Inner tube

[TommyRox]

Can a 27.5 × 2.0 - 2.4 Slime tube be used with a 27.5 × 1.95 mtb tire?

 

[froze]

Yes

But Slime will weigh down your tires, and Slime only lasts about a year, sometimes they can last up to 2 years, note the wording, up to! By replacing the tube every year you eliminate the possibility of getting a flat only to discover the Slime didn't work.

Personally. I am not a fan of Slime, I would rather use Clear Motion Rhinodillos tire liners.

Your first defense against flats is your tires, so you need to get a very good puncture-resistant tire like the Schwalbe Marathon Plus MTB with Smart Dual Guard, with that tire you shouldn't require slime tubes or a tire liner!

If you go with a tire like the Schwalbe and get a bit paranoid about flats then use a tire liner, but only use it on the rear since that's where about 30 flats on the rear will occur for every 1 flat on the front. But I seriously doubt you'll need a tire liner with those Schwalbe tires, they are marketed as flat less.

As you should be able to tell by now, your second line of defense against flats is a tire liner.

 

[Vantage]

Simple answer is yes it'll fit. It'll be tricky to get the tube in without nipping it under the tyre though. See if you find a thinner inner tube. It'll be much easier to fit.

Puncture preventing things like tyre liners and puncture resistant tyres do work but they come with a price....weight and dead feeling. Ordinary tyres are lighter and don't feel like they're made from lead. That's why we have puncture repair kits.

 

[fossyant]

I don't like tyre liners. Tried a few, and you'll eventualy get some wear on the tube caused by the liner, resulting in punctures.

 

[sevenfourate]

I don't like tyre liners. Tried a few, and you'll eventualy get some wear on the tube caused by the liner, resulting in punctures.

I’ve literally fitted my first ever tyre liners yesterday. So have no experience obviously .It’s not the first time I’ve read findings the same as yours though…..

*I’ve got mine on a bike primarily used for road and running ‘high’ tyre pressures. I always line up any tyre logo’s with the valve; and have never seen any movement of the tyre. And the inner tube is effectively held still by the valve. I also used a ‘sleeve’ of old inner tube at the liner overlap / join point - to stop rubbing of the tube by the liner at that point. (Pictured below):

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/what-have-you-fettled-today.87079/page-1062

I’m struggling to see / understand where this movement / rubbing can or will occur ? **Is it possible this is on MTB’s / other bikes with low(er) tyre pressures ?

 

[froze]

I don't like tyre liners. Tried a few, and you'll eventualy get some wear on the tube caused by the liner, resulting in punctures.

Not true if you use the Clear Motion Rhinodillos, they have one edge that has a soft edge applied to it, I've been using those on my former commuter bike, and on my touring bike for years no problems with the liner causing wear on the tube.

With other tire liners what you said is absolutely true though, which is why I only use the Clear Motion liners.

 

[fossyant]

Not true if you use the Clear Motion Rhinodillos, they have one edge that has a soft edge applied to it, I've been using those on my former commuter bike, and on my touring bike for years no problems with the liner causing wear on the tube.

With other tire liners what you said is absolutely true though, which is why I only use the Clear Motion liners.

I use better tyres now for the commute. The inners kill the feel of any tyre.

 

[froze]

I use better tyres now for the commute. The inners kill the feel of any tyre.

Nah, the best flat-resistant tires do that anyway, a liner won't change it in the least bit, not from my experience anyway. Sure if you are running Vittoria Cotton Corsa racing tires, or any other thin racing or training tire, then liners would kill the feel of those types of tires, but tires like the Schwalbe Almotion or the Marathon Plus MTB, or Vittoria Randonneur and other of those types of tires, you'll never notice a liner.

 

[sevenfourate]

I use better tyres now for the commute. The inners kill the feel of any tyre.

First ride ever last night with Tyre protector strips fitted.

**I originally ordered some .5mm and 1mm thick liners online. They got held up being delivered.

So; as it was wet and stinky outside this past Saturday; i went to Halfords and purchased two strips / reels of their own branded liners which i duly fitted. Man.....these things must be nearly 3mm thick in the centre. I'm not sure the few added grams makes any difference to me......

But - it was immediately clear the 'dead' feel everyone talks about. Not ridiculously bad. But absolutely a better feel riding without them.
As someone who's suffered with plenty of punctures recently. And through that now has decent Schwalbe's with punture protection already in them fitted (**And who's still suffered with a couple of dreaded Thorn strikes)....it seems to just be a necessity of my type of riding right now..... ?

 

[Jody]

Can a 27.5 × 2.0 - 2.4 Slime tube be used with a 27.5 × 1.95 mtb tire?

Why not go tubeless rather than slime filled tyres?

 

[Bobario]

First ride ever last night with Tyre protector strips fitted.

**I originally ordered some .5mm and 1mm thick liners online. They got held up being delivered.

So; as it was wet and stinky outside this past Saturday; i went to Halfords and purchased two strips / reels of their own branded liners which i duly fitted. Man.....these things must be nearly 3mm thick in the centre. I'm not sure the few added grams makes any difference to me......

But - it was immediately clear the 'dead' feel everyone talks about. Not ridiculously bad. But absolutely a better feel riding without them.
As someone who's suffered with plenty of punctures recently. And through that now has decent Schwalbe's with punture protection already in them fitted (**And who's still suffered with a couple of dreaded Thorn strikes)....it seems to just be a necessity of my type of riding right now..... ?

I fitted those exact same liners to my MTB for the same reasons as you. On the first ever ride with them in I got a puncture in my back tyre. The end of the liners had rubbed on the tube (at the overlap you mention) and eventually wore a small hole in it. I tore the liner out in disgust and never refitted it. About 5 or 6 months later out in the hills around Gradbach I got a puncture in my front tyre. Took the tyre off and lo and behold there was the liner I had fitted and forgotten about which had also punctured the tube but had obviously taken a long longer to work it's way through.

I had Tannus armour fitted for a while and those were great. Tyres felt better with them in. Only downside is the cost and the fact you have to let your tyres down if the bike is going to be stood for a while as they lose volume if left in an inflated tyre. Not sure how they would be on a road bike though.

 

[sevenfourate]

I fitted those exact same liners to my MTB for the same reasons as you. On the first ever ride with them in I got a puncture in my back tyre. The end of the liners had rubbed on the tube (at the overlap you mention) and eventually wore a small hole in it. I tore the liner out in disgust and never refitted it. About 5 or 6 months later out in the hills around Gradbach I got a puncture in my front tyre. Took the tyre off and lo and behold there was the liner I had fitted and forgotten about which had also punctured the tube but had obviously taken a long longer to work it's way through.

I had Tannus armour fitted for a while and those were great. Tyres felt better with them in. Only downside is the cost and the fact you have to let your tyres down if the bike is going to be stood for a while as they lose volume if left in an inflated tyre. Not sure how they would be on a road bike though.

Thanks for your thoughts. Hopefully I’ve pre-thought out the overlap and got it covered. Literally.

The other option is to cut them very slightly short and have perhaps 1” between the ends. You’d have to be very careful on the shaping / avoiding sharpies on those ends though. And you’d have a very small area not covered of course…..

**Now about to Google: Tannus Armour !! 😎

 

[Bobario]

Thanks for your thoughts. Hopefully I’ve pre-thought out the overlap and got it covered. Literally.

The other option is to cut them very slightly short and have perhaps 1” between the ends. You’d have to be very careful on the shaping / avoiding sharpies on those ends though. And you’d have a very small area not covered of course…..

**Now about to Google: Tannus Armour !! 😎

Maybe your inner tube trick is the answer as they seemed quite bulletproof otherwise, it would take a lot of force to go through that green strip.

 

[froze]

First ride ever last night with Tyre protector strips fitted.

**I originally ordered some .5mm and 1mm thick liners online. They got held up being delivered.

So; as it was wet and stinky outside this past Saturday; i went to Halfords and purchased two strips / reels of their own branded liners which i duly fitted. Man.....these things must be nearly 3mm thick in the centre. I'm not sure the few added grams makes any difference to me......

But - it was immediately clear the 'dead' feel everyone talks about. Not ridiculously bad. But absolutely a better feel riding without them.
As someone who's suffered with plenty of punctures recently. And through that now has decent Schwalbe's with punture protection already in them fitted (**And who's still suffered with a couple of dreaded Thorn strikes)....it seems to just be a necessity of my type of riding right now..... ?

So you bought a cheap set of thick liners and now think all liners feel the same, oh brother.

The Clear Motion Rhinodillos liners are only 1.2 mm thick, less than half as thick as the ones you got from the bike shop. If they're too thin like the Mr Tuffy ultralight weight version they won't do much good at preventing flats, don't even bother using them, and if they're too thick they will make the tires feel deadish.

If plastic liners are bothering you, then go with Panaracer Flataway, I used to use these. They are the lightest weight and the thinnest liner on the market, they weigh just 29 grams, they are made of Kevlar fibers instead of some sort of plastic. But, these Panaracer liners are not cheap, and you have to buy new ones every time you put on a set of new tires. While they do work ok, they don't work near as good as the Clear Motion Rhinodillos, fibers in the Flataway tend to separate when sharp objects penetrate the tire, if that object is not deflected by the fiber it will simply go through the fibers and into the tube. Those two problems is why I stopped using them, they were not as effective at stopping flats, and the cost to have to buy new ones with every tire change I felt was a waste of money. I could not find those Panaracer Flataway liners for sale in the American market, they might no longer be in production.

There are cons to tire liners, no doubt about it, but it depends if you want to try to eliminate all possibility of getting flats instead of just fixing them when they occur is worth the cons. That is why on my touring bike I use liners, because it's sort of a headache to fix a flat with a loaded touring bike. Since I retired, my only bike that uses a liner is the touring bike, the rest of my bikes, including my former commuter bike which was the only other bike that used them, do not have liners, even my main road bike I never used liners. The only reason I used liners in my commuter was because I didn't want to spend time on the road fixing a flat and then having to explain to my employees why I was late, while I was the owner and boss, I had to set an example.

 

[sevenfourate]

So you bought a cheap set of thick liners and now think all liners feel the same, oh brother.

The Clear Motion Rhinodillos liners are only 1.2 mm thick, less than half as thick as the ones you got from the bike shop. If they're too thin like the Mr Tuffy ultralight weight version they won't do much good at preventing flats, don't even bother using them, and if they're too thick they will make the tires feel deadish.

If plastic liners are bothering you, then go with Panaracer Flataway, I used to use these. They are the lightest weight and the thinnest liner on the market, they weigh just 29 grams, they are made of Kevlar fibers instead of some sort of plastic. But, these Panaracer liners are not cheap, and you have to buy new ones every time you put on a set of new tires. While they do work ok, they don't work near as good as the Clear Motion Rhinodillos, fibers in the Flataway tend to separate when sharp objects penetrate the tire, if that object is not deflected by the fiber it will simply go through the fibers and into the tube. Those two problems is why I stopped using them, they were not as effective at stopping flats, and the cost to have to buy new ones with every tire change I felt was a waste of money. I could not find those Panaracer Flataway liners for sale in the American market, they might no longer be in production.

There are cons to tire liners, no doubt about it, but it depends if you want to try to eliminate all possibility of getting flats instead of just fixing them when they occur is worth the cons. That is why on my touring bike I use liners, because it's sort of a headache to fix a flat with a loaded touring bike. Since I retired, my only bike that uses a liner is the touring bike, the rest of my bikes, including my former commuter bike which was the only other bike that used them, do not have liners, even my main road bike I never used liners. The only reason I used liners in my commuter was because I didn't want to spend time on the road fixing a flat and then having to explain to my employees why I was late, while I was the owner and boss, I had to set an example.

I purchased the only set of liners available in my small UK home Town on a wet weekend where i wanted to install them there and then after suffering a recent spate of flats. **Doing a fair bit of 'Off the beaten Track' riding here in the UK; near many thorn adorned bushes etc

As explained and openly stated - unlike you: i have / had no experience of liners what-so-ever. I'd never researched, seen, touched or felt a liner previous to buying and fitting these. Let alone riding with any fitted.

What i do have; is a lack of time. After suffering two puntures that barely penetrated the tube / were so slowly losing pressure i only noticed the next time i went to get the bike out (And not on the ride itself) i was sure that i am willing to give up something in order to not have to spend the first 15 minutes of my planned ride fixing puntures......

I certainly never set out to buy cheap. And i'm not quite sure why you think im casting a blanket over all liners feeling the same. Quite clearly knowing and saying these are my very first experience of any liner - i have no basis to form that opinion. So apologies if i misled somehow.

What i can say though is for £16 / $22 i glad i tried these. We all learn more from 'failures' than success. And the completely dead feel these have afforded me - and me now choosing to read up / take advice / seek out advice........has lead me to understand some thinner but equally strong liners. Or outright better tyres - can give me alot of that supple feel back with compromising the puncture protection.

A lesson learned. And in the first instance - the original and hopefully better quality (Certainly only 1mm thick) liners i ordered online did eventually arrive.

If its dry i'll ride this weekend. If its wet - i'll be taking the opportunity to swap these thinner items out. While they may not be the very best in terms of proven protection; at least they'll give me some idea of the difference in feel between the 3mm (?) solid Nylon units i've got fitted - and something a 1/3rd the thickness and alot more supple with it........

Cheers.