andreasalbus

Any faith in strips between the tube and tire or slime products in preventing flats?

Al1943

Not if it is a road bike with high pressure tires.
Best flat protection is to fully inflate your tires before each ride.
Use Velox rim tape to protect the tube from the spoke holes.
Avoid whatever is causing the flats.
Keep out of grass and weeds at all times (road bikes).

Al

mrz80

My preferred setup is Velox rim tape, Kevlar-belted tires, and Mister Tuffy liners. Actually, the Mister Tuffys alone have protected me from all manner of nuts and bolts, potholes, broken glass, etc. Oh, and ditto on the chap who said "fully inflate your tires before each ride"; my last couple flats were snake-bites from riding underinflated.

Garthr

Strips- NO.

Slime- NO.


There is no flat prevention. Kevlar or Vectran belted tires surely reduce flats , but nothing prevents ..... other than a solid core tire that is!

Other than that . . .flats just happen. They are but one way the Universe reminds us we are not in control of this thing we call life. Believe it . . or not

abstractform20

mr tuffy definitely helps

Jeff Wills

Ditto- I cut my front tire on some glass once. I rode for 10 miles wondering what the thumping was coming from my front wheel. (It was a really nice road and I didn't want to stop.) When I stopped and looked, there was a 1/2 slice all the way through the tire and I had been riding on the Mr. Tuffy. The tire was toast, but I was able to ride it home without issues.

I get an occasional flat due to the Mr. Tuffy sawing through the tube. That happens once every 2 years or so- a small price to pay for all of the flat-less miles.

operator

Lots of disinformation in 4 posts already.

While true nothing prevents flats (thread is more appropriately called flat mitigation), there are tyres that have significantly better flat protection than standard tires. And since people don't have comprehension skills on this forum anymore i'll spell it out.

Tyres like the Schwalbe Martahon Plus and the Specialized Armadillo have material in the tread that make them much more resilient to punctures over a standard $20 26x2.0 cheapy tyres, rubinos, pro race 2's - to name a few.

Tuffies are generally a waste of time, as with slime - although slime may be useful in areas where there are a lot of thorns.

Barry in GA

The lack of respect and common courtesy is a much larger problem than the lack of comprehension.

JanMM

Rolling on tires with a Kevlar layer.

gerv 

I always used liners until recently when a liner managed to puncture my tubes twice in one week. Not sure why: perhaps my poor installation. I've sworn off them since.

Have to agree that the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires are the answer, if you can put up with their weight and difficult installation.

Al1943

The weight really is the key issue in my opinion. Liners and reinforced tires add a lot of weight in the worst possible part of the bike and can make the bike feel sluggish. Whether or not to use these is up to the individual's priorities, more flat protection or more performance.

dit

The best protection is to watch where you are riding. No matter what you do to the tires, if you ride thru glass, over nails, or hit chuck holes you will have flats.

thompsw

I agree. I was going to say more but then I'd be displaying a lack of courtesy too.

operator

I wasn't talking about you.

I prefer correct information rather than having it presented in a nice candy wrapper of bull****. Which seems to be too common here. Save your axe grinding for someone else.

MilitantPotato

Mr. Tuffy liners worked great for me on a commuter many years ago. People say there can be issues with them cutting tubes. Never happened to me though.
Marathon Plus tires also work from what people say, mainly because the rubber is very, very thick and it has a dense compound (much like Mr. Tuffy) embedded in the tread, which makes them very heavy and have high rolling resistance. They're over priced for what they are, IMO.
Kevlar is alright for large stuff, but for thin objects like staples, thorns, etc. it's pretty useless since they pass between the threads. I'm guessing they roll a bit better, and tend to be far lighter though.

If I was on a budget, and had tires I liked, I'd go with Mr. Tuffys. The plus being they can be used in your next set of tires. Not sure about the high PSI thing someone mentioned, I was running 60psi tires.

operator

The compound insert in the martahon plus is nowhere near the density of the Tuffy. The tuffy is equivilanet to a thick sheet of paper. The marathon plus insert is almost 7-10mm thick.

The reason why Tuffies cut tubes is due to two reasons

1) Incorrectly cut end piece that leaves sharp corners
2) Underinflated tyres that allow the strip itself to move WRT the tyre - eventually causing a flat from abrasion

MilitantPotato

Fair enough about the compound deal. I've never owned a Marathon Plus, so I just know the description on their website.

Makes sense, I do recall cutting the ends of the Mr. Tuffys to a nice round profile as the instructions said.
So it's all user error causing the flats from them then, explains why I never had that problem.

operator

I think they'd work just fine if you know what you were doing. The efficacy is... debatable imho

Barry in GA

Correct information does not excuse being deliberately offensive.

operator

You must be new here.

abstractform20

mr tuffy works fine.

try em out for like 14 bucks.

dont let a cycling information nazi command you.

just try it out...

Whit51 

Panaracer Pasela Tourgaurds can be found for around $50 a pair and ride very well. They are a lower cost alternative to more expensive flat resistant tires like the Armadillo. Their tan, pseudo gum-wall look is not for everybody, but they look very appropriate on vintage road bikes. My flat problems ended when I started using them and similar kevlar-belted tires.

froze

Kevlar belted tires is mostly bunch of hooey! Most flats are caused by thistles and thorns, or bits of steel wire from shredding steel belted car tires, or pointy bits of glass. Well guess what? That kind of stuff penetrates kevlar with no problem, just as a kevlar bullet proof vest won't stop or even slow down an arrow! The pointy stuff just separates the fibers and in it goes.

Slime in tubes won't seal even the smallest of leaks once the psi in the tire exceeds about 65psi, but the stuff works great in mtb tires; and their presta valves are very cheap.

So what does work you scream? Mr Tuffys work pretty good. But your first line of defense against flats needs to be your tires and best I've ever found at that is the Specialize Armadillo All Condition Pro. Their not flat proof but they are the best your going to find in that direction.

And not riding in grass and weeds is just a bunch of crap, I do that whenever necessary on a road bike and I don't encounter any more flats by doing that, in fact I've had none in over 40 years of riding! All my flats come from debris picked up off the road.

And to try to avoid whatever is causing flats is an impossible task. Sure you can avoid the big stuff, but how are you going to see a throne, or small piece of steel wire? You think you can just stare at the space 5 feet in front of your tire while riding and see this stuff? Your wrong, not only that but by just staring in front of your tire your not seeing the road ahead for the car that's about to pull out in front of you; plus if you do see something and you swerve to avoid it that action may put you into a path of a car, but your rear tire will hit it the object anyways!!

I just ride my bike and not worry too much about flats because their going to happen. Some tires are more susceptable then others due to being ultra thin like light racing tires vs the heavy armored tires like the Armardillo, or you can compromise and go with a mid wieght tire like the Conti 4000 with the new Vectron belt. If you live in an area littered with thorns and thistles then go with the Armadillo (like where I use to live in the upper desert area of California), if not then the Conti is a good tire. I would go with the tire that best suits the conditions you ride in without the Mr Tuffy and if your still having too many flats then add the Mr Tuffy especially on the rear tire since that's where most flats occur.

illwafer

the best prevention of flats is to ride where cars drive. let them pick up the road debris for you. absolutely stay out of the gutter.

and pump up your tires every week.

froze

This won't matter a bit! In fact could make things worse. If a car rolls over a piece of glass, does that glass remain imbedded in the tire(s)? NO, the tire simply grinds the glass into smaller bits where they remain on the road for you to pick up in your bike tire. Staying away from the gutter is a good idea because a lot of crap gets pushed to the gutter especially after a rain.