Green slime

[Herbie]

I was chatting to a guy the other day who said he never gets punctures as he half fills his inner tubes with green slime then pumps then up to max psi.Does anyone else do this or is it to be recommended? Sounded a bit weird to me!

 

[Herzog]

Slime can be a bit messy and, in my opinion, unnecessary. If you're worried about punctures, make sure your tyres are properly inflated and seated correctly in the rim. Depending on what kind of riding you'll be doing (racing, commuting on roads, commuting on tracks etc.), it may be worth getting some tyres with a puncture proof layer.

 

[CopperCyclist]

Yeah basically if you are going to use slime to make a normal tyre more puncture resistant, you may as well simply get something like Schwalbe Marathon Plus instead, which are better all round, and less messy!

 

[smokeysmoo]

Slime can be a bit messy and, in my opinion, unnecessary. If you're worried about punctures, make sure your tyres are properly inflated and seated correctly in the rim. Depending on what kind of riding you'll be doing (racing, commuting on roads, commuting on tracks etc.), it may be worth getting some tyres with a puncture proof layer.

+1

 

[screenman]

Where I live and ride there is an awful lot of hedge cutting goes on by the farmers, I also rid off road quite a lot. I slime my tubes and it does make a difference, last time I cleaned the inside of my tyres the slime had fixed 7 punctures. So I would say I am happy with it. On a recent Robin Hood ride, I started off at the same time as a stronger younger rider than myself, at the finish I was 1 hour in front of him, he had 3 punctures on the ride, so I asked him why he did not use slime, his answer was he did not want to carry the extra weight as it would slow him down, DOH!.

I think we use something called Stans at about 50 to 75 grams per tube.

This I must add was when we were using tubes on mountain bikes.

I still use slime on the road bikes, although I still follow all normal procedures to try and prevent punctures.

Herzog, smokeysmoo, in which way is slime messy? once it is inside the tyre I have never seen it again, mind you I have only been using stuff like this for 20+ years so there is always time.

 

[smokeysmoo]

On the couple of occasions I've tried it I find it oozes out of the valve, and when I remove the pump at 110-120 psi the stuff blasts out. I stick to branded tubes and quality tyres, and *touching wood* don't have any issues.
It's just one of those each to their own type things IMO

 

[MattHB]

I gave up on slime as it kept blocking the valves making it impossible to pump the tyre up. Went for puncture resistant tyres instead.

 

[Herbie]

Yeah basically if you are going to use slime to make a normal tyre more puncture resistant, you may as well simply get something like Schwalbe Marathon Plus instead, which are better all round, and less messy!

I use Marathon plus and have got great confidence in em...never had a puncture yet [touchwood] in 5 years of using them but green slime would be fine and handy in an emergency i suppose.

 

[screenman]

I have had none of the problems you guys talk about, and if you rode your bike around these parts without it you would be master of changing a tube.

I do understand that not everyone has the same bush cutting problems as we do in these parts, so I fully understand punctures may not be such a problem for some of you.

Tubeless and slime all the way on MTB, love those lower pressures you can use on tubeless.

 

[Norm]

I was getting a puncture every 100 miles or so, as I ride my CX bike in some very dubious places. Then I had 8 punctures in about 20 miles of following the K&A canal during hedge-cutting season. I found that a bit tiring, and I wanted to get the journey completed, so I picked up some slime tubes from the Halfrauds in Newbury and haven't had a puncture since. I've just checked and that's 500 miles ago.

I stuck slime tubes in my son's bike, he's done 300 (very uncareful) miles without a puncture.

Some might not like the weight but, as screenman suggests, the extra time (if any) I've taken from sticking few hundred grammes in the tubes is offset with the first puncture that I didn't need to fix.

 

[Herzog]

Herzog, smokeysmoo, in which way is slime messy? once it is inside the tyre I have never seen it again, mind you I have only been using stuff like this for 20+ years so there is always time.

Agree with Smokeysmoo, I had a problem with it leaking from the valve when pumping the tyres up...not nice.

 

[kishan]

jsut buy slime inner tubes problem solves easier and less hassle.

 

[Norm]

jsut buy slime inner tubes problem solves easier and less hassle.

Possibly, yes, but I haven't found any Slime tubes smaller than 2.6x1.75 for over a year (they aren't listed on Slime's site any more) so filling them myself was the only option.