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- Thread starter D-Man
- Start date
Don't throw the old tubes away, slice out a strip about 1/2" wide from the ID and use the old tube as a tire liner. If the old tube is a thicker "thorn resistant" type, all the better. I have also on occasion used the store-bought hard-but-flexible puncture liners with some success.
I used the sliced out part of the tube as a bungee for cargo...best of luck.
I used the sliced out part of the tube as a bungee for cargo...best of luck.
dogman dan
1 PW
I find the best solution for thorns is a combination of thick tubes and 4X4 grade slime. The really chunky stuff. The stuff that comes in bike tubes is too thin. About once or twice a year I have to dismount the tire, cut the tube open to reuse the slime, and put in a new tube. But first I have to take about an hour to remove a few hundred mesquite thorns sticking through the tire about a half inch or more. These thorns are often the size of a small nail.
If you need more thickness for short thorns, I made a good liner once by cutting the beads off some slick tires and putting them in as a liner.
For the thorns I have when I'm dirt riding though, you'd need liners about 3/4 inch thick, so the only solution for me is the slime. The chunkys stuff works, but once in a while I get a tube and find the slime too chunky to even squeeze through the valve of some tubes.
If you need more thickness for short thorns, I made a good liner once by cutting the beads off some slick tires and putting them in as a liner.
For the thorns I have when I'm dirt riding though, you'd need liners about 3/4 inch thick, so the only solution for me is the slime. The chunkys stuff works, but once in a while I get a tube and find the slime too chunky to even squeeze through the valve of some tubes.
Best suggestion of the year! even if its only done on the rear tire instead of both. I can't believe I hadn't thought of that earlier! Awesome!
vanilla ice
1 MW
I think that is what he meant. On a super fat 26" needing more diameter I'd think one could use a 700c hybrid slick. You could trim trim the diameter to suit.
dogman dan
1 PW
Yeah, i see now how that could read either way. 
I meant cut the bead wires off of some worn out slick tires. Then trim the sidewalls to the desired width. Then cut the whole thing to the right length to fit perfectly inside the tire they will be used in. You can't use them un cut, because they have to go inside the other tire, so they have to be shortened a bit. It worked pretty good. But I gave up liners in favor of just running much more slime in the tires. I need lots of slime, since many of the thorns are in the sidewall. For me, a tube can easily weigh 2-3 pounds. Dang rabbits chew mesquite and scatter the sticks full of thorns everywhere.
I meant cut the bead wires off of some worn out slick tires. Then trim the sidewalls to the desired width. Then cut the whole thing to the right length to fit perfectly inside the tire they will be used in. You can't use them un cut, because they have to go inside the other tire, so they have to be shortened a bit. It worked pretty good. But I gave up liners in favor of just running much more slime in the tires. I need lots of slime, since many of the thorns are in the sidewall. For me, a tube can easily weigh 2-3 pounds. Dang rabbits chew mesquite and scatter the sticks full of thorns everywhere.
Whiplash
1 MW
- Joined
- May 10, 2010
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X2 on the good quality slime, I got two thorns in the same day, pulled the valves, pumped in a bit more then the recommended amount filled em back up and now I just pull em out if I get em and don't think twice about it! Works GREAT! I just got the big jug of it at Wallmart...
Just what exactly is the toxic green slime made of? I have one somewhere. But its thin type slime. To put air in it, the valve stem has to be at the top and the bike sitting for awhile for no slime to come out. If you forget, then it gets on your pump, rim, hands.
dogman dan
1 PW
Yeah, it's nasty. I doubt it's that toxic though. Just a plastic soup like latex paint without the drying agents. Once you get a glass cut or tear off a valve stem the mess is unbelievable. But it washes away with enough water. But I don't know any other way to ride for 6 months with a hundreds of thorns in my tires. Once you have tires full of thorns don't ride em too soft, or they puncture the top of the tube, where the centripital force keeps it dry of slime.
Evoforce
10 kW
I read on another post of someone using seatbelt straps as liners. Have not tried it myself, but sounds like a good idea. Very tightly woven material. Even thought of using heavy tow strap or hoist strap.
dogman dan
1 PW
Well I pull out a few, if I happen to stop. But the vast majority of em break off flush with the rubber on the first pass past the brakes. Mesquite thorns are about 1" to 1.5" long, up to 1/8 diameter. A small stick will have about 10 of em on it. If you run over the stick the first rotation past the brakes snaps off the thorn in your tire. Later on, as the stick gets older, the thorns will drop off in the form of perfect caltrops. Three or so thorns radiating from a node. Those can be noticed, and pulled if you bother to stop. Mostly I don't bother.
So the end result is I pick up at least 3-4 new huge thorns every ride, and a lot more that that if rain or rabbits put new thorns on the trails I ride near the house. By the end of the year, or sooner if the tire won't hold air even with slime, I'll pull the tube. That's my chance to remove thorns, or just replace the tire if needed. I'll spend several hours slowly picking the thorns out of the tire, or if in a hurry, simply break em all off from the inside. Before I built trails near my house I rode crosscountry more, and would end up having to de thorn a lot more often. Over the last year I built about 6 miles of singletrack in my neighborhood, on land that would have had houses on it by now if the economy had kept booming. The trails could be there for my lifetime now. The full curcuit takes about 6 ah of 48v, including 3 miles of paved to get to the trailhead and back. I built all the trail pervertedly tight and twisty, so motorcycles and quads will hate it and stay off. On my dirtbike, it's great trials riding at 10 mph. Super hard to even stay on the trail at 10 mph, let alone never put down a foot.
So the end result is I pick up at least 3-4 new huge thorns every ride, and a lot more that that if rain or rabbits put new thorns on the trails I ride near the house. By the end of the year, or sooner if the tire won't hold air even with slime, I'll pull the tube. That's my chance to remove thorns, or just replace the tire if needed. I'll spend several hours slowly picking the thorns out of the tire, or if in a hurry, simply break em all off from the inside. Before I built trails near my house I rode crosscountry more, and would end up having to de thorn a lot more often. Over the last year I built about 6 miles of singletrack in my neighborhood, on land that would have had houses on it by now if the economy had kept booming. The trails could be there for my lifetime now.
The full curcuit takes about 6 ah of 48v, including 3 miles of paved to get to the trailhead and back. I built all the trail pervertedly tight and twisty, so motorcycles and quads will hate it and stay off. On my dirtbike, it's great trials riding at 10 mph. Super hard to even stay on the trail at 10 mph, let alone never put down a foot.
AFAIK the slime is a water-based carrier that contains lots of tiny little fibers, which clot in holes by lining up as the liquid floods out, then the liquid itself dries on the outside end with exposure to the ever-changing air in the tire itself (since it gets circulated thru the holes in the tire that are not plugged by slime, as the tire rotates and pressure changes at the holes). It doesn't dry inside the tube for a long time (at least 2 or 3 years) because typically the air inside stays the same with a little top-off here and there, so humidity stays high from the evaporation off the water-based carrier.
I've not tried this, but you could probably use corn starch, lots of water, and some of that fiber-supplement powder mix from health stores to make your own slime-replacement.
Regarding homemade liners, if you can get teflon tape you can make killer liners. If it is not very wide, just put the first layers out by the sidewall, in diagonally-overlapping sections on the partly-inflated tube. next layer can go up the top of the tube in circumferential strips, with a final center strip overlapping the ones from each side. That way you have layers that will cause any entering pointy object to slide off the teflon towards the side (like slime liners and such do) and not be as likely to puncture the tire. Thicker the tape, the better the puncture resistance, but the harder it is to layer it.
Similar things can be done with soda bottle plastic, but you will probably need to smooth all the edges with a heat source so that they do not cut into your tires.
I've not tried this, but you could probably use corn starch, lots of water, and some of that fiber-supplement powder mix from health stores to make your own slime-replacement.
Regarding homemade liners, if you can get teflon tape you can make killer liners. If it is not very wide, just put the first layers out by the sidewall, in diagonally-overlapping sections on the partly-inflated tube. next layer can go up the top of the tube in circumferential strips, with a final center strip overlapping the ones from each side. That way you have layers that will cause any entering pointy object to slide off the teflon towards the side (like slime liners and such do) and not be as likely to puncture the tire. Thicker the tape, the better the puncture resistance, but the harder it is to layer it.
Similar things can be done with soda bottle plastic, but you will probably need to smooth all the edges with a heat source so that they do not cut into your tires.
Yeah I thought about taping together soda bottles, but like you said they can be sharp. Might be somewhat amusing to make a liner out of a phone book that are free at the grocery stores and some duct tape. Phone books make good backstops for airguns and a target on it. Catches the pellet every time. Paper can be really strong.
Can you post a picture of it? I'm curious how the paper would stop a thorn (or better yet, a nail, since that and other construction debris is my worst enemy here). I'd expect it to have to be pretty thick to do that, and I'm not sure (besides weight) what problems that will cause within the tire.
GrayKard
10 kW
amberwolf said:
When my Dad was a kid he said they would use molasses in the tube to stop leaks. He claimed it worked pretty good as long as the ants didn't eat it off the puncture. :lol:
Gary
Evoforce
10 kW
What I have done with tubless bike tires is to add plumbing insulation to firm up the tire. I believe this could work well as a tube/tire liner also. I cut the 3/4" or 1" insulation lengthwise at half or three quarters its width and insert it like a liner. I believe this would work really well for a tubed tire also. 
P.S. If someone beats me to doing this on a tubed tire I would like to know how it turned out for you.
P.S. If someone beats me to doing this on a tubed tire I would like to know how it turned out for you.Evoforce
10 kW
Yes, the foam plumbing insulation. It comes in different sizes and density.
I know a goodly thickness of phone book would stop a lot of things (full Phoenix yellowpages stops a crossbow bolt), but that won't fit as a liner, so I was curious how much of the book you had to use to try it?D-Man said:
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