I used to ride on a trail with lots of sand burs and stickers. I experienced 3-4 flats a month and finally just quit riding on the trail. They were always small holes that slime could fix, but it was still annoying. One day I picked up a pair of these at a swap meet for $2 and after installing them I rode the sticker trail once again and after 3 months of riding had no flats. Then I moved to another town which happened to have a clean trail making these things useless. So basically pretty much the only thing these are good for is stickers. Other than that there's really no purpose.