Steve Greene recently posted an article on his Trike Asylum blog about tire sealants where various brands were tested and compared. I have never been a fan of Slime and the article isn’t very flattering for Slime as it states and shows exactly what I have observed and experienced with it. In short, it is very messy and only works on very small punctures. As you can see the top performers are: Orange Seal, Stan’s NoTubes and Schwalbe’s Doc Blue product (which is made by Stan’s). Interestingly the Schwalbe product scored better than Stan’s NoTubes. None of the sealants could stop a leak of the largest size hole in the test. The Orange Seal did the best however and might have allowed the tire to be pumped up as necessary to make it home. If someone insists on running tires that easily get flats a sealant may be practical to use. As for me I think I will stick with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires as they have never failed me. I have never had an externally caused flat tire nor a glass cut in the tread … and I used to get both all the time when I ran other tires.
Since Orange Seal scored the highest I offer this video demonstrating how well it works.
I reckon it comes down to personal preferences and the environment one rides in. I know I much prefer to ride my trike than work on it … especially alongside the road or trail. Yep, I like to …
KEEP ON TRIKIN’
and simply…
ENJOY THE RIDE!
A FREE GIFT awaits you!
Tadpole Rider 
I used Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires for just over six years, and never had a flat in one, even though they had all been repeatedly stuck with the notorious California goathead thorns, also known as devil’s thorn. But then I went the fat tire route like Zack, and that is where my flat tire experiences began big-time. Schwalbe does not produce a “Plus” tire in these huge 26×4.8 sizes, leaving all us fatties seeking solutions that work. So, there are two basic options if fat tire riders don’t want to get flats: 1) convert to tubeless with sealant, or 2) keep the tubes but fill them with a sealant. I know from first-hand experience that the tubeless solution works great, and have heard from others that the sealant inside a tube also works (this was suggested to me by Mark Waters, owner of Backcountry Recumbent Cycles in Bend, Oregon, but I did not listen to him at the time, and consequently paid the price of 4 flats within a two day period with the fat tires). Zack, if you are going to retain your tube setup, my recommendation is to fill your tubes with the recommended amount of Orange Seal.
Well Zack, once again I am not following your statement about your being totally in disagreement with me over this topic. Reading thru what you wrote you obviously think that these products are okay to use. That is pretty much what I said so I don’t understand how we can be in disagreement. I would use them if I had need of them, but I don’t as I don’t get flats with Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires.
I’m sorry Steve this is one time I am totally in disagreement with you.. Now please be patient with me here as I tell you about one of the most hottest days of the year here in Florida and a flat tire from hell..! One day I was doing some bills in my office here in my home, and I realized that I was out of stamps to pay my bills, as I am not a big fan of paying them online, ( but that is a whole other story to tell on another day ) Now like most recumbent riders I look for reason to get out of the house and go for a ride on my bent because I can justify it by means of needing stamps…! Well anyway I load up with water, and stuff a little cash in my pocket, grab my card wallet and id holder, and away I went heading out my door to US Hwy 1 North to visit the post office for some stamps.. It was an awfully hot day I think if I dropped an egg on the blacktop it would fry up in no time at all.. After climbing my first awful climb over the CSX train overpass, I get a little relief from the forward accent down US Hwy 1 north, to another 5 miles of the most grueling heat you could imagine experiencing, but I figure I need to suck it up and just go ahead, and complete my mission to purchase some stamps from the post office in the next town north of my home.. Well while pedaling as fast as I can from one tree to another’s shadow I hear this loud pop, and hear that sound that all cyclists hate to hear that sound you know is going to make your next 5 to 10 min’s a living hell..OK..! I pull of the highway and pull into a parking lot that was totally devoid of trees LoL…! ( of course I didn’t think it was funny then..) So I commence to patch the whole but not before finding out where it went all wrong for me, where I find the culprit, a 3/4 in. licence bolt, for those who don’t know what I talking about it’s a machine bolt as big as the average pinky and half the length making it stumpy or short but with a very pointed end.. OK once again for those who don’t know what I ride, and say to yourself that this guy is full of it, how could he have been able to get a bolt of those dimensions in a recumbents tire, well here is your answer..! I ride a Catrike Custom Fat Cat quad 4, with 4.8″ in. tires so it’s one big mother for sure.. Well I make short work of patching the tube, and I am now ready to fill the tire with air, but for some crazy reason I can not find it, so I start to panic, but out of the corner of my eye I spy a Gas & Go just a quarter mile more up the highway, so I start off for the place as I am now finishing my second bottle of water, and shortly will need more because the others are now a little hot and unpalatable,, So I get to the Gas & Go and I start searching the filling area and spot the pump pole without a hose so now I really now have reason to panic.. So I go in ask what happened to the air pump when the girl behind the counter says with this big grinning smile it’s out of order.. Now I am not only pissed off, but really start kicking myself for not checking for a pump before I left the house.. So I start walking across the store for their big fridge to buy some water, but not before passing a car, and truck parts and oil shelf, where I see this tall silver can of ROAD-TECH Instant tire repair a non popular brand of the products which we started to tell this whole story about, but now I am not finished, and this is a real kicker but I have Presta valves and not the Schrader valves which this can of tire inflator was meant to be used with, and I didn’t have one with me, and Steve this is where I had told this story once before and you told me I should have left the valve adapter on the valve for such occasion as this, but have no fear fellow readers because I pull out my pocket knife and cut the valve of the canister of instant tire repair and backed the valve stem open just far enough to get the tire tube repair and air in so all I have to do is close the valve when finished overt filling the tire and then hurrying to close the valve.. Eureka I finally got the tire inflated enough to pedal of to another station with a working air pump…! Well you can say whatever it is that you would like to call it,but for me it really got me out of a jam in neck of time…!
Thanks Steve. I always enjoy your information.