If you’re looking for a quick comparison, check out my tubeless sealant grouptest.
Uberbike Tyre Matrix Review
I’ve used a lot of different sealants in the past, from ones that foam up and line the inside of the tire to the more traditional latex based ones. This was definitely my first blue sealant and fuck me is it messy. It literally looks like a group of teenage smurfs have had their naughty, naughty way with your wheel because I have not found a way to seal a tire with the Tyre Matrix without it gooping on something.
For the last two months, I’ve been riding with the Tyre Matrix in my Nukeproof Scout and my Genesis Tarn, testing in real-life conditions with actual punctures, burps and tears rather than spinning and stabbing it in a workshop.
I have to say that Uberbike’s Tyre Matrix is shit.
I ended up buying the tubeless kit they offered and the best thing that came out of it was the gorilla tape! The valves looked good but ended up getting warped when I used my proper track pump meaning that the valve cores got stuck and I couldn’t remove them to add sealant. Pain in the ass!
The blue juice itself is absolutely terrible at doing the job it’s supposed to. I needed to put over half a liter into my Tarn just to get the tyres to stop leaking air, it was honestly getting ridiculous. If I hadn’t literally just let them down from being set up with Stans I’d have thought there was an issue with the tyre! The Scout went up a little easier, but all the air was lost overnight – again, something I haven’t had happen to me for a very long time, especially using Maxxis tyres and Stans.
Once I’d finally got the tyres to stay up, I thought they’d be great. How wrong I was.
On my first ride out on the Scout I managed to puncture the front and rear tire on a rock that I simply didn’t see until it was too late. The holes were really small, so I kept on riding expecting it to seal. It didn’t. For about 2 minutes all I could hear was a hiss, while the blue goop oozed out of my tyres like tiny smurf prisoners escaping from a life sentence in a big circular prison. Then it was all over, no air left in the tire and a huge amount of sealant everywhere except patching up the hole.
I blew the tyres up again at home and the oozing continued, refusing to patch at all. I thought that perhaps the holes were too big to fill, but on examination, they were less than 1-2mm and were right in the tread pattern. Something that should have been sorted. After a few hours and even more sealant they finally sealed, only to go down overnight… again.
The next ride didn’t even let me get more than 500m out the door until whatever pathetic seal there had been broken and my tyres leaked air and smurf juice again. I walked back and swapped over to the Tarn, noticing that a fair bit of pressure had been lost since I initially set them up.
The Tarn didn’t fare much better. I hit one corner with a fair bit of pace and managed to burp the tire and the whole goddamn thing came right off the rim. It’s like the Tyre Matrix acts more like a lube than a sealant. I had around 250g of sealant in this tire and in the blink of an eye it was all over the trail, my bike and me.
Needless to say, I will not be recommending UberBike’s Tyre Matrix to anyone.
Overall
Don’t buy this product. Buy Uberbike’s brake pads, bottom brackets, headsets or anything else but their sealant is shit. I can’t say it any plainer than that.
