staehpj1

Undoubtedly true.

Well it certainly can be a pain. Knowing what the plants look like, avoiding riding off the pavement as much as possible, and checking tires for thorns and removing them before starting out again goes a long way toward avoiding problems. Even doing all that in some places I wound up patching a lot of tubes though. BTW, even pulling off for a few feet is often a problem somehow more so than riding on a gravel road. That edge seems to be the worst.

Riiding a gravel route, perhaps like the proposed Great Plains Gravel Route may make those precautions tough or impossible to do. For that I suspect a good tubeless setup is the correct answer.

djb

yes, I strongly suspect so also, going from what I was reading a bunch of years ago about the divide route as you get more south. Tubeless clearly was the answer and while I never really got serious about doing the divide route, my friend who did the top half of it using tubes (and panniers) didn't have problems really, but it seems pretty clear that you'd want it past a certain point. The summer he did the top half, I had just done my central america trip and could no way take more time for going with him, and haven't seriously considered it since then.

again, from my reading, getting a reliable tubeless setup is probably a lot easier than before, just because its so much more common, and so more tire/rim/tape combos that just work, plus from my occasional reading up on it, there is so much more info out there to help a newcomer become familiar with what you are dealing with and figuring out issues.

Tourist in MSN

I bought a couple Slime tubes a few years ago, they were in a clearance bin at REI, cost was pennies on the dollar. Size I would use on my light touring bike. I figured if I ever went into the desert Southwest with that bike, I would use them. And I still feel that way, even after reading what I have read here. I normally carry two spares on a tour, but after reading what I have read here, would likely carry three or four spares.

Years ago, I had a puncture on one of my bikes, could not find whatever it was in the tire that caused the slow leak, so put in a new tube and did another ride. And a few days later, that same wheel was low again. Could not find whatever caused the puncture in the tube. Instead of patching the tube, I slit it lengthwise, along where the rim tape would contact that tube and removed the valve stem from it, that became my new tire liner. Put a new tube inside that new liner. That extra thickness of one inner tube of rubber prevented whatever it was that was causing the punctures to puncture any more.

If I had troubles with punctures and slime tubes, I could see using a slime tube as a new liner, after washing out the sealant in a bucket.

Years ago someone on this forum frequently mentioned that if you could not find what was in the tire that was causing your punctures, if you took a cotton ball and wiped the inside of your tire with that, the cotton often would snag on things that you might not otherwise be able to find. I have never needed to use that trick, and smeared sealant would probably cause more problems. Just mentioning it here again in case anyone might need that idea later.

79pmooney

Limited experience here with slime and so far, only with tubulars. But if I were running tubed to tour and might be near goatheads, I'd do the same as I did with tubulars last September in mid-Oregon goathead country on Cycle Oregon. I rode the tubulars dry until I picked up a goathead with the rear tire at a rest stop and learned of it when I flatted a couple of miles later. Did the "pump and ride" to the next rest stop and had the mechanic add an ounce of (Bontranger) slime. A couple of days later, picked a goathead out of the front leaving a rest stop. Turned around and had the mechanic add an ounce. No issues at all since except I look at those tires periodically and pump up ad needed. (Latex tubes. They don't hold air.)

I did carry spare tires on that tour and always will with tubulars since we live in a world where those tires cannot be found in the vast majority of bike shops. Clincher? I'd bring the same two spare tubes I would carry without the slime.

I'm just getting serious about both tubulars and slime so the process of both is still settling in. I should have slime, means of remove valves and a proven syringe on all my slimed bikes.

nun

I bought a couple of the slime tubes and they are very heavy. I'll give them a try, but I'm not optimistic about how they will feel. I also bought some Muc Off inner tube sealant and that seems to work well.

I decided to look at sealant after a tiny bit of car tire wire made a pinhole puncture through my 32mm Gatorskins. I'd ridden for over a year on urban streets and country roads without any punctures so the tires are fairly tough. I removed the wire from the tire and found the pinhole, it wasn't large, just a slow stream of bubbles in water. Rather than using a patch I put some sealant in. The Muc Off tube diameter means that it goes over a Presta valve so you have to be careful that it doesn't seep out, but I managed to get 80ml into my punctured tube with minimal spillage. I then put the valve stem back in and pumped up the tire and rotated it to distribute the sealant and the leak was fixed. I put it back in water and no bubbles. The pinhole was so small that I couldn't see any sealant on the outside of the tube, so it works for small holes. I've ridden it twice and the tire has kept pressure for over a week now. The tube is definitely heavier than one without sealant, but I can't say the bike feels any different when riding.

staehpj1

Yeah, my recollection is that they were like thick "thorn proof" tubes. Kind of kill the ride feel and are heavy to boot.

One problem is that if the wire isn't removed the wire is in both the tube and the tire you may get continued leakage if the tube moves at al with flexing of the tire.

BTW, I couldn't tell from what you wrote if you remove the valve cores. It sounded like maybe not. Having valves that have removeable cores and the tool to remove them makes putting in the sealant much easier.

Tourist in MSN

There are the Thorn resistant tubes and the sealant filled tubes sold by Slime.

Maybe Slime also sells the thorn resistant ones, I do not know.

I bought one thorn resistant one to put on my back tire for my Maah Daah Hey trip. And I put Slime sealant in it. The tube started leaking through the rubber adjacent to the stem, and since that is not the outer part of the tube, the sealant never got to it. Total disaster. The thick rubber was a good idea but the rubber got very very thin adjacent to the valve stem, and that was the weak point in the tube. The thick rubber did not stretch much at low pressure, so the stress was all concentrated on the tube in that tiny little spot where the rubber was thin which caused it to separate. Not trying one of those again.

nun

Cores were removed...it would be impossible to get the sealant in otherwise.
It's hard to know what would have happened if I had left the wire in, all I can say is that the sealant seems to have done as good a job as a patch.

nun

Yes I noticed that the rubber around the valve stem of the Slime tubes I bought looked thin and irregular. I think the tubes themselves are pretty low quality so it's probably a better idea to install sealant in some regular tubes yourself. I see Specialized also does some tubes with sealant already installed.