“Slime” tire sealant is acceptable for mt bikes but has anybody tried it in high pressure clincher tires? I decided to try it for an experiment.
I couldn’t find any Slime brand 700 c tubes so I made my own by cutting a narrow slit in my tube and squirting the slime in the tube. After patching the slit I mounted the tire and punctured the tire a few times to see if it would hold. So far so good. I wondered if the low air volume and high air pressure would prevent it from working but it’s holding fine. It lost maybe a little air pressure before the Slime kicked in but it beats the hell out of replacing a tube out on the road.
Next I’ll look into the “Stans” method of tubeless tires on a road bike. Basically you replace the tube with latex sealant.
I hate flat tires, I’ll gladly take the trade off of added rolling weight for fewer flats.
I know this isn’t exactly what you’re asking about but there is slime-type stuff you can “inject,” for lack of a better word, through your presta valves without messing with the tube. I haven’t seen it on shelves for home use but supergo will (or at least used to) treat two tires with it for 20 bucks and they’d redo it if you ever got a flat. I can’t remember the product name but I bet other shops have it too. I had them put it in the tires on my first road bike (before I became a weight weenie). Low air volume/high pressure didn’t seem to bother it at all. It worked pretty well. I got one flat in two years and that one was my fault.
Whats the point? Seems like a lot of hassle when you could just put in a pair of Mr. Tuffys. In 6 years of using them I’ve never had a flat with Mr. Tuffys in.
Took my Hed-3 to the LBS today to have “Stan’s” no flat system installed. I’m told that not only will my wheel/tire combo be a few grams lighter, but it will be much more flat resistant thanks to the latex sealant.
We’ll see how it works. If it works as good as I’m told it will there is no reason for this to not be the way of the future with racing clinchers.