Buying inner tubes

digitaldave

I need to get some new inner tubes in a couple of different sizes. Is it worth buying in 'bulk' (e.g. a pack of 10)? If so, can anyone recommend a good place to get them? I need several different sizes - some 700c for my road bike, and two sizes for my MTB depending on which tyres I have on.

Thanks,

Dave.

Vivica

Evans Cycles have been doing a lot of good deals on Innertubes - i recently bought 2 Specialized branded tubes for a total of £3.98 delivered to my door!!

Pep

Instead of replacing a puncture tube with a brand new one you can replace it with a patched one.
Much cheaper.
To patch a tube takes about 5min evening work.
No repaired tube has ever failed me during the last 37yr.

Marcus_C

digitaldave wrote:

Is it worth buying in 'bulk' (e.g. a pack of 10)?

How many punctures are you planning on getting? I bought two packs of 10 in two different sizes about 3 years ago and have 15 of them left after about 9000 miles.

Moodyman

Me too.

I bought two spare tubes but have not needed to use them in over 6k miles of commuting.

Get yourself some Marathon Pluses and you'll forget how to change a tube. 10 tubes is far too many in my opinion.

rolf_f

Marcus_C wrote:

digitaldave wrote:

Is it worth buying in 'bulk' (e.g. a pack of 10)?

How many punctures are you planning on getting? I bought two packs of 10 in two different sizes about 3 years ago and have 15 of them left after about 9000 miles.

5 lost in 9000 miles sounds like quite a lot! I've not used any up in about 15000 miles. Do have a couple of old tubes where the failure is at the valve though so those are now puncture repair patch material.

gbsahne001

Pep wrote:

Instead of replacing a puncture tube with a brand new one you can replace it with a patched one.
Much cheaper.
To patch a tube takes about 5min evening work.
No repaired tube has ever failed me during the last 37yr.

one failed me the other day... not the fault of the patch though, as a piece of glass managed to puncture the patch and the tube

Marcus_C

Rolf F wrote:

Marcus_C wrote:

digitaldave wrote:

Is it worth buying in 'bulk' (e.g. a pack of 10)?

How many punctures are you planning on getting? I bought two packs of 10 in two different sizes about 3 years ago and have 15 of them left after about 9000 miles.

5 lost in 9000 miles sounds like quite a lot! I've not used any up in about 15000 miles. Do have a couple of old tubes where the failure is at the valve though so those are now puncture repair patch material.

One had a puncture on a patch and I couldn't get it to re-seal, one blew away on a commute home over the winter, two were for the rs10's on the genesis, not sure about the other one. I don't get punctures that often, maybe 6/7 in that time.

benno68

All this talk about punctures is making me nervous.

I prefer to use a fresh tube, my puncture repair skills aren't up to much.

Headhuunter

Condor Cycles was doing some deal on bulk Specialized tubes last week.... I repair my tubes, got loads of them kicking about...

digitaldave

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I think I was being overly pessimistic - I managed to kill two tubes over the weekend, and got a pinch flat on a third. The first two actually exploded, even though I'd inflated to the correct pressure. I suspect that my tube replacement skills aren't up to scratch.

Interestingly enough, the dead tubes happened when changing my MTB tires from (I think) 2.1" or 2.3" Speed Kings for a pair of Marathon Plus. As I said though, I think the problem lays with me and how I put changed them.

I guess I'll just buy a couple of spares instead of a pack then ;-).

rolf_f

Benno68 wrote:

All this talk about punctures is making me nervous.

I prefer to use a fresh tube, my puncture repair skills aren't up to much.

It's really not hard to learn. If you can manage to put a plaster on a cut, it is ever so slightly more difficult than that. Or do you prefer to use a fresh skin.....

nation

I've always just used pre-glued patches rather than the puncture kits.

Much simpler and I've never had a problem with one coming unstuck.

t4tomo

Tesco's do inner tubes, about as cheap as I've sen them anywhere.

rolf_f

nation wrote:

I've always just used pre-glued patches rather than the puncture kits.

Much simpler and I've never had a problem with one coming unstuck.

Not really much simpler - the only difference is a dab of glue and 60 seconds wait. Plus that the pre-glued patches aren't (apparently) a permanent fix and can knacker the tube whereas the normal patches should end up stronger than the tube. Pre glued are a bit of a false expense!

fatherted

around 2pds per tube ,

http://www.cyclingbargains.com/product_ ... xed-p-1246

gilesjuk

Go tubeless. If done right it is less problematic than tubes. You can still use a tube for when you get a hole that can't seal.

nation

Rolf F wrote:

nation wrote:

I've always just used pre-glued patches rather than the puncture kits.

Much simpler and I've never had a problem with one coming unstuck.

Not really much simpler - the only difference is a dab of glue and 60 seconds wait. Plus that the pre-glued patches aren't (apparently) a permanent fix and can knacker the tube whereas the normal patches should end up stronger than the tube. Pre glued are a bit of a false expense!

Meh. I've been running the same inner tubes for longer than I can remember on my MTB, and they both have at least a couple of patches on them. I don't get punctures very often.