Basic Tools to have on a bike trip

[happyslug]

4. There are two ways around flat tires

Three is you include walking. As to the other two, the first is opting for thicker tubes. These are sometime hard to find for racers want the thinnest tubes possible for rotating weight has more negative effect on biking then any dead weight in the frame itself. Thus racers want the lightest and thus the thinnest tubes possible and have lead to thinner and thinner tubes since the 1950s.

REI is selling some "Thorn Resistant" inner tubes, thicker tubes then normal (These are for 700cc wheels only NOT for 26 inch wheels):

http://www.rei.com/product/884284/sunlite-thorn-resistant-presta-valve-bike-tube-2014-overstock


The other option is to install a sealant into the tube that seals any holes as their develope, Slime is a product that does this:

http://bicycling.about.com/od/bikeequipmentaccessories/gr/slime_sealant.htm

My brother once tested Slime by installing it and then punching small holes into a tire and inner tube. Slime worked sealing the small holes. Like thicker Inner Tubes walls, Slime ends up being rotating weight and some people dislike it for that reason.

Slime also sells inter tubes at $14 a pop that combine both of the above, thicker tubes AND sealant. That is what I am using and I rarely get flats any more:

http://www.rei.com/product/768651/slime-self-sealing-smart-superthick-presta-tube-26-x-175-2125

Please note Slime sells conventional thin tubes with Slime in addition to the Thicker Tubes which I use. The reports on this thinner tubes are NOT good, I suspect it is the thinner walls that is the problem.

Now, I do change tires in the winter, I had to install my tires with studs right after Christmas. One of the problems with Slime is it can clog the air value and that is what it did to me. I ended up buying a stem removal tool to remove the clog value and taking a value from another inner tube to replace it. The inner tube was saved, but now I have to make sure I keep any air values of any inner tubes that I replace. The Park Tool work nice, easily removed the clogged value and installed a new value thus saving the inner tube.



Slime thus have two huge disadvantages, one it increase rotations weight, second it can (but most cases will NOT) clog air Values. On the other hand. slime will seal any small leaks and thus increase the life of an inner tube. If you opt for one with a thicker wall, that is more protection.

A third disadvantages is that these thicker tubes tend to be much less flexible then conventional tubes. Thus a conventional tube that is 26x1.75 to 2.25 is easy to install in a 26x 1.25 tire (I have done it) but a 26x1.75 to 2.25 inner tube with slime and a thicker wall was almost impossible to stall in a 26x 1.5 tire. Thus if you opt for a Slime tire and thicker walls makes sure it fits your tires, and right now I can NOT find any Slime thick tires smaller then 1.75 inches. My studded tires are 26x1.75 but in the summer I tend to run on 26x1.5 slicks. I have NOT run across any thick slime tires other then 26x1.75. REI says they are selling a "29x1.85" which would be a 700 cc inner tube but for a wider than average 700 cc tire, 45 mm, most 700s are 35 mm or smaller, I suspect such an inner tube will NOT work inside a 700x35mm tire).

Side note: I have also used liners inside a bike tire, these also seems to reduce flats. Thus I have a tire, a liner, then a thicker then normal inner tube that also has slime in it.

Just some comments on how to minimize flats beside the conventional wisdom of keeping your tires at their maximum pressure.

Now, I have read reports on the new tubeless tires and that they tend to have less flats then conventional tires (but when they go flat harder to replace in an emergency for a conventional tube has to be used). Most cars have used tubeless tires since at least the 1960s (and my father had a problem with one set and ended up putting in an inner tube to solve the problem of them going flat in the 1970s). On the other hand, most auto tubeless tires have worked quite well since their introduction right after WWII.

As to bicycle Tubeless tires, most require wheels designed for tubeless tires (but some do not, but require you to "Sell" your wheel). Tubeless bicycle tires work like tubeless auto tires, you install the "Sealant" into the tire and on the wheel, install the tire, make sure it is "set" i,e, the sealant in the tire also sealed the wheel and you are set to go. In theory it should be like if you installed Slime into inner tube, but then excluded the inner tube. The sealant being a semi-liquid will also seal up most small holes AND make the tire "Thicker" in the sense that any puncture would not only have to go through the tire but the sealant AND stay a hole after it did that (i.e. the sealant did not reseal the hole as soon as the hole developed).

I have NOT used tubeless tires, but on the surface they MAY provide more protection from holes then conventional tires. On the other hand it may be the only reason they seem to be doing better is do to how thin conventional inner tubes have become since the 1960s. i.e. it solved the problem that should never have developed if inner tubes had kept to the thickness they were in the 1960s. Thus Thicker inner tubes, liners and Slime may be a better combination then tubeless tires, but I have read favorable opinions about such tubeless tires and flats.