General Cycling Discussion - Self sealing tubes - do they work

I guess the title says it all. Been out of cycling for a while (kids). Now I see self sealing tubes and "slime" tubes. Do these really work?

Oops, my first post. The most important question, even if they work, are they worth the money?

They can seal small punctures in MTB tires. At the higher pressures used by road tires, they are a waste of money.

Sure they work - sometimes. When they don't, boy have you got a mess to clean up. I wouldn't even bother trying to patch a slimed tube.

For myself, the fight against punctures went best when I switched to puncture resistant tires. Some of them are expensive, but when you have 5 flats in 6 days you usually don't have time to ride.

I used them for several years on my mountain bike because that's all they had at walmart. They work for small punctures on mountain bike tires. As someone already mentioned, they probably won't work for high pressure road tires.

Even though they do work for small punctures, in my experience that's not usually the type that inflicts me. Often times a small amount of the slime will try to leak out the valve when you pump the tires. Twice I've had to remove the valve core and clean it off because the pin was too gummed up to close all the way.

Generally I've found they're not really worth it.

They can seal small punctures in MTB tires. At the higher pressures used by road tires, they are a waste of money.


Sure they work - sometimes. When they don't, boy have you got a mess to clean up. I wouldn't even bother trying to patch a slimed tube.

For myself, the fight against punctures went best when I switched to puncture resistant tires. Some of them are expensive, but when you have 5 flats in 6 days you usually don't have time to ride.

+1

+1

Save your money and just buy a couple of spare tubes.

Our bikes came with them, I think I'll be replacing them, after the first time I needed to add some air (shouldn't the slime have prevented that) the slime squirted out into my pump and all over the rim making a nice mess.

Use your money to invest in a better tire instead.

Or take last years tire, cut the beads off, and stuff it inside your current tires to make them double walled.

Our bikes came with them, I think I'll be replacing them, after the first time I needed to add some air (shouldn't the slime have prevented that) the slime squirted out into my pump and all over the rim making a nice mess.


No slime won't won't prevent the normal air loss in tires. It's natural and happens to every bike that is equipped with tires that require tubes. It has something to do with the physics of gases, but I really can't explain it. Slime is only designed to fill small (less than 1/8") punctures.

I'm with the other people who have said to save your money and invest in puncture resistant tires, spare tubes, or a patch kit...or all three, due to the problems and mess associated with slime.

I use them on my commuter bike and they seem ok. Fixing flats is a PITA because that bike has bolt-on wheels and drum brakes with reaction arms that need to be removed to get the wheels off. Otherwise, I'd probably stay with regular tubes.

One of the people I worked with had self sealing tubes and he commuted every day. He went for about 4 months before he had a puncture so it did work for a while. It did work as when we got the tyre off the rim- we could not get the tube out of the tyre. He had about 6 punctures that had not stopped him riding- but the "Goo" had leaked from the tube- and made a right mess of the inside of the tyre. No way could we clean up the inside of the tyre so it was a new tyre- and two new tubes and a repair kit for the next puncture. Which he did not have again for another year.

I've used them for years and have had very good luck with them. MTB and high pressure road tires.