Subject: re: sealant Posted by: Al on January 01, 2004 at 13:29:11: In Reply to: Re: best inner tubes posted by Karen on December 31, 2003 at 19:26:30:

Message: >Seriously, I use inexpensive tubes in all my wheels except my racing tubulars which, in general, as noted, tend to have latex tubes. >I just checked--the ones I've been using lately in my clinchers are Pyramid brand. They are effectivley generic OEM rubber tubes, these happen to be from Taiwan. I think I paid $2 per tube. >In the summer months I keep my road tires at 120 psi and in the winter they are 100 psi. I check maybe once a week on average and, if I have to pump them up at all, they may get one push or two from the floor pump on a weekly basis, at most three. After sitting idle for 3-4-5 weeks they get down to maybe 60 psi. If you can tolerate the weight penalty, I think that adding one of the tire sealants will retard the loss of air. I put some (not SLIME, I'd have to find the bottle) in a sew-up tire [butyl inner tube] I am not actually using to "test" the feasibility -- that was SEVERAL months ago and there is still SOME air in the tire. The sealant ADDS a lot of weight (true with ANY of the sealants) to the tire because you are supposed to put ~4 ozs of the stuff in (less would probably work) ... AND, of course, you will need a tube whose valve stem can be removed. For what it's worth, I guess the sealant in a sew-up (especially) would be "okay" for your front wheel, but would negate any advantage to having a sew-up/tubular tire on the rear wheel.