slime / gorilla snot / sludge

[Red Zone]

When tubless fails it is pretty spectacular and a real mess to get going again. Some of the top guys in the Epic had about 6 punctures in one stage and most of them suffered with tubeless, perhaps set up to Euro conditions, less rocky I dont know.

 

Me tubes and tyre liners - one puncture.

[davetapson]

Dunno about conversions.  Went to LBS and he reckoned that conversions work - for a while.  Then b*ggering around with gloop to when the old gloop gets old.  Who needs it? 

 

Me, I had tubes with OKA in, no problems.  Don't get pinch flats, was pretty thorn proof - so apart from the weight of the tube, there doesn't seem to be any disadvantage to my current plan?

 

If I did go tubless, I'd get tubless rims and do a proper job.  However, the lotto is not co-operating, so tubes with decent sealant will do the job for me.

 

Repaired the puncture last night.  Tiny hole in tube, small but noticable hole in tyre.  Seems what ever went through must have been probably 1mm - 2mm in size.  Green slime was completely useless.  The slime on the bike frame is still liquid 2 days later. 

 

Don't buy Giant tubes that come with sealant in.  Well, not if you want the sealant to seal that is.

[Johan Bornman]

Not going to play with the stuff' date=' want to set up a series of controlled experiments to see what influences the liftetime of these compounds.  I for one would want to know more or less how long I can trust the gunk to work in sealing a "normal" puncture.  [/quote']

 

Nice idea, but dont forget to standardise all the variables.

 

These are: temperature (note the ambient temperature and come up with some sort of standardised average) and tyre type and size.

 

However, there's really no need to come up with some sort of standard which will in anyway be meaningless if the conditions vary. If there's enough liquid inside the tyre, it will seal. Simply test your wheels each time you wash your bike by holding the wheel in the quarter to three position with both hands and shaking it. If you can hear and feel a good solid schlosh inside, they will seal. If not, put some more snot in.

 

JB

[Wannabe]

Suffered with rear puncture problem this past weekend at the Kumba Hardekool race. Got "Slime" in the tubes. Did not seal the puncture. Had to pump the tyre a couple of times (too lazy to fit new tube, and I "mos got Slime in my tube"). Once home I took the tube out and found the tube did not contain any Slime anymore, as it was all in the tyre, between the tyre and the tube. Did not congeal. WHAT A MESS. On checking the tube I only found two small thorn holes, which I patched chop chop.

This is the second time it happened in a year (front wheel about a month ago) Never before had a problem with punctures before, and I ride fairly thorny bushveld conditions. My conclusion, these things (Slime definately) has a "sell by date" on their effectiveness. Found it to be about a year.

Lesson learnt, every couple of months, remove Slime from tube and refill with fresh Slime.

[davetapson]

PS:  One comment I head regarding the 'carry a tube around in case your tubeless fails' argument is that by the time a tubless tyre won't hold air anymore it is so full of thorns that the tube will be puntured before you've even managed to pump it hard...

[Johan Bornman]

When tubless fails it is pretty spectacular and a real mess to get going again. Some of the top guys in the Epic had about 6 punctures in one stage and most of them suffered with tubeless' date=' perhaps set up to Euro conditions, less rocky I dont know.

 

Me tubes and tyre liners - one puncture.

[/quote']

 

Some of the top guys in the Epic aren't so tops when it comes to common sense. I can't believe that they still ride with tubes. When I asked one of them why, he said it weighs less than a tubeless/sealant conversion.  The leaders took 20 minutes out of him on one particular day due to the many punctures he had.

 

Others go tubeless but ride with the absolute minimum of liquid inside. You only have to watch any of these marathon races to wonder about their puncture strategies.

 

If you compare the Mannie Heymans' race to Andrew McLean's race you'll notice that Mannie spent at least 30 minutes fixing punctures (from what I could time on TV) whereas Andrew with lots of slime inside spent 0 minutes. Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence but have a look at the average martathon coverage and you'll notice the trend.

 

Professional cyclists sometimes make some silly decisions in spite of their cardio-vascular prowess.

 

JB

[Kranswurm]

Been running Slime in my Tubeless (Crossmax with Maxxis and now Kenda)for 3 years.You have to replace the stuff after 4 to 6 months as it gets used up.Esp in Botswana.I use a whole bottle in each wheel.If another bright mech in a bike shop tells me that its not necc I'll make him wear it.Its my personal preferance and it works for me.

 

5 of us did Mashatu and did not experience any flats.

I had slime with proper tubeless

My son ran tube tyres with DT Swiss Conversion and gloop

One mate ran Panaracers Tubeless with homemade conversion and mixture of OKO and Stans

Two others ran proper tubless with Joes

My ex runs Bontrager with Stans conversion and gloop

 

They all worked in the end and are still working.

The secret is put enough in.Dont skimp.ie double the dose at least.The stuff gets used and does not last forever and has to be topped up as well

[davetapson]

If you compare the Mannie Heymans' race to Andrew McLean's race you'll notice that Mannie spent at least 30 minutes fixing punctures (from what I could time on TV) whereas Andrew with lots of slime inside spent 0 minutes. Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence but have a look at the average martathon coverage and you'll notice the trend.

 

What was Mannie Heymans riding and what was Andrew McLean riding? I'd have assumed both tubeless with tubeless rims? 

 

Mannie's problem was he was using Giant's green snot

davetapson2007-10-24 01:29:11

[Johan Bornman]

PS:  One comment I head regarding the 'carry a tube around in case your tubeless fails' argument is that by the time a tubless tyre won't hold air anymore it is so full of thorns that the tube will be puntured before you've even managed to pump it hard...

 

 

Whilst it is true that a tyre full of thorns and empty of slime will puncture your tube as soon as you inflate it, but in reality this should happen only in very rare cases.

 

 

If you have sufficient slime in your tyre, the number of thorns in the tyre doesn't matter. You can have 100 in there, it won't cause the wheel to loose air. So, don't ride with too little slime. Money saved means walking home.

 

Secondly, slime fails when you cut your tyre or bend the rim so that your copious reservoir of slime won't seal anymore. That's when you go the tube route. If that happens, your race is history in anyway and you may as well take your time in repairing the tyre so that you don't have to walk home carrying your bike.

 

Therefore, once you have a failure that slime cannot fix, you sit down, wipe the mess off, run your fingers along the inside of the tyre looking for thorns, remove them and then fit the tube. With Stan's I find the thorn holes are marked with a small crumb of solidified latex at the puncture hole.

 

In retrospect, I suppose it makes sense to remove thorns as they puncture the tyre and not ride them until the thorn is broken off but still active and waiting for a tube on the inside.

 

JB

[davetapson]

I can't believe that they still ride with tubes. When I asked one of them why' date=' he said it weighs less than a tubeless/sealant conversion.[/quote']

 

Johan - was he using sealant?  To ride tubed without sealant is nuts.  But I can't see that tubed with sealant is appreciably heavier than tubeless with sealant...?

 

[Johan Bornman]

If you compare the Mannie Heymans' race to Andrew McLean's race you'll notice that Mannie spent at least 30 minutes fixing punctures (from what I could time on TV) whereas Andrew with lots of slime inside spent 0 minutes. Admittedly this is anecdotal evidence but have a look at the average martathon coverage and you'll notice the trend.

 

What was Mannie Heymans riding and what was Andrew McLean riding? I'd have assumed both tubeless with tubeless rims? 

 

Mannie's problem was he was using Giant's green snot

 

No, as I said, Mannie made his scale decide that he should go with tubes.

 

I'm putting words in Mannie's mouth since my information is second-hand. I did see on TV though that he fitted tube after tube after tube.

 

I spoke to Andrew after his Epic and he had tubeless and slime of sorts.

JB

[scotty]

No permatubes .

If you are going to go with slime in your tube get a decent tube as there are good and bad. I got mine from Woodstock cycles (cant recall the name) and have been riding for over a year with them, never failed me. The tyre has even suffered a nail going into it and sealed.

 

But maybe i'm just very lucky.

[NotSoBigBen]

No permatubes .

If you are going to go with slime in your tube get a decent tube as there are good and bad. I got mine from Woodstock cycles (cant recall the name) and have been riding for over a year with them' date=' never failed me. The tyre has even suffered a nail going into it and sealed.

 

But maybe i'm just very lucky.

[/quote']

 

or ........ you not riding that much in 'uncharted' territory?

[Johan Bornman]

I can't believe that they still ride with tubes. When I asked one of them why' date=' he said it weighs less than a tubeless/sealant conversion.[/quote']

 

Johan - was he using sealant?  To ride tubed without sealant is nuts.  But I can't see that tubed with sealant is appreciably heavier than tubeless with sealant...?

 

 

From what I could see, it was without sealant. A tube with sealant is big shaped like a puffadder whereas an empty tube is nice and flat. But as I explained earlier on in this thread, sealant in a tube isn't of much use unless the tube is extraordinary thick. The sealant needs some depth in the rubber to make an impression.

 

Another poster here explained what happens with sealant in tubes - the sealant leaks out and invades the space between the tube and tyre, but seldom seals.

 

JB

[scotty]

No permatubes .

If you are going to go with slime in your tube get a decent tube as there are good and bad. I got mine from Woodstock cycles (cant recall the name) and have been riding for over a year with them' date=' never failed me. The tyre has even suffered a nail going into it and sealed.

 

But maybe i'm just very lucky.

[/quote']

 

or ........ you not riding that much in 'uncharted' territory?

 

 Forgot to add i also use tyre liners.

[dirtrider]

or ........ you not riding that much in 'uncharted' territory?

 

 

 

Not true , I have seen Scotty going over a pavemunt once .