cyccommute 

Slime liners and Mr. Tuffy are very different products. I found the Slime liners to cut through tubes very quickly. I tried them once and threw them away. Mr. Tuffy have smoother edges and, while they can wear through, it takes much longer and is much less frequent.

khearn

Kevlar beads aren't intended to prevent flats, they make the tire slightly lighter and make it able to be folded. The bead is the wire that goes into the rim of the wheel, and doesn't have any effect on flat resistance. The alternative to kevlar is the traditional steel wire, which is too stiff to be able to fold the tire.

Keith

johnr783

I have Stop Flats on my tour rig and mountain bike. When I get my commuter and road bike (hopefully I will have the commuter early next year) I will add some Stop Flats to those.

I had three flats in 10 days during summer. That was on a 4 mile commute. Once I added the liners, nothing!

Stryver

I use slime.

It's icky, it's heavy, it probably freezes when it's really cold. But it is a beautiful thing to be able to fix most leaks by adding more air and going for a spin.

I also look for tires that appear to be fairly puncture-resistant.

tcristy

I have a 19-mile round trip commute in addition to weekend fun rides and only got 1 flat all of last year's ~4000 miles. No liners, just Conti GP4000 tires.

pityr

those are fantastic tires but they suck for flat protection. I have added a liner to them before and they really work well after that.

nashcommguy

W/o reading any other posts I'll say as one who's used them. They're fine for low psi mtb street tires, but for high pressure road tires there's a tendency for them to cut into the tube over a period of time causing a flat or blowout. Get some Schwalbe Marathon Plus' and your flat worries are over for about a year or two depending on mileage and road surface.

Bekologist

i like the flat protection in the tires. i used to run liners but think the protective plies in some of the modern tires are pretty good.

DVC45

Tire liners + thorn resistant tubes here. ' been very lucky with this combo so far.
BTW, I'm using a low pressure MTB slick tires (Panaracer).

The results of this poll is interesting.

ed209

What's might a neat followup poll- for those that use tire-liners/armored tires- how long do your tubes go before the glue fails around the valve stem?

I've been able to go ~1 year tops on a set of tubes (riding 5 days a week, any weather but ice/slush). My recent flats happened when the valve stem literally pulled away from the rest of the tube. I'm now on an annual 'replace the tubes in spring' plan, flat or not.

CornyBum

I used to use Mr. Tuffy tire liners with the stock tires on my bike. Since I switched to Schwalbe Marathon Supremes, which are narrower (under the tire liners' size range) and stronger, I haven't been using tire liners. I ride on fairly good suburban roads most of the time anyways.

devianb

I used them once, and that was enough. I either use Kevlar tires and/or thick inner tubes.

pityr

I just started using the liners with the kevlar tires about 4 months ago so I can't say. Why would they affect the glue on the valve stem? Cheap tubes?