Silca Redefines Tubeless Valve Kits and Rim Tape

Disclosure: This article may link to affiliate sites/feature complimentary products for review purposes.
Silca Tubeless Aero Valve Stems

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

silca tubeless valve kits with speed shield

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).

Read Also >>  You Can Now Ride a Unicorn - SpeedX Launch First Smart Road Bike with Integrated Power Meter

The Specs from Silca:

  • Less than half the weight of brass valve stems
  • 50-200% Stronger than typical aluminum valve stems
  • Ultimate level, fully machined brass valve cores with improved airflow
  • SpeedShield Improves wheel aerodynamics while protecting carbon rims
  • Spherical nut eliminates bending forces on valve stem for improved strength
  • Available 44, 60, 80, and 100mm lengths
  • Kit contains 2 Valve Stems, 2 Spherical Valve Nuts and 2 SpeedShield Rim Protectors

Valve Extenders

silca tubeless valve extendersOf 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

silca premium 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.

Read Also >>  Is Voler's Caliber the World's Comfiest Kit? - Jersey & Bibs Review

 

The Specs from Silca:

  • 25% stronger tape material allows for 25% thinner tape for better conformability to your rim
  • Full Synthetic adhesive system is stronger than traditional adhesives on aluminum and optimized to be up to 30% stronger on carbon surfaces
  • 15% thicker adhesive layer better fills porosities and surface imperfections for improved sealing
  • Reduced thickness improves tire installation/removal compared to thicker tapes.
  • 21mm Tape Fits 15c-19c Rims, 25mm Tape Fits 21c-27c Rims
  • 2 Wraps of tape for Road Wheels, 1 Wrap for Mountain and CX
  • 9m Tape Per Roll will Wrap 2 Road Wheels, 4 CX/29’er Wheels or 5 26″ MTB Wheels
  • 2 Wraps on Road Wheel = 9 grams, 1 Wrap CX/29’er = 4.5 grams
  • Can be used as ultra-light rim tape with inner tubes (2 wraps required)

 

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.

About Bek 301 Articles
SLO Cyclist's former chief editor and recovering road snob, Bek made sure everything ran smoothly around here. She was also the one who reminded us not to take ourselves too seriously--unless it involves black socks. Black socks are always serious.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

UA-25394520-1