Originally Posted by
Darth Lefty
Slime is not quite the same thing. It’s got rubber crumbs to plug holes. But tubeless tire sealant is made with liquid latex that dries out when it leaks to make a seal. More like Fix-A-Flat. It lasts a few months in a tubeless tire but in a tube it can go a year. I just pumped up my tandem again after a long storage. The last thing I did before I put it away was put sealant in it to patch a leak, and pump it up. When I pumped it up lately nearly a year later it still had about 10 psi left and the sealant was still liquid.
i disagree with locolobo, they are freaking everywhere in Phoenix. Armor up, however you choose to, and spend your attention on something else
Sealants work in much the same way. Tubeless sealant isn’t “liquid” latex. It’s a suspension of latex in a dispersant. Latex is a bio-polymer that isn’t “liquid”. It’s the same rubber “crumbs” as Slime uses or, for that matter, the same latex material that is used in paint. Once the latex enters the hole, the dispersant leaves either through evaporation or other means and the latex agglomerates and forms the plug that seals the leak.
Secondly, even though you still may have “liquid” in the tire after a year, you may not have in agglomerated latex in the tire. That’s what “coral” formations in tubeless tires are. It’s the agglomerated latex sloshing about in the dispersant. If that latex is all agglomerated it won’t plug any holes. The carrier solvent in tubeless sealant (unlike Slime) dissolves through the rubber which is how the sealant “dries” in an airtight, watertight container. At some point, the tire becomes saturated with the sealant carrier so that the sealant doesn’t dry out any further but the latex will still agglomerate. Along with drying out, that agglomeration is why the sealant needs to be refreshed regularly.
Originally Posted by
suncruiser
had slime in my tubes, might have slowed it down a bit, but I still ended up with a double flat bike when I got home and parked it for an hour. 700x32, run at About 80-85psi if that makes a difference
I don’t use Slime (nor any sealant) but I had an interesting discussion with a Slime user about using the stuff. I have always left the goat head in place as it serves as kind of a plug of its own. But he said that the goat head should be removed so that the Slime can fill the hole. If the goat head is left in place, it can flex and reopen the hole constantly. Even if the major part of the dead is broken off, the spike could still flex which would lead to leakage and/or a poor seal. Remove all of the thorn and the Slime should seal.
I do, by the way, use Mr Tuffy’s but they aren’t perfect. I’ve been on rides where I’ve gotten zero flats (out of 27 for 4 people). I’ve also been on rides where I’ve stopped counting flats at 67 on only my tire. I would also add that the ride where we had 27 flats, one of the four people had tubeless and got 4 of the 27 flats. Tubeless isn’t necessarily perfect either.