Slime Filled Tubes & Tubeless Tyres

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 04 Dec 2010 18:15

Personally I think that Slime filled tubes are brilliant on a MTB despite the slight weight penalty.

I went out today down the tow path for a couple of hours and when I got home I checked the tyres for thorns, as I normally do.

Three huge thorns and the rear tyre had stayed inflated.....result!! The one thorn was at least 30mm long, it was gigantic for a thorn.

I use the Slime Lite tubes, so not quite as heavy as the std Slime ones. But not as much protection either, thinner rubber and 50% less sealant.

On the flip side, I have just converted my other set of MTB wheels over to tubeless, so it should be interesting to see how they compare. The tubeless option is suppose to be so much better, anyone else run tubeless?

jonnyri · Post by **jonnyri** » 05 Dec 2010 09:42

My mountain bike came with tubeless but i double f....d (no latex in them) on the canel and couldn`t get them off the rims. Had a 5 mile walk home! Using the slime tubes on cross bikes and haven`t had a problem.

David Cole · Post by **David Cole** » 05 Dec 2010 11:15

Do you think it's worth putting these on a road bike for winter or a commuter bike? After all ther's nothing worse than getting a flat and having to replace a tube when the weather is very cold

Dave

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 05 Dec 2010 15:12

jonnyri wrote:My mountain bike came with tubeless but i double f....d (no latex in them) on the canel and couldn`t get them off the rims. Had a 5 mile walk home! Using the slime tubes on cross bikes and haven`t had a problem.

I think using tubeless without sealant is very risky, as your example clearly demonstrates!

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 05 Dec 2010 15:19

David Cole wrote:Do you think it's worth putting these on a road bike for winter or a commuter bike? After all ther's nothing worse than getting a flat and having to replace a tube when the weather is very cold

Dave

Well yes I do, had my forth **flat** of the weekend this morning, MTB ride up to the Lickey's. Once again the Slime did its job, rear tyre lost a bit of pressure till its worked its magic. You only know that there is a problem when you feel the drop in pressure.

Stopped and pumped the tyre up and then carried on with the ride.

A quick inspection of the wheel after I had cleaned the bike, revealed the fourth thorn of the weekend.

Now it may be overkill, but I always like to stick a patch on the **flat**d inner tube, just for my own piece of mind really.

Jane Herrin · Post by **Jane Herrin** » 06 Dec 2010 14:46

During the years that I worked at Speeds we sold a lot of slime tubes and they generally worked very well on Mountain bikes and even Hybrids. But on narrower tyres, 25 & 23mm, they were a bit of a failure and we stopped selling them. They seemed not to hold enough slime to seal the standard size perforation. The other downside to selling the things was that customers expected them to cope with even the most massive broken beer bottle inspired tear in a tube. They do have limits!

George · Post by **George** » 06 Dec 2010 16:57

Jane Herrin wrote: ... the years that I worked at Speeds ...

Funny, I don't ever remember seeing you there, Jane.

Jane Herrin wrote:They seemed not to hold enough slime to seal the standard size perforation.

Something to do with typical operating tyre pressure maybe? (Just a guess, I have no experience with them.)

jonnyri · Post by **jonnyri** » 06 Dec 2010 16:59

Even though 23 or 25 tubs with latex in them will seal a **flat** from my experience putting more than about 70psi back in tends to blow the latex out again. So in general i think slime or latex works ok at the lower pressures of higher volume tyres.

Almac · Post by **Almac** » 06 Dec 2010 17:10

John is dead right here.

We found that on ATB tyres they worked but on road or correctly inflated hybrid tyres they failed.

With the **flat** protection available in road and hybrid tyres now they are redundant anyway. tubeless has made them redundant off road.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 20 Dec 2010 20:00

I have just converted a set of MTB wheels to run tubeless using Stans No Tubes. Quite easy to do actually, assuming that you have UST wheels of course.

One thing that did surprise me was how porous the side walls of the tyres were? A week later and there is still evidence of the liquid Latex bleeding out.

I cannot wait to try them out to see if the ride is as good as people make out? It will also be interesting to see how they cope with **flat**s too?

Steve Halman · Post by **Steve Halman** » 20 Dec 2010 21:40

I have had mixed results whilst using slime tubes on my MTB down the canals, I guess it makes sense that if the tyres have too much pressure in them then the slime will just be ejected faster than it can be effective , as in my last flat where I also got covered in green slime before having to change the tube ! lol I don't think I will buy anymore !

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 21 Dec 2010 06:37

Steve Halman wrote:I have had mixed results whilst using slime tubes on my MTB down the canals, I guess it makes sense that if the tyres have too much pressure in them then the slime will just be ejected faster than it can be effective , as in my last flat where I also got covered in green slime before having to change the tube ! lol I don't think I will buy anymore !

This is the really odd point about Slime filled tubes, the amount of mixed reviews for them?

Taking road tyres out of the equation because I have never used them, but I really rate the MTB version, both the std (very heavy) and the Lites.

OK there have been times when the tyre has gone completely flat, but by pumping it back up to pressure and riding the Slime has done its job and sealed the hole.

Neil Compton · Post by **Neil Compton** » 21 Dec 2010 10:38

Can't speak from experience but i've read so many negative comments about those slime tubes that i wouldn't bother with them.

AlanW · Post by **AlanW** » 21 Dec 2010 12:53

Neil Compton wrote:Can't speak from experience but i've read so many negative comments about those slime tubes that i wouldn't bother with them.

Thats my point, I too have read some very negative comments, but equally so, some very positive ones too.

I can only speak from my own personal experiances, and I think that they work very well and do exactly what it says on the side of the tin, ok box.