August 2025

Post-kangaroo repairs

17/08/25 22:19 Filed in: Gear

In the middle of May, on a Wednesday evening, riding along the bike path adjacent to the river below the dam, I hit a kangaroo. I've had numerous close calls, especially in that stretch of path. There is a horse jumping park up the slope and the river down the slope from the bike path with a small ditch between the horse area and the bike path. It grows great looking grass that the kangaroos like to eat. They only have one exit plan - towards the river. Up is not an option, only down. On that evening the 'roo bolted as I was right there (not before, not after - right at the inopportune time). I dodged behind her. She only took one hop. I plowed into her right hip with my front wheel and strained my shoulders and arms trying to force the bike to remain upright. It was never going to happen because the tyre was buried in her hip.
I fell to the left and got most possible spots on my body on the way down: bruised ankle, knee, hip, elbow and shoulder. Scraped a lot of material off my left shoe. Took the left shoulder out of my rain jacket. Heavily scuffed both brake levers, both lever bodies and tore both brake hoods. Scuffed bar tape. Scratched the Tubus rack on the ground - was easy to buff it smooth with fine sandpaper.
Seat didn't touch the ground. Bars not obviously damaged where the levers clamp on. Frame didn't hit anything.
Before I could stand up, the 'roo was gone.
Replaced levers completely. Ordered new rain jacket. Plan to move the heavily scuffed dial off my shoe to be replaced with another from a same model/year/colour shoe I used to ride in.

With the brake levers replaced, re-paired in the system and everything checked, the bike rides 100%.

Silca Ultimate Tyre Sealant Mark 2

06/08/25 22:03 Filed in: Gear

For the magazine (Bicycling Australia) I was sent a Silca bike spa kit. Lovely food-based bike care products: chain degreaser (for brand-new chains so you can wax it), bike wash (nice scent, good bubbles), brake and chain cleaner (I've seen similar/same stuff for car wheels, it turns bright red when it has done its job), after-wash bike polishing stuff that leaves a hardened coating on the paint to help protect it and keep it shiny and in-between polish to take the light dust off that you get on a dry ride, also with air-hardening coating. As part of my review I spent about an hour online with Silca owner Josh. Josh and I must be about the same age and have lots of similar memories of cycling in the past. On his YouTube channel and in person he speaks very proudly about the fact that everything that goes into their products is food grade. They hire good agri-chemists to develop their lubes and polishes. While you cannot drink the chain degreaser, you can drink all the components that go into it. So an industrial process with no harmful waist.
And it was using a food process that they developed the chips for their hot waxing system that turn the grease on your brand new chain into a wax. This is done in the food world for various reasons, but it means in the bike world you can dump your brand new chain in the wax and not have to fuss around with degreasing it first. Clever!
Then they released a tyre sealant with a back-up bottle of solvent as a "refresher". When the solvent evaporates through the tyre wall, add some more and get more lifespan. I wasn't convinced. But they made a mark 2 sealant just recently. With no refresher, just a 6 month minimum lifespan in real tyres in any climate. Most people get more. And it seals 8 mm holes with its revised carbon fibre filaments to clog the hole. That was more convincing.
I bought a litre and got a free syringe for measuring it into the tyres. Comes with a hose to go through the valve stem too - but Josh recommends against doing that with narrow opening valve stems.
I put the 120 ml of sealant straight into the tyre and popped the bead on. Inflating the tyre, the valve clogged up. Yes, I guess it does seal holes well and quickly. How am I supposed to be able to inflate my tyres if it does this all the time?
I took the bike for a short ride to distribute the sealant. It was flat the next morning. I then took it for a 40 km off-road ride. That will do a great job of distributing the sealant. It was flat the next day. That's incredibly disappointing for me. One almost totally clogged valve and one leaky tyre. Not a great start to my Silca sealant experience. After a couple of weeks of hardtail commuting off-road, checking the inside of the tyre a couple of times, cleaning the cut hole I made for the valve stem, adding some more Silca sealant, and riding even more again it finally sealed whatever little leak I had there. And it turned out that it wasn't clogging the valve stem, but the valve itself. I changed to a different one and had no subsequent issues.

I will definitely go back to Orange Seal for the tyres that still have Orange Seal in them - Josh also recommends not mixing (which is probably true for most sealants). Orange Seal is reliable for me. I've still got ambition for the 900 ml of Silca sealant I have remaining. It will go in my next road tyres to see how they go. My commuting bike needs to be super reliable and I'll give Silca a chance there.

But maybe not in the MTB tyres?

Michael Hanslip Coaching

If you want to go faster, you have to pedal harder

Post-kangaroo repairs

Silca Ultimate Tyre Sealant Mark 2