Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - Stop Flats 2 & other tire liners

Has anyone tried a tire liner called "Stop Flats 2"?

Are they effective in preventing flats?

Any other tire liners which are effective?

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

i am using the stop flats 2 and i have no more issues. the tires i am using now are the conti supersonic tires. as you would know they have NO flat protection basically. i am a big guy and my area is nasty when it comes to flat via debris especially glass. i used to use michelin krylions, pr's etc. i was tired of getting up to 2 flats a ride , even on BRAND NEW tires( and yes i inspected and removed debris from the tire). this was over my normal 30-50 mile routes. so with the same tires and up to 6 flats a week at the worst, i got fed up and bought liners 7 months ago. i have had one flat since then but it was due to a nasty tire slice then failure. with the new liners and lack of any real issues other than weight gain, i opted to buy the lightest tires i could get my hands on. i didnt measure the weight gain but technically what does it matter if you eat up a couple more watts of energy when a flat eats up 5 minutes at a time or more (depending on overall exhaustion). for all those who dont shave, you could always gain back that couple or few watts by shaving and or buying lighter tires .:D


i am quite happy with my tire/ liner combo. that was made even more so when i twice passed that guy who ripped on me for using liners.

Thanks for the reply. You hit the nail on the head

I use the conti Ultragatorskins & still got a flat from a glass sliver. Sounds like the Stps Flats 2 does the job.

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

I have used the original stop flats on a couple of my bikes and have yet to get a flat in three years on any one of those bikes. However, most of my flats were from thorns. Again'st thorns they are very effective. I'm not sure if any of my liners are the Stop flat 2's. If you are riding in a particularly bad area for flats you can combine a puncture resistant tube with the stop flat. Although this is heavy it is quite effective for stopping most flats.

In my opinion the Stop Flats are more effective than the Kevlar reinforced puncture resistant tires and is a better expenditure of money. They also seem to have less of an effect on rolling resistance than the kevlar reinforced tires do since they are more compliant than kevlar strands.

Thanks for the reply. It seems these these work quite well.

John Hawrylak
Woodstown NJ

I have never (in over 40 years of cycling) felt the need to put any kind of liner in my tyres.

I hear something called "goatheads" are pretty vexatious though. Haven't had any experience with those.

i wish i could say that i dont see the need in liners. maybe its just me. i am just not nice to tires. the slices i get from glass and such will make me replace the rear in the range of 500-1000 miles. last year i had to boot my tire twice from slices in the side wall. then i had one total tire failure. that was damn scary. i dont buy cheesy tires, and 30 dollars a week in inner tubes suck.

maybe i should just stop riding in my area, i never get flats when i go on rides elsewhere :lol: