slime worth it?

blablablacksheep

today and a blow out and punture on my tyres:( lucky had a spare and sorted it out.

but wondering, are these products any good? example

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/sli ... k-ec006834

is it worth the cost?

realnumber 1

I did this which cost about the same and all good so far.

http://www.tubelesswheels.com/howto.html

dave_hill

Variable results with Slime. It DOES work but it's not as instantaneous as they make out! If you get a puncture you need to keep on pumping the tyre up until the hole seals and it can take a fair few attempts!

Also it won't seal anything bigger than a pin-prick. I have Slime in both tubes but I still carry self-adhesive patches and a spare tube.

realnumber 1

The link is just for Slime tyre liners!

fourcrossjohn

cant stand em , the tyre slime liners did jack sh*t for me and the slime rubes were worse

i just buy a cheap halfords inner tubes now at buy 2 get 1 free so i can always take 1 out with me.

new bike with new tyres soon so hopefully no punctures

noodleman

Absolute waste of money! twice the price of an innertube, adds weight in the worst possible place and in my experience works about as well a chocolate tea pot.

dickydulux

Wouldn't touch the tyre liners. I had one in the front tyre - it ate the innertube! My mate had a pair fitted by Halfords, same thing happened to him. :evil:
Quite like the slime innertubes though.

valheru

Slime inner tubes are the way to go, I have them on my commuting bike and off-road bike and they work a treat, they are no panacea, but I think they are best compromise.

SiLanc

I can thoroughly recommend Kevlar inners for your tyres to shield the tube from thorns, I used them in the Sierra Nevada national park a few years ago the day after I had five punctures in my front and seven in the back on the first day of the week long trip (http://xcenduro.co.uk/holidays/spain2006/spain2006_page2.asp). I'll obviously never know how many punctures it saved me from but I never had another the whole holiday.

Since then I have moved onto Stan's NoTubes and never looked back. It's fiddly to set up but no punctures in two years speaks for itself.

Cheers

Si[/url]

Stokie

I've had the slime tubes and i'm really impressed, most of my riding is off road and i've not had one flat yet. I'd reccomend them to anyone and i'd definately buy them again.

Chaz.Harding

My experiance with the 'Slime' innertubes has been... Well.. Fraught with stress...

Firstly, the valve was 'slealed'. After I sourced a valve core tool (notoriously difficult to get btw!!) I fixed the problem.

First to go was the front. And it went in SPECTACULAR fashion - the tube split, and the green goo ended up everywhere. EVERYWHERE! Looked like something out of ghost-busters.

Then the second one went too, but a regular puncture. Which proceeded like it's brother to get slime everywhere...

I've found a decent set of tyres and a downhill (2.2-2.7) inner tube works well, and is lighter than the slime equivelents. I've *touch wood* not had a p******* yet! It really works!

Kiblams

I had alot of issues with my rear tyre getting punctures, even managed to get three in one ride once (thorns). That was the last straw! I got myself one of those green rolls that you put around the outside of the innertube and I have to say that I have gone a fortnight without a single issue now.

I weighed the roll and the weight is less than 20grams so for me it was well worth the extra weight. This has to be the longest I have kept a spare innertube in my bag

shogunsteve

Stokie wrote:

I've had the slime tubes and i'm really impressed, most of my riding is off road and i've not had one flat yet. I'd reccomend them to anyone and i'd definately buy them again.

I dont use them and have only had 2 punctures ever.

Tyre pressure and watching where I'm going I guess counts for alot, but I'd never bother with slime, just reckon its a gimmick.

Oh and everyone going on about weight is madness. If you have abig breakfast or pick up some mud thats extra weight so 20 or 50 gramms aint gonna mean much!

Kiblams

shogunsteve wrote:

Oh and everyone going on about weight is madness. If you have abig breakfast or pick up some mud thats extra weight so 20 or 50 gramms aint gonna mean much!

A big breakfast!?! A dime bar is 28g! But your point of it all being utter madness is totally right.

shogunsteve

Kiblams wrote:

shogunsteve wrote:

Oh and everyone going on about weight is madness. If you have abig breakfast or pick up some mud thats extra weight so 20 or 50 gramms aint gonna mean much!

A big breakfast!?! A dime bar is 28g! But your point of it all being utter madness is totally right.

hehe...cue lots of people eating dime bars to keep the weight down

Northwind

shogunsteve wrote:

Oh and everyone going on about weight is madness. If you have abig breakfast or pick up some mud thats extra weight so 20 or 50 gramms aint gonna mean much!

Totally different... The difference in weight between a Slime tube and a light standard tube is about 150g, which you should notice in wheels. If you don't then fine, but I think most people do- and to save 150g out of a set of wheels costs a couple of hundred quid.

shogunsteve

Northwind wrote:

shogunsteve wrote:

Oh and everyone going on about weight is madness. If you have abig breakfast or pick up some mud thats extra weight so 20 or 50 gramms aint gonna mean much!

Totally different... The difference in weight between a Slime tube and a light standard tube is about 150g, which you should notice in wheels. If you don't then fine, but I think most people do- and to save 150g out of a set of wheels costs a couple of hundred quid.

I aint promoting them mate...as I said in an earlier post, I prefer to repair.

That said, 150g is still nothing imo and spending an extra 200 quid to save 150g is mental. Just ride more eat less!

Northwind

Eating less/losing weight isn't the same thing at all though, wheels are unsprung rotating mass, you notice differences there that you'd never notice anywhere else. It's like lifting weights, losing weight yourself doesn't mean you can lift a bigger weight

noodleman

Northwind wrote:

Eating less/losing weight isn't the same thing at all though, wheels are unsprung rotating mass, you notice differences there that you'd never notice anywhere else. It's like lifting weights, losing weight yourself doesn't mean you can lift a bigger weight

Spot on! 150g in a wheel is a totally different proposition to 150g on you or elsewhere on the bike.

Kiblams

noodleman wrote:

Spot on! 150g in a wheel is a totally different proposition to 150g on you or elsewhere on the bike.

How about less than 20g on each wheel? (My tyre liners)

shogunsteve

Northwind wrote:

Eating less/losing weight isn't the same thing at all though, wheels are unsprung rotating mass, you notice differences there that you'd never notice anywhere else. It's like lifting weights, losing weight yourself doesn't mean you can lift a bigger weight

Its nothing like lifting weights.

LIfting a dumbell doesnt include your own body weight, whereas riding a bike does :roll:

Northwind

Accelerating the wheel doesn't involve your body weight either. It's just not as simple as total weights, if you read around a bit you'll see what I mean (rather than derail the thread further ) The physics of it is undisputable.

How about punctureproof/resistant tyres? I use Schwalbe Marathon punctureproofs on my road bike and they seem to do the job, never once had a flat on them despite riding through some nasty stuff. Spendier option, but you get the benefit of the liner (and then some) without the drawbacks.

I've used slime tubes and they do a decent job but I'd sooner just not get the puncture at all, rather than try to reduce the effect of the punctures- and the valve issues are such a pain, all of mine went in the bin after the valves clogged, and no amount of cleaning out stopped them leaking after that.

Liners try to do the same thing (and can be cheaper) but I've had tubes fail with liners too, which is even worse than punctures- that was a long time ago mind, they might have got better. The tube would basically split along where the edge of the liner sat, and couldn't even be repaired- I'd sooner just get a thorn puncture that I can patch.

Some common sense does apply too, if you use super lightweight racey tyres you'll get more punctures, if you use a tough tready tyre you'll get less.

shogunsteve

Northwind wrote:

Accelerating the wheel doesn't involve your body weight either.

Of course it does.

Up a hill weight matters. Wheels add weight to the bike.

Northwind

Accelerating the wheel, I said, not the bike. Look, I'm not being funny here but rotating mass just simply does act differently to nonrotating mass, in the same way sprung mass acts differently to unsprung. If you don't believe that saving weight in the wheels is more beneficial than saving weight elsewhere, there's not much point having a conversation really...

shogunsteve

Northwind wrote:

Accelerating the wheel, I said, not the bike. Look, I'm not being funny here but rotating mass just simply does act differently to nonrotating mass, in the same way sprung mass acts differently to unsprung. If you don't believe that saving weight in the wheels is more beneficial than saving weight elsewhere, there's not much point having a conversation really...

My point has always been that saving overall weight (ie of the rider) is more beneficial than 150g off a pair of wheels.

Also on a hill climb its overall weight that matters not the weight of wheels!

Rotating mass may count for something but the overall stress is based on what those wheels are carrying and not what the wheels weigh!

seataltea

Ran Dr Sludge all winter, very impressed with it, front had six thorns in it by the time I swapped the inner tube and rear had two. Just needs a little extra air now and again to keep the psi up.

It is heavy though, for summer I'm just carrying spare tubes.

Changing or repairing a tube on a cold, rainy, muddy night is no fun at all.

I'd say use it in winter only.

realnumber 1

bigchazrocks wrote:

My experiance with the 'Slime' innertubes has been... Well.. Fraught with stress...

Firstly, the valve was 'slealed'. After I sourced a valve core tool (notoriously difficult to get btw!!) I fixed the problem.

Are they :shock: :?

2 min on google shopping followed by 2 min on ebay followed by a 2 day wait and hey presto it was on my door step.

http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=Schr ... =en&tab=wf

UncleMonty

bought a cheap imitation off Ebay called Pump n Ride (two for £9) and I'm well pleased with them, had a couple of punctures so far, one a thorn which made 3 different holes and all were sealed.

I find I get a lot more punchures in the spring / summer then in winter, nearly always dam thorns with me

I still take patches and a spare tube with me though

55NF

I've gone tubeless & use Stans Tubles Tyre seal.

Tried it in the front tyre first & left the rear tubed.

Had a thorn in the front tyre & when I removed it the tyre started to deflate rapidly. So, I spun the wheel and it sealed immediatly!

Tube less for me !

bails87

To Shogunsteve.... imagine running up a flight of stairs with a 5kg weight strapped to each foot, compare that with running up the stairs with 10kg of weight in a backpack, then compare to running up the stairs with no extra weight.

The extra weight will slow you down slightly when it's on your back, but it's not a very big increase in your overall weight, however when the weight is on your feet it will have a much bigger impact, just like weight on the wheels compared to having a heavy saddle/stomach full of lard!

Back on topic, I had slime, found it pretty good, until I had an absolute mare of a ride where I had about 7 thorns in each tyre and ended up with a green mess inside the tyre where the slime had leaked. I've now got some black stuff (cant remember the name, but WMB reviewed it). But haven't had any punctures yet so cant comment on it's effectiveness, definitely lighter than the Slime though and much more 'liquidy'.

shogunsteve

bails87 wrote:

To Shogunsteve.... imagine running up a flight of stairs with a 5kg weight strapped to each foot, compare that with running up the stairs with 10kg of weight in a backpack, then compare to running up the stairs with no extra weight.

The extra weight will slow you down slightly when it's on your back, but it's not a very big increase in your overall weight, however when the weight is on your feet it will have a much bigger impact, just like weight on the wheels compared to having a heavy

Problem is we are not talking about 10kg, we are talking about 150grams and also, weight on wheels is not the same thing as weight on your legs as its rolling weight which doesnt translate the same.