Do you have lots of goatheads or something where you are riding? Are you riding on the road?

I'm sort of a light weight freak so I would never ride slime and heavy duty tubes unless there are goatheads around or something like that. Remember that the rolling resistance and weight of your wheels has a great deal to do with how hard it is to ride. If your wheels are heavy, it is harder to ride. A lot of times people will ask me what upgrade is the best to do for their bike and a lot of times I will recommend wheels cause they will get the best advantage on the bike from lighter wheels.

I've ridden mountain bikes a lot and never ride slime here in the mountains. It is rocky, but if my tires are aired up properly, I rarely have flats - had one all year. I also raced mountain bikes in the desert and never ran slime - now that is taking chances with all the cactus, but again, I never had a flat. THe only time I run slime in my tubes (and they are never heavy duty), is when I race 24 hour races in the desert. Can't avoid the cactus at night on a 24 hour race after every tom, **** and harry have run into the prickly pear and knocked all that stuff right into the middle of the trail.

But, of course, I can change a tire pretty easily too so I don't really worry about flats all that much if I do get them. I've probably had 5 flats in my entire riding history (but I've changed tons of flats since I lead women's rides and change everyone else's flats) it's great practice!