Them self sealing inner tubes?

[Phil Fouracre]

Sounds interesting, might experiment with other tyres out of interest. Think it must be this area, if it's not hedge cuttings, brambles, nails, bits of barbed wire, something will get you. Not much you can compensate for in tyre maintenance! New tyres, correct pressure, still no guarantee:)

[mnichols]

Do you notice the difference in weight with marathon plus?

They are 900 grams compared with 200 for gp4000 four seasons. That's a big difference especially as a revolving weight

[mercalia]

why green - looks like throw up? maybe should be red as the bike is hurt and bleeding?

[reohn2]

Sounds interesting, might experiment with other tyres out of interest. Think it must be this area, if it's not hedge cuttings, brambles, nails, bits of barbed wire, something will get you. Not much you can compensate for in tyre maintenance! New tyres, correct pressure, still no guarantee:)

I like to my check tyres regularly,even the tiniest bramble thorn or shard of glass will puncture eventually if left as each revolution of the wheel pushes it further into the tyre.
I check tyres for anything stuck in them with x4 reading specs and a scribe,extracting anything I find,takes no more than a couple of minutes once a week or so.

[RickH]

Personally I've never really seen the point. The last puncture on my road bike caused by an external object penetrating the tyre was about 3 weeks after I got the bike early in 2008 running 25mm Gatorskins. Approx 2 years ago I switched to 28mm Grand Prix 4 Seasons, nothing has so far stuck through them. Additionally I've had a few pinch punctures, mainly caused by not having enough pressure and/or potholes, plus a run of 3 punctures caused by sagging rim tape. My mountainbike gets light use but last had a puncture in 2006/7 running mainly Land Cruisers or Marathon Winters in snow/ice the last couple of winters. The 47mm Marathons on the Tandem had 3 punctures in nearly 4 years (a slow when a thorn got stuck in the side of the front last year, plus a thorn like a small rhinoceros horn in the rear & 1 of unknown origin - rear was flat when I checked the bike prior to a ride after being parked up for several days - this year). The tandem has been swapped to 55mm Big Apples (with slightly less puncture protection but better comfort) for the last few months, so far with no ill effects.

My tyre checking regime is sporadic, verging on the non-existent.

Rick.

[JohnW]

Interesting comments. I think you can only go on personal experience. I've been fairly convinced for a long time, as I just stopped getting punctures when I originally tried it. Riding country lanes it was becoming a depressingly regular experience. Impression confirmed when I changed tyres on one bike a while ago and noticed small brown spots on tube, as you do, picked it off to expose a small spot of green under it. Counted a number of these and became a complete convert.

Did you mend the punctures in the tube at the places indicated by the green spots, or did you throw the tube away? If you mended them, did the slime make it harder to clean, roughen, coat with adhesive and apply the patch? Do you think that the self-adhesive patches would stick to the tube in the area affected by the slime?

[Phil Fouracre]

Purely for experimental purposes, repaired exposed spot, reassembled all and pumped up. All working well!! Didn't have problem with slime and patch. It is water soluble, so just washed off, dried and roughened and usual.

[JohnW]

Purely for experimental purposes, repaired exposed spot, reassembled all and pumped up. All working well!! Didn't have problem with slime and patch. It is water soluble, so just washed off, dried and roughened and usual.

Ah

[WrightsW5]

People are having different experiences with these tubes, is it down to the different brands?

[mercalia]

Purely for experimental purposes, repaired exposed spot, reassembled all and pumped up. All working well!! Didn't have problem with slime and patch. It is water soluble, so just washed off, dried and roughened and usual.

if it is water soluble what happens to a slime patched inner tube that gets damp or wet?

[Phil Fouracre]

Not sure! Have bought pre-slimed, simply branded as 'Slimed tubes' and assorted others with Schrader valves and slimed them myself. Not sure why there should be a 'problem' with any particular brand of tube. Reading the blurb on the Slime website I would assume that there is nothing in the ingredients to cause any physical problems with the tubes.

[Phil Fouracre]

Sorry was replying to WrightsWS just then! Not sure, but, assume patches are a completely different animal:) just branded under the umbrella of Slime

[Si]

Do you notice the difference in weight with marathon plus?

They are 900 grams compared with 200 for gp4000 four seasons. That's a big difference especially as a revolving weight

Yup, when swapping between bikes you do. But once you've been riding a while you forget about it. Horses for courses innit, if I was racing, audaxing, summer riding on nice roads, etc then I'd go for the lighter weight ones, but as my goal is getting to the other side of the city and back (sometimes a few times a day) in the cold and the dark and the wet, the choice between arriving 5 mins later or having to fix a p*nct*re in the 'orrible conditions (and arriving 15mins late) is pretty obvious for me...YMMV. Plus the M+s last longer too.

[mnichols]

Yup, when swapping between bikes you do. But once you've been riding a while you forget about it. Horses for courses innit, if I was racing, audaxing, summer riding on nice roads, etc then I'd go for the lighter weight ones

I was recommended them by a friend that spent a year riding around Australia for a tour I have planned from Canada to Mexico. It's a credit card tour and my friends will be on light carbon racing bikes as we like to travel light and fast. Got some bumps to get over, so I need to weigh up the weight penalty against the puncture protection

[[XAP]Bob]

Do you notice the difference in weight with marathon plus?

They are 900 grams compared with 200 for gp4000 four seasons. That's a big difference especially as a revolving weight

Yup, when swapping between bikes you do. But once you've been riding a while you forget about it. Horses for courses innit, if I was racing, audaxing, summer riding on nice roads, etc then I'd go for the lighter weight ones, but as my goal is getting to the other side of the city and back (sometimes a few times a day) in the cold and the dark and the wet, the choice between arriving 5 mins later or having to fix a p*nct*re in the 'orrible conditions (and arriving 15mins late) is pretty obvious for me...YMMV. Plus the M+s last longer too.

The choice is leaving 5 mins earlier surely