detroitjim

Mr Tuffy liners caused 2 of the 3 flats I've had this year in 2300 miles.
Shifty said it first "I'm sure that they saved me many more flats "

Been using them for about 17 years now. Most of that time riding through the (IMO)extraordinarily glassy streets of Detroit (within the city limits) .
Can recall only one time where glass penetrated the liner, causing a flat. Pieces of metal did that several times.
Being 240lbs+ during that time period ,averaging 3000-4000 miles a year and getting 5 or less flats a year,
I swear by tire liners.

nancy sv

I really like slime for around town, but won't use it again for touring. Although the slime fixes most flats, if you do get one that it won't fix you need to throw the tube away. If you're touring in other countries and don't have many tubes, that's a risk you don't want to take. We were very nearly stranded when our slime tire needed to be trashed and another tube was defective. It's better to have tubes you can repair.

And I vote for the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.

ScottieDog

What about this stuff, "Zefal Sealant Spray" ? Seems you just spray it in and it inflates and seals the tyre, at least to get you back to home. I´ve used this type of thing before on a car and motorbike and it always worked ok. Is there any reason for it not to work as well with a Cycle Tyre ?

Cheers

Peruano

Not intentionally trying for the voice of moderation, I'll still strike the middle of the road. Use tire liners and slime if you want to disregard the goat head threat of the western USA. If you are willing to be somewhat careful about where you ride your bike (offroad), willing to pump up tires to their intended pressure, and pay some attention to what you run over and when you wipe your tire within a few seconds after seeing those sparkling crystals of beer bottles go by, a good belted tire (Armadillos are great, but others exist) will do with some chance of an occasional flat. Never would I be caught dead with a thorn tube (dead weight) and in fact I only use tire liners in my mountain bike that I ride to get the paper in the morning and along the ditch bank. If you are going really cheap and want to lessen flat risk, take an old tube and slit it on its inside curvature, and use it as a tire boot (it will not abrade your tube like a tire liner, and its free). Use slime only if you are in high risk conditions and not willing to pay attention to where you are riding in relation to thorns and road detritus. I live in goat head city and experience fewer than 3 flats per year but I know folks that have had 20 punctures in a single tube. Go figure. Tom

ScottieDog

I still quite like Zefal. lmao.

chandltp

That's my thinking as well. Around town, it's gotten me to appointments I would have missed had I changed or patched a flat. On a tour or other distance ride, I'd rather be able to patch. Unfortunately I only have one primary bike, and it's slimed.

Fissile

I use a liner on the rear. When properly installed, a liner will not cause a flat. The problem is that some tire rim combos are tough to mount so it's not easy to get the liner installed properly. Also, I only use a liner on the rear. It's a big headache to patch a rear....especially when you've got loaded paniers on the back. The rear on my utility bike has not had a single flat in 1400 miles.

djb

nope, never used either and havent really the need.

On a side note, I did rewatch Ghostbusters (original, first one) with the kids a while back, and they did laugh at the slime scenes....

revelo

Stan's Notube sealant is far superior to Slime, though neither works well for tire pressures above 50psi. Best combo is a good tire (Schwalbe Supreme/Dureme/Extreme) plus decent tube filled with Stan's. You'll need a schrader valve tool to open the valve, then pour in 2oz of Stan's sealant. Every 3 months or so, rinse out the tube with water and refill with new sealant, or just buy a new tube and sealant. You can buy Stan's sealant in 2oz bottles and also the valve tube at their website. Every ride I get goatheads stuck in my tires, but I never get flats with the system described above (Schwable Extreme's). Tire liners are a nuisance. Using a split open tube (like someone suggested above) is both very heavy and a nuisance. Thorn tubes are very heavy.

Watch the video on stan's website. Pretty amazing. I actually ran my own demo using a sewing machine needle. Jammed it into the tire about 10 times, including the sidewalls. Tire remained fully inflated and I'm still using the same tube several months later without problems. Stan's rocks.

seeker333

Mr Tuffy liners can wear a hole in your tube and cause a flat. The problem is getting everything to lie down straight and flat in a small space, without disturbing it by mounting a tire. Liners can be very useful riding around goathead thorns, otherwise leave liners alone.

The best way to generally minimize flats is use a tire designed to minimize flats. These tires have more rubber in the tread, plus supposedly puncture resistant (PR) additive layers. I don't put much stock in these claims. Some of the PR material is simply scrap kevlar material, ground up and added to the rubber compound before molding/curing.

The best way to generally maximize punctures is to ride a very narrow, lightweight tire. Not much material in the tire to stop intrusions/punctures.

I've had remarkably good luck using plain ole tires and tubes and velox tape. I always inspect new rims for sharp spots and file/sand/bang em down smooth. Drag a cotton ball lightly through a rim channel before you add tape - the fibers tend to hang on sharp points, makes them easier to locate. Finally, the most important point - pick a clean line as much as possible, avoid riding through road debris. Avoid the gutter area at all costs.

staehpj1

Personally I don't find changing a flat once in a while to be a big deal. Flat prevention at the cost of a dead feeling ride is a poor bargain IMO. Slime tubes are awful and thornproof tubes are heavy and ineffective. Liners I have never tried and probably won't. I prefer the thinner lightweight tube sized one size smaller than they are rated. That way they are easier to mount and lighter.

That said... If you are really averse to flats I'd suggest two things:

1. Use a tire that is extremely flat resistant. The Marathon Plus comes to mind. It weighs more than twice what many tires weigh and rides like an anchor, but is very flat resistant. I find the ride perfectly awful, but it may suit you well.
2. If traveling where there are goat head thorns learn what the plants look like and where they grow. They are definitely not very obvious if you don't know what they look like and are real flat producers. They can be tiny plants in the cracks of the shoulder and just off the shoulder; very easy to miss

fietsbob

+1 with #24, the liner strip end moves a little with every rotation,
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires , Essentially put an endless strip under the tread
outside the casing, of the same sort of stuff tire liners are made of..

Then you can bring along a spare , standard tube,
when something really nasty pokes thru , say the side wall.

Yumadons

I'm with the original poster - don't mind going a little slower if it means no flats. We live in Arizona and use liners + slime against the goatheads here. In Oregon, they call goatheads "puncture vines" and an old timer told us they will flatten wheelbarrow and tractor tires! So don't worry so much about what's in the road as much as where you park your bike in the weeds. Many bike shops hate Slime, be sure if you don't have green "slime caps" to tell them you're slimed so no one gets it in their eye. My husband and I just did half the TransAm with no flats. Last year I went down Logan Pass (Glacier) with a hole in a tire that you could see Slime poking out of. The stuff works IF you use both Slime and liners together. So much so that LBS will fix any flat that occurs after "the treatment."

Suzanne
Yuma, AZ

Blues Frog

In summer I use Bontrager hardcase and winter I use Schwalbe Winter Studded front and Happekelitta 106 for the drive tire. All have tire liners. I only have 2500 miles on these tires with no flats. I was under the impression that you must grind a taper in the tire liner end that will contact the tube. It has worked so far. I guess I only have approximately 1200 miles per tire. YMMV