When I first started mountain biking in the area I live in now, about 10 years ago, I could not go a single week without getting a flat! It was so frustrating. The culprit was usually goatheads – these nasty little spiky thorns that grow in weeds in our area. I often bike 5-10 miles into complete wilderness, with no other way out than back the way I came, so you could imagine the hassle of getting a flat tire that far out. The options were either walk back, or if I was forward-thinking enough, carry spare tubes.
Then one day someone mentioned these Slime tubes to me. The concept is simple. You either buy a prefilled tube, or you purchase a bottle of slime and pump it into your existing tube. I’ve never worked out which is more cost effective – I normally just buy the prefilled ones and add more slime as needed. Once you’re up and running, if you get a pinhole in your tire, the slime is meant to target that area and essentially plug the hole.
But does the slime actually work? You bet they do! In all the years I’ve been biking with slime in my tires I have never got a flat. But when I’ve had to replace tires, there is a mess of slime in there sometimes, telling me some seeped out on its way to fixing the flat. This stuff has been a godsend!
My kids ride fat tire ebikes which I also insist have slime in them. For those, I fill from the Slime bottle, because I haven’t been successful in finding prefilled tubes that fit those tires. They both have had one flat each with slime in their tubes. One was due to a half inch tear in the tube (the slime won’t help there – they advertise that it works upto 1/8 of an inch), and the other was because I didn’t put enough slime in the tube. That flat was fixed by simply adding more slime, pumping it back up, and riding around for a few minutes.
If you choose to buy the Slime refill bottle, you will need a valve core removal tool. Some tubes have this little tool built into the cap (see pic), but I like the sturdier metal option.
And now for some trail pictures…
I did not get a flat on my most recent bike ride (woohoo), which was ~11 miles through the San Pasqual valley. I normally go further on this trail, but we ran out of daylight! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be stuck in mountain lion country in the dark! That was number 10 in my 52in25 challenge.
And number 11 in my 52in25 challenge was a beautiful ~6 mile hike (no bikes allowed here) through Blue Sky Reserve in Poway, and up the hill to Lake Ramona. It is a tough climb up, but it is worth it! Enjoy!
