If you’re just catching up, there were a lot of new valve designs this year at Sea Otter… including some we can’t even talk about yet. At Stan’s, the well-known tubeless brand has completely rethought the presta valve with an all-new design that promises to offer high flow without any clogging.
To get there, the Exocore uses a multi-piece design with a solid brass core in the middle. Since all of the sealing surfaces are external to the valve, Stan’s claims the valve is virtually clog-free. It also should work with nearly any pump – which can be an issue for certain valves.
To operate the valve, you can give the upper section a 1/4 turn to allow for a micro-bleed of air pressure. Or you can turn it wide open to allow for full airflow. Stan’s also claims that since there isn’t a regular valve core, you don’t have restrictions in flow. They claim you’ll see 4-5x the flow of a normal presta valve when using the Exocore fully open. Note that this is with the top section and the core still attached. If you need even more flow, you can remove those two like a standard presta valve. In a pinch, you can even install a normal presta core into the base.
The base of the valves are tire insert-compatible and use an elliptical tapered stopper which is pucker-free offering a full contact seal with more surface area. The valve nut also includes a captured o-ring to prevent it from vibrating loose.
Instead of a cap that has to be unthreaded, the Exocore cap simply presses on with an o-ring, and you remove it by twisting while pulling. The valve stems themselves are offered only in black, but the valve nut and caps are available in six colors which will be sold separately as a color kit.
The patent-pending valves will be sold in four lengths to fit various rim profiles and will be priced at $50 per set. The color kit price is TBD. Expect these to start shipping on July 1st.
Amazing New Syringe
It is tough to get excited about a tubeless sealant syringe, but Stan’s accomplished that with their new Tubeless Sealant Injector. Completely custom-made for Stan’s, the injector has a few details that make it better than just about anything else out there. For starters, the syringe is bigger to work with more sealant for bigger wheel sizes and will fit up to 5oz.
That larger size is also important because Stan’s says’ it’s best to fill the syringe from the top, rather than sucking sealant out of the bottle with the hose. Why? When you use the hose, you often don’t get enough of the particulate suspended in the sealant to get the most of its sealing properties. But if you go to pour sealant into the top of the syringe, how do you keep it from spilling all over?
Stan’s addressed that by adding a split valve to the hose like you’d find in a ketchup bottle. There’s also a bump stop and ridge built into the top of the syringe that allows you to insert the plunger to the stop line, without squeezing out any sealant. That means you can prep the syringe and have it fully loaded and ready to go on your workbench without spilling. When you’re ready to fill, simply press the valve fitting onto the valve, and squeeze in your sealant. You can also plug the syringe with the included red plug which doubles as a hanger.
The Tubeless Sealant Injector will sell for $15, and is available now.
