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Slime


swooshdave
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I recently had a flay tire on my Bultaco, which resulted in a DNF. Luckily it a low-key event and besides I didn't feel like fixing the tube in the hot sun.

I assume I pinched a tube. With these low pressures I believe it's not that uncommon.

Has anyone ever used Slime in their tubes? I believe that it's a little messy if you have a tubeless tire but I'm thinking that it might no be too bad with a tubed one.

Might be good enough to get me through a trials if I get another pinch.

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I recently had a flay tire on my Bultaco, which resulted in a DNF. Luckily it a low-key event and besides I didn't feel like fixing the tube in the hot sun.

I assume I pinched a tube. With these low pressures I believe it's not that uncommon.

Has anyone ever used Slime in their tubes? I believe that it's a little messy if you have a tubeless tire but I'm thinking that it might no be too bad with a tubed one.

Might be good enough to get me through a trials if I get another pinch.

I've used Slime in applications where punctures are the norm, like my lawn tractor and it works great. I've never had good luck with it on cuts, like a rim pinch, that are a little too long/large for the stuff to fill easily, but on thorn or nail holes it works well. If you use it in a tubeless tire, when it comes to changing the tire, it will seem like Extreme Fighting a huge donut filled with gorilla snot.

Jon

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Well, it wasn't a pinch flat, the stem tore away.

We don't get too much thorny stuff, the worse we might see is some blackberries and those won't do any damage.

I probably shouldn't have tightened the nut on the stem so tight...

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I see a lot of people with the nut locked up against the rim. I'm sure all it's there for is to stop you losing the stem when putting a pump on it, so I have mine locked up against the valve cap.

I do the same thing but the reason may be different. If I carefully lock the nut against the cap and make sure the stem is straight out from the rim when installing the tube, in the future I will quickly be able to tell if the rim locks are not doing their job, as the stem will be canted to one side or another (rather than straight out). It only takes a second to check them before riding. Rim locks can be overtightened, which will pull the center down to the rim and the tire bead will raise up, taking the side pressure (and locking ability) off the rim.

Jon

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Rim locks can be overtightened, which will pull the center down to the rim and the tire bead will raise up, taking the side pressure (and locking ability) off the rim.

Jon

I've never thought of that, makes sense though. I'd have tightened them up with a 4 foot extension bar if I had one.

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I've never thought of that, makes sense though. I'd have tightened them up with a 4 foot extension bar if I had one.

Yea, there's a fine line between "tight" and "broken", as we all know....:banana2:

Sometimes, replacing them with new ones really help. I've seen some pretty funky, corroded rimlocks (undoubtedly the original ones installed and the rider doesnt look closely at it) come out of vintage rims (and some newer bikes also) because the riders think they never "wear out", but corrosion and detached bonding (the bonded ones have a rubber outside and metal internal "T") make them much less effective. The bonded ones can split the rubber near the bolt stem, which greatly reduces the pressure the outer rubber exerts on the inside tire bead. Looking at it sideways , when tightened, it will look like a "Y" rather than a "T".

Jon

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So just how tight should they be?

That's a tough question to answer, I think due to the various rim bead and rim channel designs, inside tire bead design and lock designs possible (some locks are smooth and some have ribs which grip the tire bead a little better and I run Nyloc nuts on mine, which may also take a little higher torque on the gauge for the same clamping force due to resistance). I've never run a torque wrench on mine, but would describe the tension as "snug" but not "tight", which, of course, makes little sense to anyone else. I do try to use the same length box wrench to be consistant.

I suppose if I was trying to provide an objective, measureable means of checking rimlock tension, I might start with measuring the length of the rimlock bolt, installed snug in a bare rim, sticking out and that would be my gauge for the rimlock bottoming out and maybe give me an idea of how much pressure it may be exerting (how far the "wedge" is being pulled inside the tire bead) by how close it is to the stop point. Again, this seems to still be "seat-of-the-pants" engineering.

I'm sure someone out there has figured a neat trick for checking tension on rimlocks. Anyone?

Jon

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I have new alloy with rubber molded rim locks. I think they can take a bit of pressure without losing grip on the beads.

I had some old steel and rubber/canvas ones in there before. Totally old-school. And rusted and not working. So I'm definitely at an improvement stage.

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