Tire liners

... and speaking of innertubes, does anyone use those slime tire liners on tiny tires like mine? I've got 700x23 tires, and have had lots of practice changing tubes this summer. When I bought the bike, I thought I'd switch out to armadillos as soon as I decided these were a problem, and I'm SERIOUSLY thinking about it, but then I discovered that they make these liner things, and figured it would be an inexpensive way to change fewer tubes, and get a few more miles on these stock tires!

So, do you, and do they do the trick for you??????

Karen in Boise

May I ask what the cause of all those flats is?

They're puncture wounds from nice things like goat heads and other invisible at the time road debris.

Karen in Boise

I'm not a big fan of the slime liners brand, but I had mr. tuffys in my touring bike tires and went almost 15 years flat free! I'd say with goat heads around you might want to get the armadillos and tire liners.....

I have a combination of Gatorskins and kevlar tire liners (spin skins) that I find very resistant to flats. The liners are a pain to put in, but the results seem worth it!

When I was in Albuquerque I rode with sealant and kevlar tires, the LBS out there is very insistent on it, and I never had a flat.
Goatheads can go through gatorskins, armadillo's are better.

I did have liners in my tires for a while. Not sure what brand, something cheap from the cheap LBS. They gave me more flats than the regular patches of glass on the road so I gave up and took them out. I think the problem was they were too wide for my tire. When I took them out, I noticed the liners had cracked in several places causing pinching punctures in my tubes. I went from having an average of a puncture a day with the liners to having just four punctures in 6 months without them..... and I ride my stock tires in all kinds of conditions....