Arthur Peabody

I had a flat 10 miles from home. The puncture was on the inside, because the rim strip had worn through. I used the tire liner as a rim strip. When I got home, taking the tire off was a chore: the tire liner got in the way of the tire levers then held out the remaining bead so I couldn't pry it out. I had to remove it before I could remove the tire. I'll pay more attention to rim strips in the future.

DeadGrandpa

I rode with tire liners for a few years. My only flat came from the end of the liner wearing a groove in the tube. Unless you're touring, you might be better off without a liner.

Pop N Wood

Had an old road bike I hadn't ridden in some years. When I did take it out got a flat 20 miles from home. Turns out the rubber rim strip had disintegrated. I mean completely turned to mush. Put in the spare tube and got most of the way home before it went flat again.

That is a tough roadside repair, who carries spare rim tape?

Arthur Peabody

I can't say they've been effective in preventing punctures; I've had punctures through them, but maybe I would have had more. I've never had damage from the ends, perhaps because I've used those with tapered ends, but I had one get brittle length-wise and crack, pinch a slit in a tube. The crack was hard to see, took tire pressure to make expand, so it took me a while to figure out.

I wear tires out. More than once a tire's belts have worn through and the liner has been strong enough to get home.

Electrical tape or cloth adhesive tape would probably work for a while. Save the next roll when it gets down to 10 feet.

Pop N Wood

Good idea. I have a length of that wrapped around my sunscreen bottle. A trick I learned backpacking.

Unfortunately only carry that when touring. For local rides pretty much just a patch kit and multitool.

veganbikes

I generally would recommend the cloth rim strips for people with rim strip problems. Those or the Conti rim strips seem to do really well for me but none of my stuff is really that old and unridden that the rim strip would fail.

sweeks

I will cast my vote for good cloth rim tape (eg: Velox) or a high quality plastic strip (eg: Schwalbe); I've had good results with both. Rubber strips don't last long.
As for tire liners, I've used them ("Mr. Tuffy") for years on my "winter" bike to prevent flats from the studs wearing through the tire carcass, and have never had a tube failure from the end of the strip.

cyccommute 

I usually use Velox but tires have become so tight lately that I’ve been switching to a thinner tape. I use two layers of Tesa 4288. Tires are easier to mount with the thinner tape.