is it any good .

reason is these high winds we are having has blown every thorn in the world on to my local towpath where I take the pooch for his run in the mornings me on the bike
never had a problem until the wind picked up now its 4 miles of Stinger

7 holes the other day
and two more flat tyres this morning not yet had a look at the damage

so was wondering if a squirt of the slime would be the answer to not walking home .

Used it in the past, heavy, but seems to work for small punctures

as above, heavy if useing slime tubes, but effective! local bike hire place this year have gone for Slime style tubes in all the bike tyres, said it’ll work out better cost wise over a season! 2 tubes per bike rather than 20!

Tractor tyre sealant can be as good and cheaper, but only any good for low pressures and low speeds.

I tried it for a bit. Horrible stuff.

To be fair, it did fix a few punctures as advertised, but eventually I got one that it couldn’t fix. I stopped 2 or 3 times to reinflate to see if it would seal, and then finally gave up. So I tried to let the remaining air out so I could get the tyre off and swap a proper tube in, at which point it sealed the valve leaving me completely stuffed. I eventually managed to poke holes in the tyre with a safety pin and get it deflated, but it was a right PITA.

Add to that the fact that it gums up the valve at the best of times making it harder to pump, and every time you press the end of a presta valve to free it up, it spits green monkey snot at you.

I’ve only tried it with prestas, so I guess it might work a bit better with schraeder valves.

When you finally do give up with them, you’ve no idea how many punctures it has actually saved you from, and all the things that caused them will still be stuck in the tyre.

You still normally have to stop to pump the tyre up even if it does seal it, so you may as well sort it properly there and then.

I thought about just pouring a bit of stans into a tube the other day on my get to work bike, but the tube I had didn’t have a removable core. Anyone tried that?

My LBS also does a little canister that is meant to re-inflate a tube and also seal any holes, can’t remember what it’s called now (I think it’s black with bits of red on it.) No idea if it’s any good either as I haven’t tried it.

I suffered from years of thorn punctures, tried tyre liners and slime but didnt work. Slime didnt seal once the thorn came out and were really heavy and ‘lumpy’ when at speed. Converted rims to true UST 819s and use tubeless ready tyres with Stans now, never ever get thorn punctures, only ever had trouble with tyre splits in rocky areas when in below subzero temps.

I have just got some of the horrible looking stuff so will be in a position to see if it works for my morning ride along the same bit of towpath

5 holes in the rear tube and 2 small ones in the front from this morning .

Yeah I use Stans in my tubes mrblobby.

When I was swapping tyres over last week there was about 6 thorns in them, but no punctures, so it works great!

I’ve tried slime in the past but it wasn’t as good.

I use slime and think it’s great.

I’ve just had my first puncture in six months (use the bike everyday) AND it didn’t go flat – it got me where i was going, which is what it’s designed to do IMO.

Sometimes it doesn’t work, but thats the way it goes…

The trick is to use the heavy duty version of slime designed for tubeless (cars and motorcycles). This has bigger fibres and rubber bits that are more effective at blocking holes.

DONT buy the pre-slimed tubes. The slime in them is more like green water – pointless.

DONT buy the pre-slimed tubes. The slime in them is more like green water – pointless.

Phew lucky escape then nearly bought 2 Thanks

No Prob. Glad you dodged that – it would have put you off slime straight away.

Did you get the Heavy Duty version?

I use slime tubes for non rocky areas and have done for years, they normally work if you get thorns, but if you get a flint split or similar they are a messy waste of time, i have just got a set of stans flow rims built up, (so when the nice people at the distributors send the correct yellow tape) to try out on the big bike, to try and stop snakebites. If they work well i shall get some for the little bike, then wont have to change tubes for different areas.

I grabbed some Slime tubes in a sale last year to stick on my pub bike.

As others have already mentioned they are heavy, but I have never been let down by them in nearly 10 months of use.

Mr Farmer has recently cut all his hedges, covering the paths in thorns and all sorts and even that hasn’t popped them!

Pretty much a fit and forget item IMHO.

We’ve been using Slime tubes (pre-filled) for the last four winters and they’ve cut puncture stops from one or two a week between ten or so of us to one or two a season. Even when they are overwhelmed the green gunk is easier to wash off than tubeless jizz.

Schwalbe tubes have removable presta cores if you want to make up a lighter alternative with less gunk. I’ve done that with good results.
Don’t bother with Slime-lites, they use a thinner tube with less gunk, cost more and really don’t work very well.

I’ve got two preslimed tubes, been using them for 6 months and have had no problems, would normaly have had two or three punctures by now. A little weighty but totally worth it.

Here in the SW USA, cacti of various sorts and a ubiquitous ground thorn, locally called goatheads are the bane of tubes. Almost everyone uses Slime, either added or Slime tubes. Before I switched to tubeless, used it for years and with very few flats due to punctures. With tubeless I went to Stan’s initially, then on last tire change went to a newer Slime tubeless product. It seems to stay in liquid form and not dry up as quickly as Stans did.

I’ve used slime and it is horrible stuff. It has never once sealed a hole and is just a **** nightmare to clear out. Then tried Stan’s and never looked back – not one trail puncture in 18 months.

I had nearly a full slime bottle left over last summer and stuck some in my commuter wheels with Bonty tubeless ready tyres. It didn’t even seal the tyre enough to retain pressure over 24 hrs. Buy stan’s.

I’ve used home made sealant tubes. Scwalbe tubes (narrow ones – 1 1/4″ IIRC – and removeable cores) with NoFlats sealant and they worked reasonably well – no punctures but I did snakebike one (4mm holes). I’ve since gone tubeless and that’s been perfect.

Mildred. As far as I’m aware Slime is not intended by it’s manufacturer to be used as a tubeless sealant.

In my experience slime performs no worse or better than tubeless with sealant but is less faffy and expensive to replace when it is overwhelmed.

Was plagued with thorns when farmers cut hedgerows in autumn. At least one puncture on every ride. Switched to pre-filled Dr Sludge innertubes (same ideas as slime) and problem went away immediately. Not one puncture with them since. The “gunk” tends to get in the valve and make them a faff to top up pressure from time to time but worth it IMHO. Tempted to try tubeless but sounds a faff and too busy to bother at present – what little time I have for bike stuff needs to be used for riding at present…

4 rides now along the same route and the tyres are still up so I am convinced it works for thorns .