A dart tool is a tubeless tire repair device that plugs punctures from the outside, without removing the wheel. It works by inserting a small strip of chemically treated fabric into the hole, where it reacts with the latex-based sealant already inside your tire to form a permanent airtight bond. The whole process takes under a minute once you know what you’re doing.
What Makes the DART Different From Regular Plugs
Traditional tire plugs (often called “bacon strips”) are small rubber strips that get wedged into a puncture to physically block the hole. They work purely through friction, which means they can loosen over time. Riders have reported bacon strips worming their way out after as little as 20 minutes of riding.
The DART takes a different approach. Instead of a rubber strip, it uses a flexible fabric that’s been chemically treated to react with latex-based sealant. When you push the fabric into a puncture, two things happen at once: the material physically fills the hole, and it triggers a chemical reaction with the sealant that creates an airtight seal. That dual action is why the DART can handle larger gashes and slashes that a standard plug can’t. In side-by-side comparisons, the DART has successfully sealed cuts that caused traditional rubber plugs to fail.
The fabric is also more conformable than rubber. It flexes to match the shape of the puncture rather than relying on a tight friction fit, which makes the seal more reliable across different hole sizes and shapes.
What You Need Before You Start
The DART system has three components: the insertion tool, the fabric plug (pre-threaded through the tool’s barbed plastic tip), and the sealant already inside your tire. You’ll also want a pump or CO2 inflator on hand to re-inflate after the repair.
The chemical reaction is designed to work with Stan’s sealant, but it will react to some degree with any tubeless sealant that uses latex as a base. If you’re running a non-latex sealant, the plug will still physically fill the puncture, but you won’t get the full chemical bond.
A practical tip many riders use: keep a plug pre-threaded through the insertion tool at all times. When you’re standing on the side of a trail with air hissing out of your tire, fumbling to thread a plug through a tiny barbed tip is the last thing you want to deal with.
Step-by-Step: Inserting the DART
The process is straightforward, but a few details make the difference between a clean repair and a frustrating one.
1. Find the puncture. Spin the wheel slowly and look or listen for escaping air. If the tire has already gone mostly flat, you can run your hand around the tread to feel for a hissing spot or look for sealant bubbling out of the hole.
2. Keep as much air in the tire as possible. This is the most commonly overlooked step. The plug is significantly easier to insert when the tire still has pressure holding its shape. If the tire is completely flat, the casing can fold inward and make it hard to push the plug through cleanly. Work quickly once you’ve located the puncture.
3. Push the tool straight into the puncture. Align the barbed tip with the hole and push firmly until you feel the barb catch inside the tire. You want a straight, decisive motion rather than wiggling or angling the tool.
4. Pull the tool out, leaving the plug behind. The barbed tip is designed to release the fabric strip inside the tire when you withdraw the tool. You may need to hold a finger against the plug while pulling the tool out to keep the fabric from sliding back through. A portion of the fabric strip will remain visible on the outside of the tire. This is normal and intentional.
5. Re-inflate. Use your pump or CO2 inflator to bring the tire back up to your preferred pressure. The sealant inside will immediately begin reacting with the plug material to form the permanent bond.
After the Repair
You’ll notice a small tail of fabric sticking out of the tire’s surface. Unlike rubber bacon strips, which sometimes need to be trimmed carefully (with the risk of accidentally pulling the plug out), the DART’s fabric tail wears off cleanly on its own as you ride. It can’t be felt while riding, even on road tires with their thinner casings and higher sensitivity to surface irregularities. Leave it alone.
The repair is meant to be permanent. Once the chemical bond forms between the fabric and the sealant, you don’t need to replace the plug later or treat it as a temporary fix. Ride home, finish your race, or keep going on your bikepacking trip. The seal will hold through normal use.
When the DART Won’t Work
The DART handles punctures and small slashes well, but it has limits. Sidewall tears, large rips longer than about 7mm, or damage to the tire bead are beyond what any plug tool can reliably fix. If you push a DART into a hole and it won’t hold air after re-inflation, the damage is likely too large for a trailside repair, and you’re looking at either a tire boot (a reinforcing patch on the inside of the casing) or a new tire.
Also worth noting: if your sealant has dried out inside the tire, the chemical reaction won’t happen. The mechanical plug may still slow air loss enough to get you home, but you won’t get the airtight bond the system is designed to produce. Keeping your sealant topped up every few months is what makes the whole system work when you need it.