Silca Redefines Tubeless Valve Kits and Rim Tape

Silca’s reputation for bringing serious quality to their products is somewhat legendary. Known for their market-shaking developments in high-pressure pumps, fancy gauges, and the ushering in of C02 inflators for roadies, Silca has always been an industry leader.

Now, they’ve launched their revision to old school valve kits and rim tape–with a few kickers thrown in like the newly developed aero Speed Shields. According to Silca, these kits add strength, reliability, and aero properties to valve stems that have, in the past, been somewhat prone to poor seals or breaking.

 

Tubeless Valve Kits

Tubeless Valve Kit W/Speed Shield

Prices: $26 to $34 dependent on length (44mm to 100mm)

Silca’s new Tubeless Valve Kit has the potential to deliver a strong balance of weight, strength, airflow, and easy installation. Extracted from cold drawn aluminum bar–rather than hollow extrusion (yes, we included that bit to sound extra smart)–the Silca Tubeless Valve Stem design weighs less than half of the brass valve stems, yet remains 50-200% stronger in comparison to common lightweight aluminum valve stems.

The Speed Shield prevents carbon rims from being scratched or damaged by the valve nut, and is optimized with spherical interface to the stem nut to eliminate bending forces which can lead to poor sealing or valve stem failures. According to Silca, the shields improve aerodynamics up to 0.5 Watts at 30mph, which, apparently, is equal to a ceramic bearing upgrade–only way cheaper. Assuming you’re maintaining a somewhat consistently highish speed (racers will take note).

The Specs from Silca:

Valve Extenders

Of course, Silca also introduced rattle-free and drag-free Fully Threaded Valve Extenders (also with the Speed Shield) for use with tubeless and standard removable valve core stems. These seem to be a good choice for those of us with carbon rims that can sometimes come out worse for wear with standard valve stem nuts–Silca instead opting for a spherical nut. A set of these will run you about $26 for a 40mm extender with Speed Sheild.

 

 

Platinum Tubeless Rim Tape

Platinum Tubeless Rim Tape

Prices: $16 for 21mm Wide x 9m Roll and $18 for 25mm Wide x 9m Roll: $18

After two years in development, Silca has come up with their super strong, and super stretchy Platinum Tubeless Rim Tape. According to Silca, this tape is optimized for carbon surfaces with the ability to fill micro-crevices–in other words, its adhesive can fill cavities and imperfections in both carbon and extruded aluminum surfaces to seal faster and more completely than previous designs. If you have a look at their specs below, that means a noticeably thinner tape that doesn’t lose strength or sealant properties, which, in turn, makes for easier tire installs.

 

The Specs from Silca:

 

So what do you think? We’re intrigued, and we’ll likely be testing out these claims for ourselves in the future. Want to check them out for yourself? Visit Silca’s website for more info.