I commute year round, 7,000 miles per year. I do not want to deal with punctures, so I use these (paired with Schwalbe Marathons, also from Bike Tires Direct). I cannot remember the last time I had a flat with these, I do recall when replacing a tire the Slime tube being stuck inside, proving that the Slime tube did its job. The front MarathonSlime combo on my commuter has over 21,000 miles with zero punctures, and in total I estimate that the last puncture I had was somewhere around 45,000 miles. If you dont want to flat, get these!
It worked so well it sealed my valve and couldn�t put air in my tire any more. So I replaced the slime tube with a conventional tube and got a flat 3 rides later. I put the slime tube back on with a new valve. I can deal with this. This only happened with one tire, the other one is still holding strong and over two years.
A great product that has been around for decades. If you hate flats then add SlimeTubes to your Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires and possible ride a year (for me 10,000 miles) without a flat. There is no downside. Everyone likes to talk about weight on a bike, as long as you are not racing weight matters very little, and sitting by the side of the road repairing tires will make you 100x slower on your route than riding a lightweight bike. Make sure you buy the Slime tubes and not the bottle to add slime to your existing tubes.
I got these because I had a series of flats on my commuter bike, even when using gatorskin tires. Since I installed these I haven't had a single flat. I didn't do a double-blind study or anything, but my perception is that they work really well. They are a bit heavier and more expensive than other tubes, but I'm happy to accept the weight and not worry about flats (also, for a commuter bike with a rack and panniers, is tube weight that important?), and I save money by not buying new tubes. The only design "flaw" I can find is that a tiny spray of slime comes out of the presta valve every time you open it to top off the air. Perhaps they could put a one-way flap where the tube joins the valve to prevent that? Otherwise, this is a great product that seems to do exactly what it promises. Highly recommend them.
I bought a pair of these for the new tires going on my hybrid bike. I routinely ride about 15 miles at a time, and have run tire slime in regular tubes before, with no problems for a long time. These tubes cost more than plain tubes, and you can tell they are heavier than plain tubes as well, but for an exercise bike it is no big deal. They do have a cool bright green cap for the schrader valves. So far, so good with no flats after 3 months. I expect and hope there will be many more trouble-free miles to come.
They're...tubes! I feel like any tube that's more robust than a "race" tube will get you great results. These are no exception.
The slime goop sealant stuff has patched a couple small punctures, though I doubt there's much left afterwards. Definitely order a couple extra to have on standby. Gives great peace of mind!
both 26 inch tubes are bad out of the box the first one leaked around the valve the second one blew up when inflated to 40 pounds complete waste of time and money.
Great tube, easier to. Install than I expected with the slime in it. I ride over a section of path that has lot's of Clam shell's dropped by Seagull's I no longer have a fear of flatting. Also, Before getting the slime tube's I carried a saddle bag with a couple of regular tube's, co2, tire lever's. Now I don't carry anything.
I have a beltdrive and getting my rear wheel out is just a little more time consuming. So this is just another layer of protection to avoid flats. I use it on my raincommutergravel bike.
8 miles into the first ride on these tubes I had a flat. When I took the tube out it had split at the seam. Failure was not due to puncture. I�d bought a second one so I put the 2nd one in and have been riding on that one. 150 miles in on the second one with no issues.
I've used these for years on my mtb. Work great, I've had two flats with these, not enough air/time to self seal and the slime makes a patch not feasible. They are also pretty heavy compared to normal tires. The green valve caps are cool though
My wife and I use these tubes on our daily commuter bikes. And after a year of service she got a flat. Upon closer inspection the tube actually had 7 punctures that sealed. Ironically, this last one sealed too and she was able to get home safely.
It's easy, the slime is already in the tube. This is absolutely great if you ride in a place with goat head stickers, you can usually pull them out and keep riding I put them on my wife's bike as she doesn't take a pump or know how to fix a flat yet.
I�ve used these for years on my mtb. Work great, I�ve had two flats with these, not enough air/time to self seal and the slime makes a patch not feasible. They are also pretty heavy compared to normal tires. The green valve caps are cool though
Probably nothing wrong with the tubes and maybe I didn't study the instructions close enough; BUT, when I used the air pressure gage on it goop came out through the valve and clogged up my gage. (My tubes were Schrader valves) Gave them to a friend who didn't care since he just thumps his tires when checking pressure. If I become a thumper I would try them again, but otherwise I'll stay with non goop tubes.
I ride because it is part of my physical therapy regiment. I have back, leg, and foot issues and after my latest diagnoses, I can only ride a bike (and I used to hike, walk, and jog but can't because of health reasons) I have been using Slime tubes for years and had a pretty good supply stocked up. I understand that were I live I will occasionally get a flat that is why I carry the necessary extra tubes and a pump on all of my rides. Something must have happened because the last time I stocked up I must have received a defective batch or something because I have had to replace 4 flats in the last two weeks. One ride last week took me two hours to travel three miles....why, because I had to replace two tubes on the same tire on the same trip. You might think flat, no big deal...with back and leg problems, pushing home a bike makes worse my condition and the last time I ended up staying in bed for a whole day and missing work as a result. I used to think Slime was wonderful, but now not so much...especially since the last flat was result of a tube split on a seam which was on the rim side of the tube. This screams obvious defect and poor quality of workmanship (well at least on this last batch). Definitely going to Slime.com and tell them what's what. Four times I've had to replace flat tubes that refused to hold any air. I'm not a rocket scientist but if this isn't a result of a bad batch and represents just a single incident, we'll see, but if this is the new normal for slime tubes, it's obvious that they are a waste of money, time, and my health...too bad, they used to make a wonderful product.
Thank you for the product review. We are sorry to hear about your experience but would be happy to help get you set up with replacement tubes or anything else. Please call or email us at your convenience, and we will get started on helping out you.
Best, Derek
Pure garbage! I ordered about 4-6 of these and on nearly all the presta valved stem separated from the tube after about 5 minutes of riding. Think one or two held up but the rest failed quickly. Additionally, there's not a whole lot of slime in the tube either......just enough to call it a slime tube and enough to cover your thumb nail when the valve stem breaks off after you look at it wrong. Super-duper fragile.
