Punture proofing

"johnnie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was told that you can buy some liquid that you put into your tyres that
prevents you getting a punture??
Is this true, and whats it called, and how does it work ?

I've seen this stuff, I beleive they call it 'green slime'

It doesn't prevent you from getting punctures but it will plug the up the
hole if it's just a small one, not much good if it's a good sized hole
though.(rip).....after the tyre goes flat, just spin the wheel slowly for a
minute or two unill you see some of the green stuff come out and then you
should be able to pump up the tire again...well this is the way I've seen it
done.

I've never used it myself but i have also been warned that if your bike goes
unused for a month or two, the stuff will harden up inside your tube and
become useless.Replace tube and start all over again but for those who use
their bike daily, it's apparently a nice peace of mind.

I beleive it's very difficlt to get into high pressure valves but if you
have ordinary car type valves( eg. MTB Tyres) you should have little
problems.

Hope this helps

DJ

"johnnie" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I was told that you can buy some liquid that you put into your tyres that
prevents you getting a punture??
Is this true, and whats it called, and how does it work ?

Yes, it is called Slime, a green liquid in a bottle that you put into your
tubes. You first remove the Schraeder valve then insert the bottle - squeeze
half into one tube, then rest into the other. It stays liquid in the air
space of the tube. Putting it into Preta valve tyres is a bit more tricky -
you have to make a slit in the tube, insert the Slime then patch the hole.

If you run over thorns, glass etc the Slime begins to leak out then cures
and sets in the confined space of the hole. All this occurs very quickly so
you don't notice the puncture. I believe it lasts in the tube for a long
time.

However there's acouple of disadvantages:
* a little bit of extra rotating weight (not a major issue)
* if you happen to have a major cut to the tyre, Slime will [censored] out and
patching the tube then is very tricky as conventional patches will not stick
very well.

There is also a system called Stan's NoTubes, mainly aimed at MTBs, that is
basically a tubeless tyre system that uses your existing tyres with a
sealant similar to Slime. I believe it works very well.

Thirdly, for true puncture protection I've found some of the tyres available
with special puncture-proof belts to be an excellent solution eg.
- IRC Metro Duro
- Scwalbe Marathon
- Vittoria Randoneur Cross
- Continental City Contact & Travel Contact

Cheers
Peter

"DJ" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

after the tyre goes flat, just spin the wheel slowly for a
minute or two unill you see some of the green stuff come out and then you
should be able to pump up the tire again...

Not usually necessary, unless the tyre flats while the bike is stationary
(???). Usually the Slime circulates in the tube while you ride and seeps out
with any puncture. Small holes seal straight away.

Quoted message said:

I've never used it myself but i have also been warned that if your bike

goes

Quoted message said:

unused for a month or two, the stuff will harden up inside your tube and
become useless.

I've not heard anything about this occurring - but most people I know use
their bikes at least once every week.

Quoted message said:

I beleive it's very difficlt to get into high pressure valves

That is correct, but can be overcome. Make a slit in the tube, insert Slime
then patch the hole. Awkward and goes against the grain for most cyclists,
but easy to do.

Cheers
Peter

johnnie said:

I was told that you can buy some liquid that you put into your tyres that
prevents you getting a punture??
Is this true, and whats it called, and how does it work ?

Greetings,
It used to be called No More Flats in cars, but is not
recommended for other reasons, It does the valves no good and rots
out the tube in question from the inside, so you have to replace
it eventually anyway. I have never used it but have seen it in
bike shops.
Regards,
Ray.

"Ray Peace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

johnnie said:

I was told that you can buy some liquid that you put into your tyres that
prevents you getting a punture??
Is this true, and whats it called, and how does it work ?

Greetings,
It used to be called No More Flats in cars, but is not recommended for
other reasons, It does the valves no good and rots out the tube in
question from the inside, so you have to replace it eventually anyway. I
have never used it but have seen it in bike shops.
Regards,
Ray.

If you really want to prevent flats, get Mr. Tuffy tire liners. They are
awesome. Have used on MTB and currently have them on my road bike,
underneath supposedly 'puncture resistant' Continental Force/Attack tires
that got two flats in the first two weeks. Mind you the roads in Cairns are
literally covered in puncture causing [censored]. They ride well, even at 120psi.
Adds a little weight, but no flats... Can't recommend highly enough.

http://www.mrtuffy.com/mrtuffy/

"Ray Peace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

johnnie said:

I was told that you can buy some liquid that you put into your tyres that
prevents you getting a punture??
Is this true, and whats it called, and how does it work ?

Greetings,
It used to be called No More Flats in cars, but is not recommended for
other reasons, It does the valves no good and rots out the tube in
question from the inside, so you have to replace it eventually anyway. I
have never used it but have seen it in bike shops.
Regards,
Ray.

Anything that saves a bit of time and angst in a commute to work where ya
don't wanna have to be changing tubes in the rain, or get dirty etc etc
is a good thing...worry about it later when you have the time as long as it
keeps you mobile.

DJ

Overspeed said:

If you really want to prevent flats, get Mr. Tuffy tire
liners. They are awesome.

I've seem too many punctures /caused/ by these tyre liners.

They seem to worry the tube at the place where the overlap ends.
So the tube eventually wears through, into a nice
cresent-shapes hole, at that point.

John

John Henderson <[email hidden]> wrote in news:39hmhqF5vr5n9U1
@individual.net:

Quoted message said:

Overspeed said:

If you really want to prevent flats, get Mr. Tuffy tire
liners. They are awesome.

I've seem too many punctures /caused/ by these tyre liners.

They seem to worry the tube at the place where the overlap ends.
So the tube eventually wears through, into a nice
cresent-shapes hole, at that point.

John

I'll go with Overspeed on this. I have to ride through 5k of goatheads
(see previous threads) twice every morning. Without the Mr Tuffy tyre
liners riding is not an option. If they ultimatly punture the tube so
be it. At least there will only be one hole (and probably a new tube).
The tubes wouldn't last more than a couple of weeks without them.

They are a bugger to fit though.

Cheers
Brett

"John Henderson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Overspeed said:

If you really want to prevent flats, get Mr. Tuffy tire
liners. They are awesome.

I've seem too many punctures /caused/ by these tyre liners.

They seem to worry the tube at the place where the overlap ends.
So the tube eventually wears through, into a nice
cresent-shapes hole, at that point.

My experience also. That's why I like the Vittoria Randonneur Cross tyres -
they basically have a Mr Tuffy-style hard rubber layer built in the tread
( I think Schwalbe & Continentals have the same). In the past 12 months with
these tyres I've ridden just oevr 3000kms on them on city, bike paths,
gravel roads and forest trails - no punctures.

Similar experience with IRC Metro Duro's. The only punctures were from
seeriously large penetrating objects, and old-age induced blow outs.

Cheers
Peter

Peter Signorini said:

"John Henderson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Overspeed said:

If you really want to prevent flats, get Mr. Tuffy tire
liners. They are awesome.

I've seem too many punctures /caused/ by these tyre liners.

They seem to worry the tube at the place where the overlap ends.
So the tube eventually wears through, into a nice
cresent-shapes hole, at that point.

My experience also. That's why I like the ...... snip The only punctures were from
seeriously large penetrating objects, and old-age induced blow outs.

Cheers
Peter

Used My Tuffy for 12 months and have not seen or heard of any problems like you describe. Do 250k a week in the tropics so its fairly severe service. I use Specialized All Condition Armadillo inflated to 90 psi. They also have the puncture resisting band of kevlar and punctures are caused as you describe - big sharp things!

Perhaps I have not had a tube in long enough for this "worry" to happen. Get about 3 months at best from a tube. 4 patches then bin.

For the ends of the tape to be rubbing the tube all I can think of that the tyre is under inflated. If fully inflated surely there is no way anything could shift. A mystery to me as I have only heard of this problem in this forum. Will ask LBS guys again about it.

Tried Slime before Mr Tuffy. Was good for about 4 months.
Just kept riding and occasionally pump up tyres. Noticed occasional gooey spots on tyre where slime has leaked out and sealed. Then it all went bad. The slime set hard inside the valve and then one day after pumping up the tyre all the air and a lot of the slime squirted out when I undid the pump connection. Slime all over me, pump, wheel, path. Yuck. I also noticed that it affected the wheel balance. Took about 10 k or more to even out in the tube after standing still for a day. Very noticeable on cold (18c ) mornings here.

Specialized All Condition Armadillo and Mr Tuffy are about as good as I am going to get for puncture resistance.
The amount of [censored] on the roads in Townsville is just amazing. The council has a street sweeper. I saw it ONCE. Think it spends most of its time in the Museum.

Cheers
Hugh

Quoted message said:

However there's acouple of disadvantages:
* a little bit of extra rotating weight (not a major issue)
* if you happen to have a major cut to the tyre, Slime will [censored] out and
patching the tube then is very tricky as conventional patches will not stick
very well.

The liquid also traps -lots- more heat than air. Once during a
tourride I had 70-90C gunk leaking everywhere after (I suspect) it
forced its way into the seam of an existing patch.

--
Chris

HughMann said:

For the ends of the tape to be rubbing the tube all I can
think of that the tyre is under inflated. If fully inflated
surely there is no way anything could shift. A mystery to me
as I have only heard of this problem in this forum. Will ask
LBS guys again about it.

This was my thought as well. But owners of these affected bikes
assured me that pressures had always been kept up.

Nevertheless, I agree that higher pressures should at least
reduce this problem.

John

John Henderson said:

HughMann said:

For the ends of the tape to be rubbing the tube all I can
think of that the tyre is under inflated. If fully inflated
surely there is no way anything could shift. A mystery to me
as I have only heard of this problem in this forum. Will ask
LBS guys again about it.

This was my thought as well. But owners of these affected bikes
assured me that pressures had always been kept up.

Nevertheless, I agree that higher pressures should at least
reduce this problem.

John

I have seen this rubbing problem, on someone elses bike. Put me off the
idea of Mr Tuffy's although strangely he still swears by them!

--
Remove norubbish to reply direct

Jack Russell

HughMann said:

Used My Tuffy for 12 months and have not seen or heard of any problems
like you describe. Do 250k a week in the tropics so its fairly severe
service. I use Specialized All Condition Armadillo inflated to 90 psi.
They also have the puncture resisting band of kevlar and punctures are
caused as you describe - big sharp things!

Perhaps I have not had a tube in long enough for this "worry" to
happen. Get about 3 months at best from a tube. 4 patches then bin.

For the ends of the tape to be rubbing the tube all I can think of that
the tyre is under inflated. If fully inflated surely there is no way
anything could shift. A mystery to me as I have only heard of this
problem in this forum.

My use of Mr Tuffy's was in the outback around Broken Hill on a 12 day tour,
riding a MTB with knobbies, mostly with pressures of 40 - 60psi. There's
lots of thorns in the area and we were recommended to take precautions. The
Mr Tuffy's stopped the thorns, but on the last day I punctured and there was
a clear line of wear in the curved shapeof the end of the liner and a hole
there. Pulled out my spare and couldn't get air in it either. Finally found
a big slit worn in it by bouncing in the pack pocket! Since then I've seen
and heard of several other cycling friends having the same experience of
tape end wear. Some recommend trying to chamfer off the ends of the liner,
or ensuring the ends don't overlap.

Quoted message said:

Tried Slime before Mr Tuffy. Was good for about 4 months.
Just kept riding and occasionally pump up tyres. Noticed occasional
gooey spots on tyre where slime has leaked out and sealed. Then it all
went bad...

<snip>

Quoted message said:

I also noticed that it affected the wheel balance. Took
about 10 k or more to even out in the tube after standing still for a
day. Very noticeable on cold (18c ) mornings here.

Members of our club routinely do the Broken Hill Outback Odyssey (~600kms),
and usually use Slime, with few bad reports. This event in July/August
involves warm outback days (25-30deg.) and often cold nights (down to <
0deg). If I head off on a tour of the outback, with its bindiis, I'd use my
Vittoria Randonneur Cross and carry some Slime as a backup.

Cheers
Peter

Peter Signorini said:

My use of Mr Tuffy's was in the outback around Broken Hill on
a 12 day tour, riding a MTB with knobbies, mostly with
pressures of 40 - 60psi. There's lots of thorns in the area
and we were recommended to take precautions. The Mr Tuffy's
stopped the thorns, but on the last day I punctured and there
was a clear line of wear in the curved shapeof the end of the
liner and a hole there. Pulled out my spare and couldn't get
air in it either. Finally found a big slit worn in it by
bouncing in the pack pocket! Since then I've seen and heard of
several other cycling friends having the same experience of
tape end wear. Some recommend trying to chamfer off the ends
of the liner, or ensuring the ends don't overlap.

Did you do a lot of low gear work? I'm starting to wonder if
the problem might be much more pronounced with fat tyres and/or
high driving torque (eg, granny gears or tandem bike). That
combination could result in a lot of flexing of the outer part
of the tyre casing (in the direction of rotation).

Years ago I used tyre liners on a road bike without problems,
but didn't know then to look for the tell-tale wear pattern.

By the way, I hope your recovery is progressing well Peter. Off
the crutches soon I hope.

John

quote='John Henderson said:

Members of our club routinely do the Broken Hill Outback Odyssey (~600kms),

and usually use Slime, with few bad reports. This event in July/August
involves warm outback days (25-30deg.) and often cold nights (down to <
0deg). If I head off on a tour of the outback, with its bindiis, I'd use my
Vittoria Randonneur Cross and carry some Slime as a backup.

Cheers
Peter [/QUOTE]

Its definately "horses for courses". Out there its a bloody long walk so would uses everything possible to help.
Nothing wrong with using an elastic waist, a belt and braces if it saves embarrassment.

Quoted post said:

Did you do a lot of low gear work? I'm starting to wonder if the problem might be much more pronounced with fat tyres and/or high driving torque (eg, granny gears or tandem bike). That combination could result in a lot of flexing of the outer part of the tyre casing (in the direction of rotation). John

That sounds like a reasonable conclusion. Low pressure, hi torque, abrupt changes in speed, wide flexy gripping tyres of MTB etc versus high pressure, low torque, more uniform and higher speed, thin rigid tyres of road bike.
All the power from the legs is looking for the weakest point in the drive train. If that power is "winding up" the tyre side walls I could see that there would be movement between the tyre and tube. Would have thought that if this is so, nipples being ripped out would also be more common ? Interesting.

Hugh