"fix a flat" does it work?

Before I get hung out to dry let me say the following:

Not only did I do the searches and found some answers I have also fixed countless flats on the road including clinchers and sew ups. I ride 300-400 miles a week through the Santa Cruz mountains and I'm never without a spare tube, patch kit and inflator.

Ok, so why would I want to use a product that is guaranteed to ruin my tube just so I can get home. Well, it is called, a baby. My new cargo bike serves one major purpose, it moves me and my two grandkids all over town. If that Yuba Mundo rear tire goes flat there is no way I'm going to deal with pulling off that wheel and patching a tire and try to watch a 5yr old and 18 month old on the side of the road at the same time, or any place else.

So, I'm willing to sacrifice a tube to the slime gods and make it home rather than walk mucho miles pushing a flatted cargo bike with two kids aboard.

Anybody here used the stuff and did it work? Other than not getting a lot of pressure in the tire, I can add more air easily enough on the side of the road.

I'm also going to do the logical flat prevention kinda stuff, better tires and tubes, such as the Marathon plus.

The kid getter

I have had good results with it on my car, but I have never tried it on my bike. I have most of my bikes set up tubeless with Stan's or other sealants in them and they often self-seal. Some tires are incompatible with some sealants, I am not sure if that includes fix a flat, but I have had Schwalbe tires delaminate from Stans.

Thanks, I had not even considered tubeless. I of course run tubeless on my motorcycles and carry repair kits and compressors but did not think about bikes.

I will have to check if that is feasible with the rims on the Mundo. I bet it must be like converting motorcycle spoke wheels to tubeless, a sealing process must be used for the spokes and then the ability of the bead to hold air is the next consideration. I'm not sure I want to go that direction just yet.

notubes.com

or search for "ghetto tubeless" threads on MTBR

There are bicycle specific fix-a-flat cans, hutchinson makes one.

They work on small punctures. Sealant can work better in tire without a tube. A tubeless tire doesn't pop like a thin tube. If you get a big enough hole though, you have to either use a tube and boot or patch the tire (not feasible on the roadside).

Tubeless can be a bit fiddly if you aren't using tubeless or tubeless-ready tires. But the fiddling is in the garage rather than on the road or trail.

I have big apples tubeless, I've had only one flat in probably 10k miles. Happened after parking the bike. Pumped back up and sloshed the sealant, sealed right up.

Oooooooooo, tiz' sounding better, this tubeless thing

Fix a Flat works well on low pressure bike tires.
What I do, however, is use Marathon Plus with Mr. Tuffy tire strips. The result is 20,000 miles between flats.The best metric I can think of is comparison with car tire flats. With similar mileage, I have had more flats on my car than bike in the last decade. I think that indicates that this combination is sufficient for most applications.

I don't run slime or other goops in my tubes. I do believe in Mr. Tuffy inserts for flat free mileage. Yes, I have had a rash of problems lately that I cannot explain. But, this is the third largest metro area with all of the usual crud in the road. Normally, with Mr. Tuffy, I am immune and I swear by, rather than at them.

didn't work for me, but my tube may have been too far gone. i picked up a couple of things of bicycle fix-a-flat at a flea market and had one in my cruiser bag. when i got a flat i tried it. the tire inflated some, but with the twist on attatchment i lost most of the air trying to take it off quick. the rest came out pretty quickly after that. so i don't know if i didn't have enough pressure to seal the puncture against the tire, or it just wouldn't have worked anyway.

brought a gallon thing of slime type stuff on clearance at walmart and use that now.

not an exact answer, but I have tried Slime and/or Slime tubes. never again. The stuff never seemed to stop a flat, but it was messy and caused a big mess with my pump (and I followed instructions).

IMHO the best thing for avoiding flats is good tires and checking your inflation daily.

Well you got some useful and some trying to be helpful nice answers. I do understand emergency nature of your request so I spent some time researching it before responding.

First, PREVENTION =

https://mrtuffy.com/

Then might try same question in the Mechanic or General sections:

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ner-tubes-work

Finally, here are some other places I found:

https://www.amazon.com/Fix-A-Flat-Bic...ews/B000EA5WOU

https://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/T...ants_2765.html

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/re...lant_1423.html

https://mtbtires.com/tech/sealant_test/

https://www.ehow.com/way_5835858_home...Pit-Stop.shtml

https://www.gizmag.com/slime-self-sea...t-tubes/14577/

https://road.cc/content/review/60017-...ealant-extreme

NONE OF THESE ARE MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, so just FYI. Hope this is helpful enough.

Be well...