Pirelli Cinturato Sealant

Pirelli Cinturato Sealant will certainly let you know you have a puncture thanks to its vivid yellow colour, but thankfully it'll most probably be sealed before you need to worry about it. Don't get any on your clothes, though, as it won't be washing out in a hurry.

Cinturato Sealant is designed for low pressure, large volume tyres like those found on urban, gravel, and mountain bikes, and just to make sure that you don't add the road version instead, the Cinturato is a striking yellow colour.

I've been using it on my gravel bike for a good few months now, from the final warm throws of autumn into the freezing depths of winter, and even with the temperature dropping down to -5°C some nights in the shed it still remains in the tyre as a liquid rather than a clumpy mess.

> 9 things they don’t tell you about tubeless tyres

During the course of the review period I've picked up quite a few intrusions into the tyres, a lot of them being small thorns and the like, which have been barely noticeable until I removed the tyre before writing this up.

A couple of others have been cuts from the sharp edges of rocks and flint from my local gravel trails. One measured about 3mm in length, right in the middle of the tread, while another was about 4mm long and a bit more of an opening than just a cut, just on the edge of the rubber near the sidewall.

Both sealed themselves out on the trail and I didn't lose a huge amount of pressure from the tyre. Pumping it back up to where I wanted it didn't see the sealant 'blow' back out again, helped no doubt by Pirelli's claim that Cinturato will work between 15psi and 100psi.

Stain potential

One issue, which could be a big one, is that it stains. On the bigger of the two cuts the sealant sprayed out as it was sealing and as I'd carried on riding I ended up with the sealant on the back of my leg and over one of my socks.

The sealant soaked in and there was no rescuing the socks. Thankfully, it did wipe off the bike frame and wheel rim, but it did stain the sidewall of the tyre a bit as well.

Like I say, this might or might not be a big issue, but if it was to spray on some expensive kit then that is going to be annoying. (See Matt's pics in his review of the Scorpion sealant on off.road.cc, link below, for an idea.)

Not in the mix

Rather than list what's in it, Pirelli focuses more on what isn't, which is good if you suffer from allergies. In the Cinturato mix you won't find any ammonia, latex or protein.

Size & price

Cinturato is only available in a 125ml bottle; if you want a bigger serving you'll want to buy the Scorpion sealant as it's the same mix but available in 240ml, 1 litre and 5 litre containers.

Price-wise, it's £9.99 for the 125ml bottle, which will comfortably fill two gravel tyres. That's more expensive than others – CST's Tubeless Sealant (which I tested in 2021) is £10.61 for 200ml, while Momum's Gum sealant is £11.99 for a 200ml bottle. Both of those two offered a similar performance to the Pirelli.

Conclusion

Overall, I've been happy with the results of the Cinturato sealant. It has sealed all of the punctures I have picked up in the last few months of riding and is still working, even after the huge range of temperatures we've had during the testing period. That staining issue could be a problem if you get a big puncture, though.

Verdict

Has a tendency to stain fabrics if things go wrong, but performance on the 'hole' is good