Nothing kills a ride quicker than the sound of air rushing from your tyre, hoping it will seal but knowing your luck - it won’t…

Yes, you SHOULD have a tube on you. But even if you do, you'd prefer to not open that can of worms... Luckily a tyre plug can save the day, if you've got one on you. But a lot of us don't, likely for one of following reasons:

1. Awareness: We weren't aware tyre plugs could solve our problem...
2. Performance: Cheaper kits help get a plug into your tyre, but it often doesn't stay there, whilst better kits, like dynaplug, work well but have a hefty price tag
3. Size: Many kits take up too much valuable luggage space by including an extra specialty tool in the kit
4. Price: $65 or more for a decent kit seems… a bit excessive?

At Outspoken, we're convinced that all riders of tubeless tyres should carry tyre plugs while riding. We searched for a plug option that was small, cheap and performed well. And we failed to find one… So we made one ourselves.

Our kit addresses these issues:

1. Awareness: N/A
2. Performance: Reliable sealing is obtained by using plug anchors which you push into the tyre. Once it's in there, it won't let the plug come out. Thin plugs are used because we found them adaptable (put multiple strips together to form a plug of any size). It also turns out that more flexible strips give a better seal.
3. Size: Everything fits in a 6 x 4.5 x 1.2cm case which will easily fit in your bag. It’s small stature is enabled by not needing a specialty tool to drive the plugs. Instead, that is done with the 2mm allen key on your multitool. And tipping the scales at a whopping 13g including the case, this kit could be lighter than the mould in your water bottle.
4. Price: The listed price speaks for itself. We’ve got here by using strong, but cost-effective materials and by not needing a specialty tool. Also, we have replacement parts available here.

So what’s the catch? You’ll need to ride with a multi-tool so that you can drive the plugged anchors. And if you don’t ride with a multi-tool, you should start… That’s silly behaviour (that we are admittedly guilty of sometimes 😅), tut tut.

This kit includes:

• 10 repair strips
• 5 small anchors
• 4 large anchors
• A case

Make sure you’ve got a multi-tool, this kit won’t be useful without it…

How to plug your tyre:

1. Insert 1 - 2 repair strips through a small anchor or 2 - 4 strips through a large anchor, depending on the size of the hole.
2. Fit the anchor to a 2 mm allen key - your multi tool will do the trick.
3. Push the anchor through the hole the tyre.
4. Top up tyre pressure and continue your ride.
5. When home, trim excess off the tyre outer if you’re concerned about the looks

When fitting multiple repair strips to an anchor, we recommend slightly offsetting them to make insertion a bit easier. By offsetting them you’ll initially inserting a single plug into the anchor, which is easier, then you can pull the other strip through too. Check out the video below.

Need more plugs or anchors? You can get spares here.

Further notes

We made quite a mess developing and testing these, as you can imagine. Ultimately, we found that a good quality sealant will instantly block a hole made by a skewer 6mm in diameter. But depending on the size, location of the hole and the age of your sealant, you may want to plug even smaller holes. Even “sealed” holes from sealant can leak when the casing is abused on the trail. A good tyre plug is simply more reliable.

The small anchors fit 1-2 strips. The large plugs accommodate up to 4 - enough to plug some gigantic holes. Before you put the plug in your tyre we suggest that you scratch your chin and decide what combination is the best bet.

And before you ask us why we only use thin strips: They work better… Firstly, no two holes are the same size or shape and we found that multiple small strips better mould to the gash. Also, you don’t need to worry about what size repair strips you have left - all repair strips are the same.