wehnever i see a split like that, it's nearly always along a seam, from a defective tube, or a scratch in the tube (often caused by a tire lever during install) that then failed along the scratch.
i've never seen a failure of a tube caused by slime itself, though i have seen valve cores clogged up and unable to re-air the tire without repalcing the core or cleaning it.
i have seen tire liners cut into tubes like that in pics of people's failures.
for tube brands, i recommend ones manufactured by cst cheng shin tire; these have been the best rubber i've found. problem is, unless you can see the cst logo on the tube itself, you can't usually know who made the tube, when buying them boxed.
like the suntour tubes i used to get locally from a bike shop--at first they were cst and were great, then they used kenda in the very same box, and like their tires every one of them was poorly made and would fail, often at the valve stem brass/rubber interface or along a seam.
i've used moped/mc tubes on sb cruiser's rear 20inch wheels along with mpoed tires by shinko. again, the cst made tubes have been best, others passable to worthless.
i also like cst tires better, and use the cst city on the front of the trike; preferred the cst general but they don't make it anymore, or anything similar.
lnanek said:
My first attempt at FlatOut, heh:
Could be the OEM tubes were cheap and thin as well. I upgraded to ones that are still cheap and from China, but at least claim to be thicker:
Maybe it would be possible to use motorcycle tubes as the next step up in durability. I've heard of people using motorcycle tires, although the size is measured differently.