Recommend me a better inner tube please

beanzontoast

I've given up with Specialized tubes on my commuter bike. The final straw came yesterday when I found the brand new 700x 20-28 Specialised tube I put in - Conti 700x28C Gatorskins by the way - on Friday (cost me £4) had gone flat. Thinking I'd done it putting it on, I removed it, partly inflated it and put in in the standard bowl of water to find the leak and fix it. Where was the leak? In the 'seam' where the two 'ends' of the tube are joined. Never seen this before, and when I very gently pulled the two sides of the seam, the joint separated as easily as anything leaving me holding a hosepipe instead of an inner tube.

Totally unimpressed by this. I don't count £4 as a cheap tube, or Spesh as a cheap brand, and it's not the first time I've had one of their tubes fail in a non-puncture way.

This comes on top of another experience I had where, being unsure, I asked a member of staff at Decathlon what tube I needed for that size tyre from the range they sell. (Some tyre sizes are on the cusp of tube sizes - e.g. 20-28 in one size, 28-35 in another, and knowing that brands size differently, I wanted to be sure I got the right ones). Installed tube when got home. Pumped it up. 5 mins later - BANG! Tube had forced the tyre off the wheel rim and exploded. Ruined the beading on a perfectly good tyre in the process. Clearly not the right size tube at all (so much for doing the right thing by asking!) and Decathlon is a way from where I live, so not economic to take it back and get a replacement.

So, what I'm looking for is a recommendations please for decent tube for a 700x28 tube. If you can be specific about the exact tube to go for rather than just the manufacturer, it would be great - as you can see, not having much luck at the moment, so if you have similar sized tyres - 700x28 - and great tubes, do tell!

Kieran_Burns

I got free inner tubes with my conti top contacts (700x28c). I'll go and check at lunch (bike is in a locked compound) and let you know what tube they supplied with the tyre.

secretsam

I also got the conti sport contacts, and use Gatorskins on the other bike

I would never buy a spesh tube again, had so many fail for non-p$ncture incidents, Contis are much better and come with nice yellow valve caps

RufusA

I've recently switched from Specialized (where I had a similar seam leak to you) to Schwalbe.

I run 700x25c on my commuter and the SV15 is a good fit.

However on 700x28c, the SV15 is at its maximum stretch. You would probably be better off finding an SV16 (SJS Cycles have them), or an SV17, though the latter can balloon up to 45c so wouldn't be my first choice!

They do seem to be more airtight than my Specialized were, rarely requiring a weekend top-up of air. And to date no unexpected leaks or blow outs in 3 months use.

They also have dinky clear valve covers which seem more robust than the Specialized ones!

Typically cost £4 online and £5 in all good LBS.

HTH - Rufus.

biondino

I have had one failure with spesh tubes, where the valve blew itself apart. Other than that they've been fine. However, after the last lot run out I bought some Conti ones. Still haven't had the opportunity to use them though.

ride_whenever

Ripped three valves of specialised tubes, I now use schwalbe ones, and they seem much happier. Just remember not to do the lockring up too tight.