Foss tubes

[Jay in Tel Aviv]

Anyone try these yet? How do they compare to Slime Lites? Do they work
for glass and wires or just nails and tacks?

[William]

I'm just about to switch to them.  I finally got my first flat with my SOMA XPress (which to my eye appears to be the 650B Pasela TG).  I had gone >5000miles with zero and didn't want to jinx it.  Now that perfection has been broken, I'll switch out to the Foss tubes I have here in my parts box.  If I never get a flat, I won't know what debris they work for and don't work for.  :)  But if I do get a flat, and can identify the culprit, then I'll let the group know.  Knock-wood!

[PATRICK MOORE]

I'd be particularly interested in learning if they provide any
protection against goatheads ....

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[William]

I wont be able to tell you about goatheads, most likely, since I don't know what a goathead is.  Whenever I see the word my brain for some reason wants to say "GO-THEDD".  It sounds like a prickly clump of plant detritus.  Do I have those in the SFBay area?  I think probably not.  Every flat I've gotten over the last 30 years has been glass or metal or a thorn.  I can't imagine that a 'goathead' is just a thorn. 

[PATRICK MOORE]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris -- scroll down
for the puncture culprits.

I didn't mean you in particular, but anyone who can say how well these
tubes do against the above, please post your results onlist.

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[William]

Oh!  See?  When you said "goatheads are from the devil", here I had a mental image of a Satanic pentagram and a goat's actual head on a heavy metal t-shirt.  Like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_of_Baphomet 

[Way Rebb]

They provide protection in the sense I didn't know something was amiss
until the tire actually went flat. Maybe if I was really in-tune with
my tire pressure I'd have noticed my bi-weekly fill up needed a little
more air than usual. Patching is easy though. I think as long as I
use air in my tires and not cement an annual flat is just a part of
bicycle riding.

Also use 700 x35 marathon supreme in front and have two flats in two
years, keep at about 50 to 60 lbs. Not bad.

Regards,
Ray

[Bill M.]

We have goatheads galore in Stockton, don't know why you would be free
from them in the Bay Area.

Bill

[René Sterental]

I have been using them for a couple of months now. Reviewed the movie that shows how to install them (just do a search online and you'll find it) as well as some additional clips that show how to fix punctures using a match instead of patches. I'm currently using them on the Betty and the Hunqapillar. Haven't had any flats yet and this isn't goat-head season so can't speak on that regard. On the Hunqapillar I'm using Marathon Duremes 40 which are puncture resistant anyway but in the Betty I'm running red Hetres. Not a lot of mileage, unfortunately, but no issues whatsoever. Perhaps they tend to lose air a bit faster than the Schwalbe tubes I was using, but not a big deal. Had two Schwalbe tubes slowly deflate overnight with no apparent punctures, perhaps just a bad batch or some micro-puncture I couldn't detect with the usual methods.

 

René

[MobileBill]

You may know already, and forgive me if you do, but for the longest, I
didn't know: Schwalbe tubes have the bonus feature of a removable
stem. I spent many months trying to find punctures in my Schwalbe
tubes until I finally recognized that the problem was a slow leak from
a loose valve stem (which can loosen when you take the cap off
carelessly, or put the pump on wrong). Embarrassing, but boy was it
nice to get it figured out finally. A couple of good twists with the
needle nose ( there's a squared off space on the stem) may end your
mysterious spate of flats.

[EricP]

Don't have the Foss tubes on a bike right now. Was going to use them
year round on a winter bike, but they were awfully tough to get on a
rim in cool (freezing or below) weather. They also didn't want to fit
under a slightly smaller studded tire.

Which comes to my other complaint - I personally didn't like the ride
feel. Yes, almost certainly a princess and the pea type thing. But
in my mind, under a set of 26x2.0 Marathon Duremes, they felt stiff.
Road bumps seemed more jarring.

Again, that is all personal. And just my opinion. Oh, and as far as
I can tell, we don't have goatheads here. Small little burrs and
stickers, but nothing like the size of a goathead.

Eric Platt
St. Paul, MN

On Feb 1, 9:54 pm, René Sterental <orthie...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mitch Browne]

I've been using them for about 4 months on my daily commuter / Marathon Supreme 40's. The web instructions are odd but improving. You don't need to use the blue rim tape provided though I did I wouldn't again. The valve stem isn't threaded, there is no nut to thread over and lock down. Some instructions I've seen claimed a rubber grommet is included for the the valve stem but I didn't receive one. I seem to have to top off the air a little more often than with standard tubes. I was careful to ensure presta valve properly screwed down. I experienced my first FOSS flat about 2 weeks ago but haven't repaired it yet, just replaced the tube. Symptoms are, depending on severity of puncture I suppose, an imperceptible soft deflation over several hours / night. I noticed the rear tire kind of soft one morning and just inflated it and rode to work. Next morning soft again. That's when it dawned on me. Puncture. I read that early batches had problems with leaks at welds though don't know that's the case here. So, as has been noted FOSS tubes aren't really flat protection but a way possibly get home or to a safe place of repair.

Jay, I've used Marathon Plus and now Supreme's exclusively for four years now. They provide flat protection but there is no flat guarantee, it just depends on where the offending bit strikes the tire. I had a roofing nail sticking out of the center of the tire with no damage but a sliver of wire found it's way along the side. I've gone years without a flat and then a couple within a month. The only gripe I have with wire bead Schwalbe's is they can be murder to mount. Some go on easy, others leave you sweating. I've read videos on mounting by hand alone and others requiring motorcycle levers ... I've done both.

I much prefer folding bead. 

Mitch Browne

San Luis Obispo, CA

[René Sterental]

Will make sure to check those Schwalbe valves. Thanks for the reminder!

René

[William]

I finally got the freetime to get my 650B narrow Foss tubes installed.  It's on the Hilsen with Hetres.  I did a 25 miler in the Berkeley hills today and the Hetres ran as plump, cushy, smooth and rocket fast as usual.  I noted no difference in stiffness than when I've run the same tires with regular butyl tubes.  I am not very sensitive to that sort of thing, so it's entirely possible I wanted it to feel the same, and so it did.  But that's my report all the same. 

Un-freaking-believably nice day out there in the East Bay.  Dare I say....a Super Sunday?