Mr. Tuffy Bicycle Tire Liner

I own a rather old lawn mower made by Yazoo. It's a 24" lawn mower (using 20 x 1.75" bikes tires) and nearly every time I mow I get a flat. The blade throws debris at the tires at high velocities and this will cause a flat tire. I tried rugged tires, slime type inner tubes, nothing seemed to work until I found Mr. Tuffy Tire Liners. This is my fifth time mowing and no flats! Did I have a string of good luck? Perhaps, but... I think the liner had something to do with it due to the fact after nearly mowing session I had a flat. Well, so far so good. It's a rather odd use for a bike tire liner, but there it is.

I purchased a Rivendell Cheviot last November and it came with a pair of Soma B-line 650B 38mm tires. The Bike was awesome and the tire gave a very smooth ride inflated at 55psi. What was infuriating was that I was experiencing an average of one flat a week. This went on for almost a month and I nearly gave up on the tire. Looking on the raves people were lavishing on this tire liner I decided to give it a try before getting a new set of tires since I felt bad throwing them away seeing that they barely had 200 miles. That was almost three months ago. The bike now has 548 miles and not a single flat since I installed Mr. Tuffy. I cannot thank the makers of this product enough. It has saved me the annoying hassle of fixing a flat on the side of the road for three months now. If you commute to work or school this is a must have. I did not see the size for 650 B tires so I just bought the 26 inch mountain bike with 1.5 inch width and it fit my tires very nicely. I actually had to cut 1.5 inches to avoid excessive overlap. Great stuff!

I'm 49 and have been using Mr. Tuffy since I was riding Skyway BMX bikes back in the early 80s. They're simply great and easy to use and easy to install. And they don't breakdown either. It's a one-time purchase. About the only thing you need to do is remove them, wipe them clean anytime you swap tires and/or tubes. As with any technology and materials, I'm sure Mr. Tuffy is slightly thinner, lighter but stronger since the ones I first used in my BMX bike 35+ years ago. For moms and dads, I strongly look into buying either thorn-resistance tubes or Mr. Tuffy tire liners for your kids bikes....especially once your kids reach 8-10 years old and start exploring farther and farther on their bikes (and start heading off the pavement). These will get many more miles, days and weeks and months between possible flats and punctures. When you're dealing with thin rubber inflatable bicycle tubes (and everything you can do on a bicycle), nothing is going to be absolutely 100% proof, but putting a little protection between the tire and tube (as well as some additional protection between the tube and rim) will keep you and your kids rolling alot longer. My boys have 24" bikes. I purchased the blue color (based on width of tire). The width is perfect but the blue 26" size was obviously too long. I simply install to make sure the tire liner is fully against the inner tire wall, then trim/cut the tire liner so that there is only about 1-2" of overlap. Easy but always measure 2-3x and cut once!

-> Tires are more and more offered (when available) as solidly built (K-shield…) but an extra layer does not hurt. (+) EASY to install, even for a beginner. WELL-DESIGNED in 2 layers integrated, one in colored PVC (FLEXIBLE, with NON-CUTTING or brittle edges like some competitive products) and another seeming more rubber in the center, it seems to ensure that the product stays in place while ensuring a soft contact with the tube. At touch, the MATERIAL seems of a good quality, neither too hard not too soft. (-) - There is NO THIN STICKER that would guarantee that the product stays in place (well in the middle) so you have to mount it in a horizontal position and hope everything fine when is time of the vertical position (most of the time, for final assembly with the wheel). Some say that the tube could push the guard in a perfect mid, it may be true, but nothing says it and everything seems fine in the end. - The PRICE of the product is certainly still quite high, at the beginning of 2023, but after 4 tube replacements (10-15$ USD each) in 2022 I hope that it will save me some money and trouble too. Mention: The GOLD is close to the PURPLE (in size) but it seems that the latter would be a little larger (especially with a 700 x 35-38) to slightly cover the sides. QUALITY-PRICE ratio; (FOR NOW) GOOD ! Remains to be seen with time. * Various other products exist, but several seem to have only a lied impact when faced with different sharp objects. By carefully analyzing the reviews of other products, it seems that some even end up being brittle or even creating punctures by themselves with sharp edges or ending up causing wear on the tube. I haven't seen any such comments on Mr. Tuffy's seller page. I reserve the right to update this comment if there is a problem. Hoping that this little unbiased review will help you.

I've been a "serious" cyclist for more than forty years (60 - 100+ miles per week... not counting commuting to work, thirty miles round-trip). In 1985, I became a dedicated mountainbiker (10 - 15+ hours per week in the southern and central California mountains) while continuing to commute to work on a road bike. Got my first Mr Tuffys in '88 or '89... and they changed everything. Like Sean Lee's New Mexico (see his May 16th, 2010 review), southern California also has "Goat-Head" thorns. For those who aren't familiar... they're a 1/4" to 3/8" diameter seed-pod that looks exactly like a beige-colored miniature spike-ball, and they're as hard as steel. Riding anywhere that these things exist causes you to very rapidly become an expert at tube-patching and fast tube-replacement. Incredibly... once I started using Mr. Tuffys, I went from getting sometimes two or three flats a week, to almost NONE. Needless to say, I've been using them ever since then... with only one exception. Sometime last year, I replaced the old, worn-out 1.5-inch road tires on my 28-year-old Ibis mountainbike (I've been using it as a road bike for a good while, now), and put on a new set of one-inch road tires... so I decided to replace the wider Tuffys that were in the 1.5s with narrower ones, as well. Since I now live out in "the sticks", the three "nearby" bike shops only had non-Tuffys for sale, but I thought "what the heck... how bad could they be?", so instead of ordering some Mr. Tuffys online, I bought the off-brand ones, and put them in the new tires. As things turned out, though, I ended up riding off-road on my newer mountainbike most of the time since then, so I spent almost no time at all on the Ibis this past year... until about six weeks ago, when I started riding regularly on the local roads with a neighbor who is new to cycling. Well.... Last week, we were ten miles down a back-country road, when my back tire went flat. Looking at the tire, I quickly found a single goat-head spike embedded almost dead-center in the tread -- right where the tire-liner is theoretically thickest and strongest. Imagine my shock and amazement, when I pulled the tube from the tire, only to discover that the one year-old tire-liner had almost completely decomposed, and had bonded its fragmented self to the innertube! Upon inspecting the front tire once I got back home, I discovered that the same thing had occurred to its liner as well. I spent the following day calling every single bike shop within a FIFTY-MILE radius of my home (maybe twenty shops, all told), trying to find a pair of Mr. Tuffys. Not ONE of the shops carried them. The only ones that any of them carried, were the generic off-brand ones, like the ones that had just dissolved. My assumption is that these shops carry the inferior, generic liners because they can get them much more cheaply than Mr.Tuffys. And since bike shops make the major portion of their profits from sales of parts, it's pretty easy to see their "logic". But... while I definitely prefer to support my local shops... in this case, I won't be doing so. Waiting a week for the Mr.Tuffys to get to me (they just arrived) has been a pain. But I'd far rather be safe, than sorry. Like I said... FORGET the other brands.

Tweakers and squatters behind my house broke bottles on the road because they thought I called the law on them, I didn’t but I should have. That was a few years ago but still there is tens of thousands of tiny glass shards on the road. No doubt I would be getting flats if I didn’t install the Mr Tuffy’s.

Finally a solution to thorns! These are great items, glad to have them. Dang bike manufacturers should have these standard in every bike sold. Would like amazing other options like Kevlar weave, exterior mini spikes to hold them against the rubbers better, multi colors, more exact sizing options, etc. These are good enough but they could be even better. Thank you. / After changing 20 or more tubes on the kids bike in only a year, finally a solution. Slime does not work. Thicker out rubber tires only work to a degree. Other regular liners are worthless. Repairing is a waste of time. These little easy to install liner pieces actually worked. One day my girl came home with dozens of thorns, we picked them off the outer rubber and the tube never went flat. Great product, we researched a lot before landing on these and they are a good item.

I read some reviews on how these Mr. toughies are so hard to install. I know that the professional bicycle shops do not like and putting them in. They say they don’t work. Although I watched a YouTube where they raided these things and said that they did work. After having extreme difficulty installing, and I am an experienced tire changer. I wrestled with this finally got it into what I thought was good, blew up the tire, and now my tire is oblong. it is weighted funny and there is a bump. I need to dismantle the whole thing and redo it. People at the bike shop just say a thorn proof inflatable tube. I’m not looking forward to taking this apart again I tried to return it, and Mr. Tuffy did not take my return. Kind of bummed about the whole thing. I don’t think I would waste my money. I would just buy a really expensive tube if I were you.