Archive for July, 2010

Over my more than 20 years of cycling I’ve had a lot different portable bike pumps. For the most part, they’ve sucked. Most bike-mounted or pocket pumps leave your arms burning and your tire partially inflated. Other pumps have lost parts due to vibrations from being mounted to a bike frame. Many others have been tossed in the trash with broken handles or destroyed seals.

So far, I have had very good luck with the Blackburn Air Stik 2Stage. If your rockin’ the Prestas, this is the way to go. Mostly, I’ve used the AS2S to inflate MTB tires but recently I flatted twice on my road bike. The AS2S is the first pump I ever had that was able to inflate a 700C tire to a pressure which didn’t make me nervous about the potential for a snake bite. I’ve tried with other pumps to inflate 700C tires to a reasonable pressure only to find myself giving up with arms burning, mouth cursing and chest heaving. The not-unique but very effective two stage nature of this pump allows you to get the tire up to a good pressure rapidly on the “LOW” setting and perfect the pressure with the “HIGH” setting — with much energy to spare. In fact, following the first tire I inflated with the AS2S, I expressed to myself, “Is that it?!”

Based on my experience thus far, I recommend this pump.

Rating: 4 UDVs (I need more time to evaluate durability)

I’ve been biking in Memphis for more than three years now. One thing is for certain when commuting in Memphis — you’ll get lots of flats. Street cleaning is minimal, broken bottles abundant and invisible shards of shredded steel-belted radials are everywhere. When I was using my road bike to commute I chose the expensive yet very tough Specialized Armadillo tires. The Armadillos were a pretty good tire and prevented most flats. They once even deflected an 1/8 inch drill bit which lodged in the rubber of the tire and spun around a few times scoring my frame — but no flat. However, the Armadillo was no match for the shredded steel-belted radials.

I switched to my mountain bike after a year on the road bike so I could take to the sidewalk on the busiest road I traveled. Slicks were out of the question since I often road in wet weather and in grassy areas. Nobbies were the answer for me. It allowed for good traction in all conditions and kept the casing and tube further off the ground and away from the road cacti. Despite the choice of nobbies, flats were still a common occurrence. That’s when I decided to switch to a Slime-filled tube on the rear tire.

I have not had a flat with the 26″ Slime tubes after about 2500 miles of commuting on them. I did have a puncture once that I heard and for which I stopped. It didn’t appear that the tube was sealing so I passed my finger over the hole as the Slime was seeping out. Upon doing this, the leak stopped and I haven’t done anything with it since.

It is noticeably different riding the Slime tubes. Mostly, they make you noticeably slower. These things do not roll well. However, since I’m so tired of flatting after 3 years, I’m willing to sacrifice the performance. And, I only use the Slime tube on the rear wheel as it flats far more frequently than the front.

I’ve also recently started riding a 700C Slime tube on my road bike. My first long distance ride in a while resulted in two flats on the Slime tube. One flat resulted from a small, sharp unidentifiable object. After several attempts at reinflating the tire, I was able to get about 80psi in the tire — just enough for me to reach the half-way point stop. However, prior to arriving at the stop, the tube flatted again. This time it was an all-to-common steel-belted tire shard. Although only a pin prick hole, I could not get the tube to hold pressure and I was forced to install my spare tube. Pulling the Slime tube was fun to say the least. First there’s the green goop everywhere, which happens, burns like hell when you get it in any open sore. Then, trying to fold the Slime tube up into a reasonable size to stuff in my Camelback proved almost impossible since the Slime seals the valve rendering it impossible to fully deflate the tube.

Conclusion: Slime-filled tubes work well for lower pressure tires like MTB tires but they do not suffice for high pressure tires. Thus, don’t buy the 700C Slime-filled tubes.

MTB Slime Tubes Rating: 4 Disabled UDVs
700C Slime Tubes Rating: 1 Disabled UDV