Now that it’s the off-season, I’m spending more of my bike training days on my mountain bike. There are plenty of “goat head” thorns (see pic):
on the fire roads I ride and though I try to avoid them, I seem to be flatting nearly every time I ride. My buddy bought some of these:
He swears by them. Anyone else have experience with these Slime tubes? Or should I be looking for the mtb equivalent to Specialized Armadillos?
slime is an awesome product. It won’t protect against all the goatheads though but it’ll cut down on your flats.
but…
A tubeless tire with a big dose of Stans is nearly unflattable by those little buggers…
Tai, I have taken to using Stan’s since your suggestion and often return from a ride to find deposits of the “milk” around punctures. The only downsides I have found is that certain prefered tyre/rim combinations are very difficult to mount, point in case being Maxxis Cross marks on ZTR olympic rim and a tear in the tyr is very messed to get a tube seated into to get home.
agreed, the mounting can be a real pain and if you do tear a sidewall it’s a messy replacement…
interesting about the crossmarks on the ztr, I was going to give those a try…
I’m running Specialized tires, the Roll X and the Fastrax and while neither is “easy” to mount, they are both doable with a hand pump. So far, knock on wood, I’ve yet to get a flat running tubeless.
Tai, I really like the crossmarks but one must remember that they are lightweight xc tyres (unless you buy the LUST ones) and are not overly strong sidewalls. I ripped a sidewall the weekend befoer going to Wales and then ripped the replacement in a slate rock garden the second day of riding! The good side is that I can verify that the Park tyre boot will stay put and holds the repair for an extended period of time. The other wheelset I have has a pair of Bontrager mud X mounted and they are very good for the type of mud we get here, but obviously pathetic on wet roots due to the large gaps between knobs necessary for vlearing the tyre in mud.
One option that works pretty decently, and is the best when cost is a valiable, is to get some thicker tubes (read:not light weight), remove the valve and fill tube with Stan’s. This works very well. Heavier rotational weight, but I didn’t note that that would be a problem for off season training.
That’s a good idea but I only have the two wheelsets and so my training wheels are my race wheels and so I have to decide now whether I remain with the lighter set up for racing and suck up the expense in training of the occasional ruined tyre or I go racing with the extra weight and have the security when training.
Why not use Stans and go tubeless, no more flats and it’s lighter than tubes
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Okay. I’m completely clueless about this. Any particular brand of tubeless to look for? Thanks in advance…
Firstly, it looks like you’re asking what type of tubeless tire to buy. If you have a standard rim that is NOT meant for tubeless tires, then just use a normal clincher (I’ve only use folding bead tires…I have no idea if a wire bead would work). You just need to buy a Stan’s package—I always end up ordering replacement latex goo from the manufacturer because so few LBS carry the stuff.
I switched over to Stan’s about 4 years ago after one too many flats on Saddleback Mountain Road. And I am SOOOOOOOOOO glad I made the switch. Despite what a lot of people say, I haven’t had a tough time with rim/tire combos. My Mavic 517s have gladly taken Fire XC, every Kenda I’ve tried, Hutchison Python (my favorite), IRC Mythos and Ritchey ZMax (just put those on yesterday). Just watch the video on the Stan’s website, follow all of their directions, and DEFINITELY use an aircompressor…it’s a really tough task with only a floor pump. Now, hurry up and mount those tires before it rains this weekend.
I second (or third?) the opinion on Stans! I mounted Panaracer Fire Pro XC’s (the higher TPI/more expensive ones) on Mavic 517’s and it was a snap! Like others have said, watch the video a couple times, read the instructions a couple more times, and use plenty of soap in the soapy-water to coat the rims & tire beads. I was able to mount the tires w/o an air compressor or removing the valve core - just pumped like mad for about 10sec and the tires filled right up (both before & after I added the Stans solution).
I think another thing that helped was that I rode my tires (w/ regular tubes) for a couple weeks, so they were well “broken in”. Mounting a tire fresh out of the box would be more difficult, so I’ve heard.
Thanks guys! How about a website for “Stan’s”?
De nada.
do you need special tires and rims?
Another vote here for Stan’s tubeless.
Stan has a tubeless conversion kit for normal rims, but I ride UST rims with no problem, but now thinking about buying a wheelset developed by Stan himself.
EDIT: The one thing is not to overinflate the tires as I’ve seen tires burp out. Other than that, I’ve been bombing away on serious rock gardens with no issues.
Slime is very good. I rarely get flat even going thru stickers like your picture…I also ask for the most puncture proof tires my bike store has and dont let them get worn out.
Please excuse me if this a totally dumb question but, are you feeling the entire inside of the tires before you mount a new tube? Often times flats are caused by sharp objects that get embedded in your tire but are invisible to the eye. The same object could be causing recurring flats. MB tires are pretty thick.
Yes, definitely. I pull the flattened tube out and run my hand/fingers through the inside of the tube in case there were thorns I couldn’t see. I remove anything I can find with tweezers and put the new tubes in and inflate. I check the next morning and make sure the tubes still have air.
I’m going to try the slime tubes. It will be easier and cheaper to try that before I give the tubeless thing a shot.
I remember back in 1993, when I purchased my first mountain bike. I lived in the Central Valley of CA and rode along canal banks. Always flatted. Damn goat heads.
Picked up a can of Slime and worried no more about those freak’n goat heads. I remember pulling out 10+ from one tire, saw a little slime, kept riding. Just carry a pump, just in case you lose some PSI.
After a year or so, took my bike up to the mountains for a cold winter ride (1-2 inches of snow on a fire road). Apparently, all my previously slimed holes opened up. I heard ssssssssssssss from many holes.
Definately easier/cheaper than going tubless.
Chris
You have no idea how bad and the goatheads are in the southwest. They are so brutal that I’ve had them penetrate through the tread of my running shoes into my foot. And they are all over the place.