other day and just jacked the pressure to something.something PSI.  I inserted the syringe, and the pressure inside the tire pushed fluid way faster than I was ready to deal with it.  When I tried to halt the out of control process, the force pushing out was too great...

And because I was just goofing around in the living room, sitting on the floor, totally unprepared... I (and the floor) was soon covered in in tubeless goo.

Note to self: Be sure to get the tire to well below 22PSI next time.

With the knowledge I gained from my previous folly, I set up a clean space to work, lowered the PSI, and two syringes full of potential latex mess were happily collected.

This is one of the reasons I was really hoping the milKit system would work:

That's how much liquid was left in the tire when I pulled it off the rim.  Normally, a tire swap means getting at least a few tablespoons worth of sealant on me, the floor, the tire, some tools, mebbe my work bench?  It goes everywhere.  Not today.  I was able to reuse 99% of it (unscientific guesstimate).

I will admit I just lazily dumped the recycled sealant into the new tire instead of mounting and then pushing it through the valve stem with the syringe.  I've become quite adept at doing that without making a mess, so whatever.

It's important to mention that the syringe/valve system would make checking sealant levels a less than five minute, zero-mess operation.  No more shaking the wheel, popping the bead, or just adding unnecessary sealant because more is better.  I've been one to do the latter in the days before a big event or trip, so... yeth.   I'm changing that method for sure in the future.

And, yeth.  I was able to give the milKit Booster 2.0 a new challenge (I'd already messed with it once before).  Two brand new tires with all the unfolding creases and zero sealant already coating the inner walls.  I can happily report back that twenty strokes of the floor pump brought the Booster to 140+PSI, and both times, the tire jumped right up on the rim and held air.  Yeth, I needed to use the pump to get the tire up to 30PSI and get the tire to pop all the way around, but as far as I'm concerned, this thing rocks.  I will not go multi-day adventuring without this ever, AND there is nothing out there that packs this small, weighs so little, and works so well.

Prove me wrong.

I'm also going to say that I'm super stoked that I can swap tires mess-free and with so little hassle. I'm gonna have to be really lazy to wanna avoid doing it in the future.