Tubes Are 'Slime' tubes worth the extra money?

[Goat Herder]

I am talking about my peddle bikes. I use them more than my motored bikes. I live by the Sandia mountains. Those are the gears I have run in around here as long as I can remember. These peddle bikes are retrofitted Full suspension mountain bikes done with touring gears. 180mm crank set, Philwood 135mm bottom bracket, and 26x2.7 tires very smooth rides. Love them they work hard nothing ever breaks.. I am a peddler not a stunt man..

I will clean up around here and find my camera. Post pict if need be? I do enjoy peddling not joking at all it is very doable!

I am 40 years old and have not patched a tube since I was 15. Been that way really......

 

[raattlerviper]

I rode a road bike 27.4 miles round trip to work for 8 months. The first 2 weeks I had flats every other day. I finally said to heck with the lightwieght stuff and bought the thornproof slime tubes and in the remaining 7.5 months had 1 flat. I am sold on slime tubes. Slimetubes in the wheels and a spare in my seatbag along with a co2 inflator and I have no flat worries.

 

[happycheapskate]

re: 52xcorncob on FS mountain bike. What do you eat? Cheers to your health.

 

[motorpsycho]

the problem that i have found with the "slime" tubes is that you can not get the tubes to fully deflate when you need to change the tire.
The tubes are so full of slime, that you will have to fight the tire to get it off the rim. when you defl;ate the tube, the slime ends up coming out of the valve stem and clogging it up and sealing it. The tubes are still so full of air after you deflate them, that you can not pull the tube out of the tire/off the rim either.
you will fight both of them, when you try to replace your tire.

 

[AussieSteve]

I'm still running one slime tube, but I have to guess at it's pressure. The slime blocks the valve stem and a pressure gauge won't work.

 

[Turtle Tedd]

I'm still running one slime tube, but I have to guess at it's pressure. The slime blocks the valve stem and a pressure gauge won't work.

That's the main reason I don't use them..it will backwash into your pump also and screw up the accuracy of the gauge on it. do not want tires that are to far under or over pressure.

 

[Goat Herder]

I guess that makes me different I don't use a tire gauge. I know how hard the tire needs to be by squeezing it in my hand. If you are fool enough to engage the valve stem with that portion of the tire at the floor? Well I don't do that. As for deflating the the tire? The bottle came with a valve core tool that's what its for.

For the record I have not messed up a tire gauged or a pump. Did not try to fill them with slime. It really does not matter what ya put in there if fool enough. The oldest trick was to put half and half milk in the tube. Try engaging the valve core at the floor and see how nice it is..........

As for the FS bikes dude its not that hard. All the lance Armstrong wanna be's are using the same gear ratios.

 

[Goat Herder]

The very act of playing with the valve core at the floor just to see how much of the green stuff can squirt out is silly. It was designed to plug up holes.. One can use the valve core tool to pull the valve out. Then something as simple as a tooth pick poke the hole clear. I can walk out to any of my bicycles with a pump or tire gauge and never have a issue what so ever.. Also no I don't have a tooth pick in my hand either ever...

I know what happened it all looked easy enough the foot pump reaches the valve easier at the floor yadi yada

Been there done it.........

 

[Turtle Tedd]

fool enough..fuel enough..full enough??? slime on

 

[AussieSteve]

Goatherder I never inflate the slime tube or check it's pressure with the valve at the bottom. I'm not a fool. I always set the valve at 10 or 2 o' clock.
All the same, with a separate pressure gauge or the one built into the pump, I can't read the pressure. (All of my other tubes are fine.)
The separate gauge reads 0lb and the one on the pump reads the compressor pressure instead of the tyre pressure.
Also, as mentioned earlier, the slime failed to seal even the tiniest pinhole in the 'Slime SmartTube'. I had to clean it up and use a patch.
I'll stick with heavy-duty thornproof tubes from now on and carry patches and a (lightweight) spare.
I want something that I can rely on.
(I'm using the slime tube until it fails, then on with the thornproof.)

You make a good point, Tedd. I hadn't thought about damage to my pump's pressure gauge. If air is exiting the tube into a gauge, logic tells me that any droplets of slime that are clinging to the inside of the valve stem might be driven into the gauge.