On Apr 17, 2:27*am, "Blue Heeler" wrote:
Tºm Shermªn™ °_° wrote:
On 4/11/2011 11:20 AM, Bob wrote:
Hello,

Do those "self-sealing" inner tubes work ?

Some swear by them, other swear at them.

When putting on new tubes, worth going to the trouble to get them ?

Any thoughts on would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Bob

Do you live in an area with lots of puncture vine thorns, broken
glass, etc where you will be riding? *Otherwise, flats are not that
common, assuming that you are not using racing tires with relatively
thin and fragile casings and tread.

I have been on a journey the past few years to try and minimise the
number of times I am stopped by punctured/slashed tyres.

My commute is 25km from one of the northern beach suburbs of Cairns,
Australia.

The main problem is *that there are a large number of fools hereabouts
who throw glass (mostly beer bottles) out of car windows, secondary
problems is that the area is one of rapid growth which means lots of
things like screws, nails metal off-cuts etc.

When I first started riding to and from work I was averaging a couple
of punctures a week, and losing about one tyre a month to irretrievable
slashes from various sources. I should add that my homeward run is
usually in the dark. In addition to playing with tyres I have also been
experimenting with lighting systems, but I digress.

After trying myriad brands of tyres, both cheap and expensive I
discovered Schwalbe Stelvio + in 2008 and suddenly my puncture rates
dropped to about 1 per month. The Stelvio + model was discontinued and
replaced by the Durano plus in 2009, I have happily continued to have a
very low puncture rate with these tyres, although in the past year I
have had two of them slashed beyond practical repair.

Good though the Duranos are, I still occasionally suffer a puncture
from thin metal, wire, nails or screws - frequently the puncture
"agent" does not stay in the tyre and I am unable to say for certain
what the cause is.

This made me start thinking about the various sealants you can put in
car tyres to prevent deflation in similar circumstances.

Now you can't put "green slime" (a catch-all covering tyre sealants as
they generally tend to be a slimy green colour for some reason) in past
a Presta valve, I tried and it won't work. Period.

A search of the net found some brave souls were cutting the pin in the
Presta, putting the sealant in, and then carefully feeding the pin back
into the valve. I tried this on a damaged tube and bluntly I lack the
dexterity required.

Another solution beckoned. Why not, I thought, simply cut the tube
somewhere close to the valve, a slit just large enough to feed in the
nozzle from the green slime bottle, and then once the requisite amount
of slime has been added simply put a normal patch on the tube.

A $2 disposable scalpel from the local chemist and a $20 bottle of
green slime (sufficient to "treat" 4 bicycle tyres according to the
label) and a couple of larger than normal glue on patches were obtained.

A small slit allowed the nozzle to carefully squirt in the slime, I
then cut the "truck tube" patches I'd bought down just a bit and
patched the slit.

I've now been riding on two tubes treated as above for the past week.
On Friday morning I noticed that the front was down a little in
pressure, but did nothing at the time other than pump it back up to
120psi. Today I pulled the tyre off and found 2 small spots of "green
chalk" on the tube that appear to be sealed up holes. At this stage I'm
counting the experiment a provisional success, if I got the whole month
with no stoppage causing punctures I'll be very happy indeed.

Cost to treat 4 tubes - about $26 made up of $20 green slime sealant,
$2 scalpel $4 for 8 large tube patches. I guess there is also some glue
in there too, but I buy my patch glue in bulk and still working my way
through the 100 tubes I bought 5 years ago.

--

I live and ride along the RIo Grande in New Mexico, Land of the
Goathead. I have never - ever - ridden in such a flat-prone place. If
you ride here without some sort of flat protection, you'll be on your
rims within minutes.
Stan's NoFlat is the hands-down winner among small puncture sealants.
Seals much more quickly and solidly than Slime or its clones - and you
need less of it in your tubes. Far lighter than thick tubes or anti-
puncture belts. I can't recommend it enough.
Casing ruptures and slashes have more to do with the tire itself -
rubber compound and casing material. Continental Vectran and
Specialized Armadillo materials are supposed to protect the casing
from ruptures. Results vary.