Stop-a-flat tubes

[E-HP]

I definitely burst my first tube I put FlatOut in too. The instructions mistakenly tell you to reinflate to the usual pressure after. Nowadays I run both tires with tubes with FlatOut with half the previous pressure and went from 3 flats a year to none.

Can't tell if it's luck or not, but added FlatOut, plus I have two extra tubes inside the tire casing, a year and two weeks ago. First full year without a flat, and may make it through to my next tire replacement.

 

[999zip999]

I used to think the only way was the extra thick slime tube but many times the valve stem would break off. One time I put on the brakes and the tire slid around on the rim a front rim a XTR so quality with flat spokes rim. What I think happened was at the base of the slime tube at the valve stem a small crack came in the slime came out which lubricated the tire and the tube to spin as I broke so a car would not hit me I went down and woke up in the hospital in about an hour later with a concussion and a broken collarbone and rib.
Another time I got up small staple like from an arrow staple gun it went into my slime extra thick too I pulled it out walking down to the gas station filled it up rode around up and down the block fine had good air didn't need to put more air in it so went up the hill got the top of the hill into the valley and all the air came out nothing I could do I had a call for help and get a ride home. I mean it was just a pinhole with an extra thick slime tube
So I ordered a bunch of flat attack and looks like as I remember a steel valve stem and I think they're still at the base so they don't rock back and forth and break or cut or dislodge or blow out and have you crash.
Plus I try to use a very high quality ebike tire like a E50 rated

 

[MxusMick]

I have seen vids where heavy equipment users have repaired tires by filling with 'Great Stuff' Gaps and Cracks spray foam. I want to experiment on a cheap wheel.

 

[999zip999]

Do heavy equipment have high or low pressure.

 

[amberwolf]

wehnever i see a split like that, it's nearly always along a seam, from a defective tube, or a scratch in the tube (often caused by a tire lever during install) that then failed along the scratch.

i've never seen a failure of a tube caused by slime itself, though i have seen valve cores clogged up and unable to re-air the tire without repalcing the core or cleaning it.

i have seen tire liners cut into tubes like that in pics of people's failures.

for tube brands, i recommend ones manufactured by cst cheng shin tire; these have been the best rubber i've found. problem is, unless you can see the cst logo on the tube itself, you can't usually know who made the tube, when buying them boxed.

like the suntour tubes i used to get locally from a bike shop--at first they were cst and were great, then they used kenda in the very same box, and like their tires every one of them was poorly made and would fail, often at the valve stem brass/rubber interface or along a seam.

i've used moped/mc tubes on sb cruiser's rear 20inch wheels along with mpoed tires by shinko. again, the cst made tubes have been best, others passable to worthless.

i also like cst tires better, and use the cst city on the front of the trike; preferred the cst general but they don't make it anymore, or anything similar.

My first attempt at FlatOut, heh:

Could be the OEM tubes were cheap and thin as well. I upgraded to ones that are still cheap and from China, but at least claim to be thicker:


Maybe it would be possible to use motorcycle tubes as the next step up in durability. I've heard of people using motorcycle tires, although the size is measured differently.

 

[lnanek]

Hmm, those were definitely CST:


And the OEM originals, so never scratched by me on install.

Think I'll just keep on avoiding CST and not inflating to full when there is FlatOut inside.

Wish tubes were sold by rubber thickness as well as rim size and rim width. Would be a lot easier to pick if it was a choice between something like CST 20x4x5mm vs. YunSCM 20x4x7mm. Then I could just pick max thickness tubes and be done with it.

 

[Chalo]

And the OEM originals, so never scratched by me on install.

That's not when tubes get scratched. Pinched, sure. But the scratches that promote failure are laid on by the extrusion die when the fresh soft rubber is squeezed out like pasta. If there's a crumb of stuff or a nick on the die opening, the resulting groove runs the circumference of the tube and can serve as a failure point. I once bought a case quantity of 20" tubes that all failed that way, and failed somewhere else along the scratch when I tried to patch them.

There's an analogous type of tube failure that occurs at the joint where the tubular extrusion is spliced into a loop, if it's squeezed too thin there.

If you want heavy thick tubes for obese dwarf bicycle tires, try motorcycle tubes like this:
https://www.americanmototire.com/motorcycle-tubes/irc-tube-4-00-4-60-16-120-90-16-tr-4/

 

[lnanek]

Nice! Getting a pair for my flat repair bag! This thing will be a tank