Slime innertubes for MTb use, any good?

Andyt1054

Hi all,

I've been thinking about buying a couple of slime filled innertubes to see how they work/if they're as effectiv as I've heard. Just wondered what people's thoughts/experiences of them were??? Do you just pull the thorns out when you see them, do the tubes seal immediately? And does doing this let the slime cover the inside of your tyre and wheel?

Any thoughts really appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Andy

Andy B

Heavy & don't always seal punctures

Yes you will get slime in your tyre if you do get a puncture

You remove the item that caused the puncture & spin the tyre fast to seal the tube

But it doesn't work on punctures in the sidewall & quite often doesn't seal what it says it will

andrewyzfr6

I used to use them. They must have sealed small puntures without me knowing i had them due to small amounts of slime inside the tyre. Dont seem to work on pinch flats tho(I used to get them constantly) but since changing to heavy dh tubes Ive only had one punture so far in over a year.....

weeksy59

Yeah they're not bad... sometimes work sometimes don't

andy46

I've been using them for around 6 months now (Giant branded) and haven't had a puncture yet. Only really notice the extra weight when I pick the bike up, not really noticable when riding.

cooldad

I use standard tubes and haven't had a puncture in the last year, so that doesn't really mean anything.

gilesjuk

If you have wheels with schraeder tubes you can remove the valve core and inject tubeless sealant. It is lighter and better than slime.

Thewaylander

gilesjuk wrote:

If you have wheels with schraeder tubes you can remove the valve core and inject tubeless sealant. It is lighter and better than slime.

What he said is applicable to presta too

but i now use Maxxis FR innertubes these seem fairly tough and had no punctures in a good while in them

Andy B

andy46 wrote:

I've been using them for around 6 months now (Giant branded) and haven't had a puncture yet. Only really notice the extra weight when I pick the bike up, not really noticeable when riding.

I weighed a couple of Slime branded tubes.

326g on average for the Slime tubes

Boggo cheap Tesco inner tubes weigh around 100g less @ ~200g on average

Lightweight tubes weigh around 100g each and some weigh less than 100g

I can certainly feel the difference between even a cheap bog standard tube and a Slime tube, the Slime tubes made the bike feel sluggish to accelerate and turn.

Yes I am sad enough to weigh a few inner tubes out of curiosity

andy46

maybe I don't notice so much as I changed tyres from Continental Mountain Kings to Continental Race Kings Supersonic's. I've probably made my lightweight tyres just as heavy as normal tyres

TBH I have been thinking of putting lighter tubes back in with the Slime tyre liners in with them, would this be lighter than what I'm currently using?

Andy B

Would it be lighter, who knows, you'd need to weigh the components to find out

Slime liners are a royal PITA, they can actually cause punctures if not fitted correctly and they're a PITA to fit correctly

Either use slime tubes (they do a 'lightweight' version now)

or

Puncture protected tyres (heavy and not really a proper off road tyre due to the hard compounds used in them so they have as much grip as Bambi on ice)

or

go tubeless

or

put up with getting the odd puncture here and there and have a nice lightweight tyre and tube set up

matt@theforce

I've been using Slime Tubes for about 1year now and havent had to change an inner tube since. I went through several puncture repair kits prior to that riding the same routes but I might have just been lucky so far.

One downside I've noticed with them is in the winter, I commuted through the last winter and due to working 12hr shifts I would be setting off from home at 5am in -15c temperatures and found that the slime wouldn't run round the tube and it gave a horrible wobble when riding at speed.

I agree with Andy B, they do numb some of the ride and the weight is noticable on a long rough offroad ride.

I shall keep using the slime tubes until they require changing and then I will look for something lighter.

Matthew

Ro88o

Too heavy for my liking and still got hawthorn punctures that didnt seal :shock:

milfredo

Why use heavy tubes filled with slime when you can fill your tire with sealent and go tubless with a conversion kit?

I had my first flat since 2004 on Tuesday with a heavily lacerated non-tubless tire and that only happened as I let the sealent dry out completly.

timpop

I have tried the tubes out of curiosity but will never again. They were so heavy, I really noticed the performance difference. Plus, I got a flat anyway (flint). They are not good for bigger objects like massive thorns and flint. (Or pinch flats for that matter) The minimal benefit of protection against small punctures is not worth the extra weight. My last two flats were a big thorn and a pinch flat. Slime would not have helped. So for me, I'd stay clear of them.