A fat cargo bike, eh?

A few things: whether the sealant works in your tubes depends on what's causing them to flat. if you're getting a big thorn or something that pierces the tube only once, then sure, it'd be an improvement. But if you're getting things like little bits of glass that embed in the tire casing and continually rub or repeatedly pierce the tube, sealant in your tube will be minimally helpful.

tubeless on a fatbike is a little tougher than it is on bikes with ~2.5"ish tires. Your rims may or may not be very easy to seal. Beyond that, your tires are going to be floppy and difficult to get seated. Fatbike tubeless is a few years behind everything else.

 

60mm is 2.5 inches. So not what I consider fatbike territory. It's a stock Mongoose Envoy.

I haven't got any flats on the bike yet I'm just not looking forward to it, especially since getting the wheels off and on is going to be a total pain.

 

60mm is 2.5 inches. So not what I consider fatbike territory. It's a stock Mongoose Envoy.

your original post said 60mm wheels. I thought you meant 60mm rims, which is very much fatbike territory.

giving the model of the bike clears it up well enough, though.

Given the inexpensive price point for a bike type that carries a price premium, I still question whether the rims will hold air in tubeless mode. You can attempt to convert them, but it may get into more hassle than it's worth territory. You won't necessarily know this unless you try it (or you can find a testimonial from someone who has attempted a tubeless conversion with the specific rims on your bike). But given the weird off-brand of those, it'll be hard. If they had welded seams, you'd be in better shape than if they were only pinned.

 

Whats wrong with tubes that come with slime? Isn’t that exactly the product you want?

You can buy puncture resistant tubes. They come with the slime already in them. Seems like a winner here, no?

 

Whats wrong with tubes that come with slime? Isn't that exactly the product you want?

You can buy puncture resistant tubes. They come with the slime already in them. Seems like a winner here, no?

puncture resistant tubes come in a couple flavors. one has slime sealant already in them. A LOT of slime sealant (read: very heavy and very messy). the other variety of puncture resistant tubes are just REALLY thick on the outer edge. So they're just very heavy. when I worked in shops, the only people buying either were people on department store bikes riding around town wanting some protection from glass and other road debris. there are better solutions for that, even.

if flats are an actual issue for OP (the bike in question is going to be pretty much a city exclusive), then before doing anything with tubes, I'd make sure the bike has a quality tire meant for the riding I'm doing. good casing, folding bead, maybe some puncture protection in the tire itself. Something like that with regular old tubes can be very reliable. Aside from that, pay attention to where you're riding and don't ride over debris full of glass, metal, and hypodermic needles. I frankly never bothered converting my commuter bike to tubeless. I still have tubes in it. I repaired a flat in it once, but that wasn't enough to push me towards exotic flat prevention methods, because even those aren't 100% infallible.

 

Its what I’ll go to after my first flat cause its painful to take my tires off. So painful.

 

If for some reason you stay with tubes (not tubeless ready rims etc.), I recommend getting touring type tires with proper protection. Also get the largest tires you can find since lower pressure minimizes the risk of flats.

I don't know if tubes advertised as puncture proof or with sealant are great, but can't hurt. Note that sealant needs to be replenished every so often (like 3 months, depending on conditions). So getting a better tire is great if you are negligent in that. Also if large holes can be a problem.

My tubeless fatbike gets a rear leak every few rides. How do I know? It all of sudden looses some pressure. Maybe from 5 psi to 3 psi. That is what it took to seal the hole. If i even notice on the trail, just pump it up and go on. If it wasn't tubeless, it would be a pain to replace and fix the tube etc. Definitely would be a bummer. I once had a leak in -20F. Sucks to have to pump at that temp, but beats having to replace a tube at that temp. So if you can do true tubeless, do it.

On my hybrid I had 3 flats on my first longer ride and had to cancel that ride since I was at the end of my tubes/patches I had with me and didn't want to risk having to walk home at the next flat. Then I got touring tires and tubeless, and never had a flat (not even one the sealant fixed, since I never lost pressure)

 

Harold, I totally get it, but Jack doesn’t care about weight, right? So if weight is not on the table as an issue, then slime is the proper product here as the sealant of choice to use in a tube, yes?

Or you still disagree?

 

Harold, I totally get it, but Jack doesn't care about weight, right? So if weight is not on the table as an issue, then slime is the proper product here as the sealant of choice to use in a tube, yes?

Or you still disagree?

I still disagree.

If tubeless is off the table, then the proper solution is a quality tire. Really burly tires with good puncture protection are very heavy, too. But heavy tubes full of goop that makes a huge mess when they puncture don't work well enough to address their downsides. The tubes preloaded with slime have a large volume of pretty thick sealant in them. I have seen the stuff solidify (I don't know how long it takes, just that I've seen it), and that gets REAL fun to ride with when they're unbalanced like that. They're also a royal ***** to remove when the sealant solidifies.

Putting Stans into a tube would be a better option, but you'll still run into issues with glass embedded in the tire that puts a new hole in your tube after the first one seals (or just continually repuncturing the same hole).

This is for road/commute/city bikes. For mtb's ridden off road, Step 1 is to go tubeless for me. The ability to shove a plug in a tubeless tire, reinflate, and continue riding is soooooo much nicer than trying to fumble with tubes. And something embedded in the tire? Who cares? The sealant took care of it. I might occasionally run through a tire and dig that stuff out, but chances are good that there's a layer of dried sealant covering over it so you don't have to worry about it puncturing your tube immediately if you need to put one in.

Step 1: Pay attention and don't ride over junk. Make sure your pressures are sufficient to avoid pinch flats.
Step 2: Buy good tires with puncture protection (only if the first option is not working well enough or you wear out your tires).
Step 3: If you are STILL having persistent flat problems (a very occasional puncture is nothing to be concerned with - even with sealant, you'll encounter the occasional puncture or cut that won't seal), then revisit Step 1.
Step 4: THEN consider a tubeless conversion (don't do a new tubeless conversion on old tires, though - use fresh ones). For people who deal with goatheads on the road, they'll get to this point pretty quickly. For others, they may not ever get there.
Step 5: If you want the most durable option available, period, consider airless or solid rubber tires. Most will ride terrible, but they won't flat, that's for sure.
Step 6: If you're cheap as hell, and won't buy quality tires, then buy shitty slime tubes and deal with the fact that they're a little better than no sealant, but have a lot of downsides that outweigh their small upside.

 

Tubless sealant I tried out in tube on my commuter/road/cross didn't work on small pinchflat I got, I think couldn't handle high pressure. The pinch was small, a single small elongated puncture. I use a Conti with puncture resistant casing which has been quite good, I've only gotten one other flat just recently and that was from some kind of metal wire/spring. I've picked pieces of glass out of tread before. I make it a habit if it looked like I might have ran over some glass, to brush hand (gloved) over front tire. I really wanted to avoid flats on this wheel as its a really tight fit and hard to change tire/tube and didn't want to encounter this on commute.
Downside is if you do get a puncture, sealant makes a mess when you do change/patch the tube.

 

Im running tubes on my Fatbike, rear would lose air constantly, put some Stans in the tube, been good for over a year now,

 

If you can use Schrader tubes you can buy tubes and fill them with Slime. It's been years since I've ran a Schrader tube. You don't have to spend big dollars to run tubeless. Google ghetto tubes and there will be lots of videos showing you how to set up tubeless cheaply. Gorilla tape ,tubeless valve and either Stans or Orange Seal sealant will work well. Another option is to buy a rim strip, Stans make them for 26 in tires. You can also buy tubeless tape to seal your rims. Sure sealant can be messy. There are tire plugs that you may use to seal up larger holes that the sealant can't stop by themselves.
I ran a ghetto tubes setup for years on my old Yeti with Sun Ringle rims. Tubeless is the way to go on a mtb. The easiest and cheapest way is to run as harder tubes and fill them yourself. Remove the valve core and attach a clear hose and replace the valve stem. Only you can determine if it's worth the trouble.

 

Tubeless sealant didnt work for me and just glues the tube together when it goes flat, ruining it. I think Slime is snake oil and doesnt actually do anything useful either.

By far the best way to avoid thorn punctures with tubes is to use a high quality tire, those bargain off-brand tires have extremely bad thorn resistance compared to a good Maxxis/Schwalbe tire with a durable casing.