Is anyone using Flatout for flat prevention on fat tire ebikes ? Bolton ebikes has a pretty convincing video testing Flatout, Slime and other flat prevention methods. I am new to ebikes. Have an Aventure. I ride mostly on the road(pavement). I will be riding some greentrails and occasional dirt roads. No issues with flats yet. But haven't ridden very far yet, q2 miles longest ride. so far. I have saw where some people have had some success with Slime. I don't have the source handy. But I previously found info where Kenda says not to use Slime in their tires. Is this also true for Flatout??
Fat tire ebike using flatout to prevent flats
- Thread starter Jbiker1
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rawlus
Active Member
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- USA
the slime or flatout goes in the tubes not the tires so don’t know what Kenda is even saying.
fat tires with their lower pressure and more contact area are more prone to flats than others i believe,
im using tuffy liners between tire and tube + slime.
other option is just a patch kit and an air source (i have this also, planned redundancy!).
i mean flats aren’t the end of the world and slime/flatout isn’t the only solution.
flatout has very good reviews so if youre vibing on that go for it. even if it’s not 100% effective, everything counts right?
fat tires with their lower pressure and more contact area are more prone to flats than others i believe,
im using tuffy liners between tire and tube + slime.
other option is just a patch kit and an air source (i have this also, planned redundancy!).
i mean flats aren’t the end of the world and slime/flatout isn’t the only solution.
flatout has very good reviews so if youre vibing on that go for it. even if it’s not 100% effective, everything counts right?
Merle Nelson
Well-Known Member
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- USA
Flat out - for when you get the 1/2 inch puncture. 
Besides that claim to fame they say it washes up with water better and lasts an inordinately long time before needing a refresh. (They used to advertise forever as I understand it)
Besides that claim to fame they say it washes up with water better and lasts an inordinately long time before needing a refresh. (They used to advertise forever as I understand it)
Have 26"X4" Kenda's on my bike. First flat at about 600 miles. Installed new tube and Tuffy liner in the rear tire that went flat and then slimed both tires. Bike now has 2700 miles on it and no flats since. Also has not so much as lost a single lb of air pressure either and I keep them at 20PSI.
AHicks
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- USA
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- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
Flat out or Slime, take your pick. Though I will mention Slime is also water soluble for easy clean up if necessary, not going to debate which is better. The bigger point is if you want to minimize flats best possible, get SOMETHING in that tube!
Makes absolutely no difference what brand tire or what size it is. When it comes to bike tires (or lawn equipment!), the stuff works, it's cheap, and it's easy to install.
Makes absolutely no difference what brand tire or what size it is. When it comes to bike tires (or lawn equipment!), the stuff works, it's cheap, and it's easy to install.
Tars Tarkas
Well-Known Member
I've never used anything but Slime and I can vouch for it. Other brands, I don't know, but as a concept, sealants are great.
TT
TT
rawlus
Active Member
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- USA
sportsman is what i see most often recommended.
I havent tried any yet. I was comparing it to Slime. Maybe check Bolton bikes video demo, see which one he used? I'm not using anything yet, I have a almost new bike, ride mostly on the road, plan to rude greentrails. No tire problems except for a slow leak out of the box, replaced the tube
AHicks
Well-Known Member
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- USA
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- Snow Bird - Summer S.E. Michigan, Winter Gulf Coast North Central Fl.
The better plan is to get something in those tubes BEFORE you have a problem! That what this stuff is all about, minimizing the potential for trouble.....
My new bikes/tubes don't go 10 feet without the tubes being Slimmed (or whaterver product you choose).
m@Robertson
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- Region
- USA
They still do. Officially its 'up to 10 years' but that translates to 'life of the tire'Flat out - for when you get the 1/2 inch puncture.
Besides that claim to fame they say it washes up with water better and lasts an inordinately long time before needing a refresh. (They used to advertise forever as I understand it)
FlatOut is, hands-down, better than Slime. After some major events where I know Slime couldn't have coped, I replaced my Slimed tubes I have with others that have FlatOut in them.
- a strip of 6 roofing nails from a nailgun. SIX nails. Tires were Snowshoe XLs (and they were running tubeless) on a cargo bike coming back loaded from a Home Depot run. Thankfully my bike-battery-powered air compressor always goes with me as I spun the tires but was losing so much air, I needed a refill. Then rode the bike about a block until I needed another refill, and repeated that three times as the air escaping slowly decreased. On the fourth air refill the last of the hissing stopped and the tires have stayed inflated ever since. No repairs necessary.
- A big jagged piece of metal. Oddly it was the same cargo bike a few weeks earlier on my street wheels which were running with tubes. Big nasty piece of jagged scrap metal. Dark night time commute home. By the time I got stopped, the 4.3" Surly Edna tire was essentially flat. Used my trusty compressor to refill. A block later refilled again. That was it rode home. When I changed wheels a few weeks later, I found the hole in the tube had dried into a hard nub, unlike Slime which leaves an often-weepy soft plug that may be still leaking air very slowly.
I called FlatOut on the phone and got their product manager in charge of dealing with bike compatibility. He confirmed the Sportsman Formula was the one they had tested with BackCou ebikes. This conversation, which I reported pretty widely at the time, is where the 16 oz dose for a fat tire comes from. I also sounded him out about using it as a tubeless sealant and he stated they had never heard of it being done, and it should work if I painted the tire beads in advance with some to help ensure a seal. In the end I didn't need to do that and it still worked like a charm. No leakage and no top-ups needed after weeks, and as I found out the hard way, it works to seal tires great. I had one more on the tubeless wheels. I heard hissing up front and got the bike stopped to try and pull out whatever it was. Found nothing but a half-dry wet spot with no visible hole and no air leakage.
As for Kenda tubes, I slimed them back in the day and they worked fine. BUT since the valve cores were not removable, you had to stab a hole in the tube and inject slime with a meat marinade injector, then patch the hole. Maybe thats what Kenda was getting at as no you cannot inject Slime thru the valve given the non-removable core.
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m@Robertson
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Kenda with Schrader valv'd tubes: Yes just remove the core, attach the hose from the bottle (contained inside the lid) and squeeze until done. Screw the core back in and reinflate.
Kenda with presta valves will require the meat marinade injector method to insert the sealant since the valve cores are not removable. There is another method that involves partially disassembling the Presta valve, but poking the hole is the best method. After you have done it once and see how well it works, you won't be afraid of it again. And from that moment on you will buy presta tubes with removable cores. They are easy to find. Bontrager and Vee are two that both use thicker rubber.
m@Robertson
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- USA
Here is the standard way Youtubers recommend to do slime with a non-removable Presta core
Here is how I do it (this is not my video). I have done this literally dozens of times over the years. I use a Rema patch to seal the tube permanently and immediately although I let it seal itself on my first try:
Here is how I do it (this is not my video). I have done this literally dozens of times over the years. I use a Rema patch to seal the tube permanently and immediately although I let it seal itself on my first try:
I am about to put/refresh tube sealants. I was going to go for Slime 2in1 as I have always used slime(red version and it seems this is the new formula) but then found out about Flatout which is stated to be superior compared to Slime.
I was wondering if I should switch to Flatout? It seems nice but the dosage seems quite excessive. it looks like 2 times the advised dosage of Slime in most cases. For my tires which are in the 2.6-2.8 range, I always used around 4-6oz of Slime but flatout dosage calculator shows 12+oz per tire which feels excessive.
What is the correct dosage for flatout? Is it worth it?
I was wondering if I should switch to Flatout? It seems nice but the dosage seems quite excessive. it looks like 2 times the advised dosage of Slime in most cases. For my tires which are in the 2.6-2.8 range, I always used around 4-6oz of Slime but flatout dosage calculator shows 12+oz per tire which feels excessive.
What is the correct dosage for flatout? Is it worth it?
OK. So it seems you answered your "Is it worth it" question before you asked it.
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