Self Sealing Tubes

Do they work ?

or are they a messy extravagence ?

Cheers

A colleague of mine has used them, bike in use every day.
He thinks they do actually work, but only for so long before the slime stuff inside turns to one big lump.

I helped him set up his rear brake and when spinning the wheel the whole thing was way out of balance because of the slowly solidifying slime in one part of the tube.

He's given up on slime now because it clogged the valve too so he had to buy new tubes when fixing a puncture.

FWIW, i've used slime strips for about a year and they have made a BIG difference to me. I do still get punctures but not nearly as often as before. When I do check the tyres or have to fix a puncture like I did a few nights ago, I always find several shards of glass, thorns and the occasional bit of metal embedded in the tyre that hasn't punctured the slime strip.
Downside, they're a bitch to get straight in the tyre - they always seem to snake round to the sidewall when you fit them, and they do add a little spinning weight to the wheel.

Thanks

They sound good in theory but if they worked that well everyone would use them..

I opted for a normal tube and bought some snazzy self adhesive Park Tool repair patches with the £3 difference .

Careful of those self sealing patches, they don't work very well at high pressures. They are fine on my MTB >45psi I gave up trying them on my road bikes..........

slightly off topic.. after riding all day with a patched tube (self sealing type) I noticed a small hole in my rear conti gp4000 sidewall, which the patch has bubbled through - amazingly it lasted 20 miles and then popped half an hour after i got home whilst sitting in the hall. For the moment I've stuck the old 28mm tyre back on just so i have something to get me to work tomorrow. Can I seal the small hole in my conti with slime? The tyre is only a couple of months old and fine otherwise.
First time I've had this prob so would appreciate any advice..

You could try patching the inside of the tyre. Just use a normal patch and glue.
grumpy old man in sexy younger man's body says
I don't trust all that new fangled slime, self-adhesive patch malarkey. :)

clefty First time I've had this prob so would appreciate any advice..

I use these, like the self adehsive Park Tool sqaure stick on patches, but thicker, bigger and stronger with fiber weave reinforcement, good for MTB and road tyres at high pressure.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=13249

'Tyre Boot'

Thanks Tynan, that looks like just the ticket!

Epic dredge.

What's the verdict now on self-sealing tubes, like this Slime one:
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/slime-smart-road-tube/rp-prod133434

Any good?

I use them on my commuter and they're good. had one fairly big hole which would seal then split again then seal every minute or so but it got me home. for normal punctures its great. had a couple instances of having a nail in the tyre, took the nail out and span it and it sealed straight up.

only issue I have found is that it will seal the valve and need piers to undo and close every time you pump the tube up. really good otherwise.

I wonder if the slime in the Slime brand tubes has changed.

We fitted a lot of them when I worked at Halfrauds but that was like...15 years ago. I remember them being utterly useless then. The slime was really thick and heavy and nothing like modern tubeless sealant.

My bottle of Stans tubeless sealant says it works in tubes too

Thanks for the info. I've bought a couple of tubes (£8 each) so will fit them and report back here. I'm hoping that things have gotten better after all the bad reports from ~12 years ago.

How did you find them?

Hmm, it was a while ago so memory is a bit hazy, but I'm back on regular tubes so that probably says something.

I remember getting a puncture and maybe it worked well enough to get home, but then you still need to change/repair the tube anyway and having a complete mess of slime all over the tube and inside tyre was a pain.

Yeh know it was an old thread but your answer helps, was hoping for been using them for three years puncture free lol