axelfox

I just order some parts (Tires, tubes and rim tape) to turn my mtb into a city bike. I went to one of REI's basic bike classes, and I think the guy said to to slime the inside of the tires before putting in the tubes to help prevent punctures.

Is this necessary? I know I'll have to put on the rim tape, but I'm trying to see if I can get away without sliming the tire.

thx.

Falkon 

No, this is not necessary. Slime will help by sealing punctures, but I don't even like to use it. It just means more rotational weight to me. Instead, you should just carry an extra tube and a pump or CO2 inflator.

axelfox

Great, thanks!

Mach42

Do you have those evil goatheads where you live? You can spend a lot of time patching on the side of the road.

As it is with everything, slime is a compromise.

Disadvantages:
Heavier tires- makes acceleration more difficult.
Possible mess. If the hole is too big for slime to seal, it gets everywhere. It can also make patching more difficult if it becomes necessary since it may be oozing out.

Advantages:
Seals up most smaller thorns and pricklies pretty well.
It's always there.
Can handle several small punctures quickly.
Cuts the amount of patching by a LOT. Patching sucks.

I use it on my MTB tires. The rotating weight is negligible. I'm not racing. There have been times when I wasn't paying attention and rolled through a patch of goathead plants, and I got more than 10 of them poking holes in my tires. Slime took care of those- I didn't even have to stop or anything. It also saved me when I ran over a metal something or another and it kept the leak slow enough that I was able to get home instead of patching a hole in the dark.

Heck, I use slime and carry an extra tube and pump for the just-in-case factor. You never know, and I hate mooching stuff and rides or being stranded.

On the road bike, I don't use slime. Pressures are too high for the slime to clot and I don't ride where there are goatheads. Glass has not made it past my tire's built in protection strip yet.


Use it if you want to. Patching is a PITA for me, and I'd gladly take a little extra weight in my tubes to not have to stop every 2 or 3 rides to patch goathead punctures.

Portis

Sort of depends on where you live axel, and where you ride. For me it is quite simple:

Slime= Many happy hours of riding, with no flats. I have gone thousands of miles on unpaved roads without a flat before.

No Slime= Many unhappy hours fixing flat tires in said conditions.

Don't get me wrong, i still get an occasional flat on my Mountain bikes but it is occasional, and i ride every day in some pretty harsh conditions. Just last week I was on a 40 mile backroad, unpaved ride in the middle of nowhere. I started to get the infamous bounce and new my rear was going down.

I kept spinning. After a couple miles i got off and looked for a leak. There was none, the slime had sealed it up. I just grabbed the pump and aired it back to max and road another 20 miles or so. I was a LONG ways from civilization. This sort of thing has happened many times with Slime, it saves me as often as it doesn't. I couldn't imagine riding my mtb's without it.

On paved roads with my road bike, i don't run it. I don't get very many flats, maybe one every 1000 miles or so. Again, it depends on where you ride.