Bicycles Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who build and repair bicycles, people who train cycling, or commute on bicycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I have tried a few brands of inner tubes for off road riding, mainly slime and dr. sludge but recently I have suffered more punctures than I'd care for despite the 'green goo'.
My question is what are people's recommendations for good off road inner tubes or tubeless systems.
Maxxis DH or Freeride tubes. They're not light but I've only ever once punctured the DH model - a 6inch nail through both side walls, so I won't hold it against them!
Kibbee is on to something, your tire is your best defense against punctures no matter the terrain. Try using Continental Trail King tires or Continental Mountain King tires and you will surely see a decrease in punctures. Most tubes will hold up the same, if I had to pick one I'd say go with a continental tube or stick with the slime tubes.
You need to understand why you are puncturing- are you getting "snake bites", or is it being caused by object penetration. Looks at the punctured tube - if the holes looks like its been bit by a snake, (surprise) its a snake bite.....
Snake bites - aka Pinch Flats - cause by low tire pressure - when you hit an object hard the tube gets pinched and punctures - tire choice wont help much, meaty tubes will help only a little, but more air pressure in the tire is the real answer. If you don't want more air pressure, then tubeless completely solves this problem (and replaces it with "burping" the air out of it's not a good system. I know you have said that you are inflating them properly, but you have not said what "properly" is, (pressure is not enough as we do not know you riding style, weight, speeds you hit etc).
Penetration Punctures - if you are getting these regularly, its good to understand why. Do you ride an area with problems such a plants with sharp spikes, trails made with nails etc. Do you make absolute certain that the object is no longer in the tire after fixing a puncture. In that case, Kevlar Armour is required. Again - heavy tubes help, but the tire should be stopping sharp pointy things getting to the tube. If you are using good quality tubes and your MK's are puncturing, I suspect there little you can do about it - maybe add some gator skins and see if it helps - or there are Puncture proof tires available, although I have never used them.
One hint is to always mount the tire in exactly the same place on the rim after a puncture repair. If you re-puncture in the same place as last time, its likely the tire still has something stuck in it.
Another option to try is cheap department store tyres - these tend to be excessively heavy and have thick casing - making them surprisingly resistant to all sorts of problems - perhaps its more to do with the speeds you (cannot) obtain when riding on them more than there robustness.
If the tubes you're using have removable valve cores, you can put some Stan's or equivalent in the tubes. Some tubes (Continental is one brand) have removable Presta valve cores. Alternatively, you can buy tubes that come pre-filled with sealant. I'm not a huge fan of Bontrager products, but I've used their sealant-filled tubes around Southern CA, where we have goat-head thorns among other things, and they work well for small punctures.
