How to slime a presta tube

Here in cactus country, if you have a bike with tubes, slime is a musthave. Schrader valves are easy to slime your self - just pull the valve core and squeeze the stuff in. Of course you can buy pre-slimed presta tubes. Presta valves are a little bit more difficult to slime yourself.

This one took me a while to figure out. I had heard of people cutting a hole in the tube, adding slime and then patching the tube. This type of surgery was entirely too invasive for my tastes, plus the slime is too slippery and makes patching difficult.



This method is less invasive and really easy to do. First thing to do is to cut the end off of the threaded rod that connects to the valve. this end comes blunted from the factor to keep the nut from unthreading. I used to do this with a dremmel cut off whell, but found that a pair of side dykes work just as well. Snip the very end off of the threaded rod - just enough that you can unscrew the nut.



Next is a bit hard part to explain. Drop the valve core into the tube and pinch it through the tube. The picture shows a cutaway of the valve core inside the tube. You want to hold it away from the valve tube so the slime can enter.



Now slip the slime tube onto the stem for a good seal and squeeze that gooey stuff in there. Once finished, fish the valve rod back into the tube and screw the nut back on.



Now you are prepared to ride over all sorts of pointy things.