To Slime or not to slime
 

Anyone had any success/thoughts on the SLIME tubes? Do they self-seal as advertised?

I had no luck with slime that you put in the tube. Schrader value 100 psi clinchers. Had punctures that would not seal.
Switched to conti gator skins and added tuffy tire liners to boot. 1300 miles so far no flats, pinch or puncture.
I

Slime on mountain bikes seems to be a practical move. On road bikes they seem conter productiove as you want to have a more efficient machine and yet you increase the rotating weight.

My 2 c

Well, this is the commuting forum, so reducing weight is less important than having a reliable machine, most likely.

Does the slime even work on road tires? Would kevlar be a better investment if trying to avoid flats?

Slime doesn't work at higher pressures (100 psi and up, I think).

I have noticed a big difference in the amount of flats I've been getting since I started buying the Slime brand tubes. It certainly isn't anything else I'm doing, since I ride on $10 Kenda tires and ride over glass, etc. all the time! As far as slime not working at higher pressure, that's bull.

Slime = Keep Riding

No Slime = Stop and fix a lot of flats.

I use Slime.

Will slime freeze bellow zero? I store my commuter outside.

I slime! I have had to air up more than once for it to work once or twice, but when I finally blew out a tire, I found many little slime balls on the outside of the inner tube, where slime had been doing it's job!

I also use a liner, mr. tuffy brand, i think. When I started commuting this time, I weighed 270 lbs. and had 4 rear tire flats in 4 days... so I slime!

"So I slime"

Are all of you slime users here using tubes that come with slime inside? I tried using the fix-a-flat stuff (designed for cars) and it didn't work for me.

My personal experience hasn't been good. I've had one puncture so far and the slime did nothing but make everything, well, slimy. I took a staple in the rear tire (the kind that you fire out of a hand-held Arrow gun, not like a plywood staple or something. As far as I can tell, the slime didn't even slow the leak down. It just made it so I had to clean up a bunch of green crap before I could patch the tube.

I'm running Kendas at about 75 PSI. They came from the LBS with Slime in them. I noticed the hiss immediately upon picking up the staple. I was 100 yards from work. Stopped, pulled out the staple, turned the tire leaky side down. Went inside, came out 5 minutes later to a completely flat tire.

When I switched to winter tires a couple of weeks ago, I put in fresh tubes without the Slime. I checked over the tube pretty carefully, and there were no other holes that I noticed, and I assume I'd see them because they'd have a green slimy marker. So out of one incident consisting of two 1/16" long by 0" thick slices, the stuff that claims to instantly patch holes up to 1/8" in diameter (that's a pretty big hole!) scores 0%.

Just my experience, and I'm a first-year commuter, so YMMV.

patch and pump
period.
I doubt slime will get me home on my 10 mile commute.
keep the pressure up on the tires also helps. I refresh the air every day.
slime is for lazy folks wanting a magical "cure" for flats.

That's the most rediculous thing I've read all day. I had so many flats on the crappy roads of my commute, that I got very sick of fixing flats 4-5 times a week. Sometimes twice in a day. You call not wanting to patch that lazy? I call you a masochist. Glutton for punishment maybe. I got sick of it and so I put in thorn resistant tubes, *AND* slime. Not one flat since then. I don't call that lazy. I call it smart. The downside is that its much harder to accelerate from a stop buy hey, its only a 6 mile commute so who's counting. I'd rather get there than get there fast and end the day with a flat.

Patch and pump is for losers too lazy to walk their bike home. Did your momma have any kids that lived?

I'd rather just use a tire liner along with a tire with it's own integrated liner and thorn-resistant tubes than use any adhesives to remedy flats....I may be a freak, but I go by the prevention is golden rule.

No flats, then why do you need slime :)

I've not had good results with Slime. Tuffy liners certainly have helped. The only real solution, I think, is stronger tires -- slime and Mr. Tuffy are just "band aids" that fail to address the root cause, which is tires optimized for recreation, rather than utility. I've not had a single flat in 2,800 miles on Schwalbe Marathon Plus. I've also heard good things of Conti Top Touring and Specialized Armadillo.

Paul

I'm beginning to feel that you can never have too many tire "band aids," as long as each one actually helps at least a little. I used to get piles of flats. I got a kevlar-belted rear tire AND am using a Tuffy liner; it's still been punctured twice in the past 1000 miles or so. (front tire has Tuffy liner but is not kevlar-belted and has had 1 or zero flats in the same time.)

Why would you doubt it if you don't know anything about it?

Slime works for slow leaks.

I use the tires that came on the bike to begin with, and put in slime from a bottle, along with mr. tuffy liner, on the rear tire. I have had to air up twice for some leaks, but it will hold for a little while, then I stop and refresh. I carry tools, but rarely am willing to fix a flat on the run. I usually get home and then fix at my leisure, but slime and liners have SIGNIFICANTLY reduced the number of flats. from 4 in 4 days to none in months... :D

Any opinions on Rivendell Ruffy Tuffys?

My inadvertant and highly unscientific test:

The Equipment:

Me - 26" knobbys with a couple of thousand commute miles on them, thorn resistant tubes, tire liners, no slime.

My buddy - two brand new 26" knobbys, two brand new pre-slimed tubes.

The course: 60 miles of very rough, overgrown, rail trail. Both bikes loaded with about 60 lbs. of camping gear.

Results:

Me - zero flats.
My buddy - four flats.

As far as I can tell all slime does is make a mess. However, YMMV.

I have tubeless tires on my MTB. Before I started using Slime, it was horrible because the tubeless tire, once repaired after a flat, would not inflate unless a powerful compressor was used. I ended up calling my bike's "roadside assistance" (my wife to pick me up, that is). Now with Slime, I just see green dots where punctures are. Air escapes a little, taking with it some Slime, then sealing the opening. I haven't had much luck with Slime and 700x23C road tire though. I now use Armadillos with Lunar Light tubes. No flat & cuts yet after 231 miles.