continental leaky valves

rowman

Many months ago a brought 10 continental inner tubes. Many of the tubes have either had loose valves or worse still leaky valves (tyre deflates in 4-5 hours). Can anyone recommend a sealant I can apply to the valve?

gjcknocker

Is it too late to return them to where you bought them and get replacements

www.richtreen.co.uk

They come with removable cores which may be the cause off your leaking issues, they sell a little plastic thing to tighten them, but I just use pliers.

lc1981

Yes, it's likely to be the valve cores that are loose. Lezyne pumps are notorious for taking the valve cores out with them, but this might also be a problem with other pumps. Lezyne recommend using Loctite Threadlocker to secure them. I've used superglue in the past and it's worked well.

dabber

lc1981 wrote:

Yes, it's likely to be the valve cores that are loose. Lezyne pumps are notorious for taking the valve cores out with them, but this might also be a problem with other pumps. Lezyne recommend using Loctite Threadlocker to secure them. I've used superglue in the past and it's worked well.

and ptfe tape has worked for me. I won't be buying Conti inners in the future though.

dee4life2005

Had the same problem with a couple of continental race tubes, with the removable valves.

First was with the boardman hybrid, which would lose about 60psi over the space of a couple of days. Thought it was a slow puncture, but found the valve leaking. Tightened it a little using a pair of plyers ... waiting to see if this has sorted it or not.

A couple of days ago I had a blowout on an unlit path and it was 0c at the time. Spend ages pumping the tyre up to 90 psi, and then the bloody valve core came out with the pump .. WTF!!! Took me about 10 minutes to find it, and I had to as it was my only spare tube!!

Wont be using continental tubes ever again!

sungod

this comes up repeatedly

if conti (and other) tubes, and indeed tubs, with removable cores were so bad they'd be out of the business, but the tubes are fine, and having removable cores can be very useful, which is why they are made that way

the wrong way to use them is with the cores loose, typically they're shipped loose, not *tight*

the correct way to use them is do the valve cores up *tight*, using a core tool to *tighten* them

if they're *tight*, then they won't come loose

i use screw-on lezyne pump heads, all my wheels have removable valve cores, they're *tight*, none come loose, because they're *tight*

that's because before fitiing a tube, i make sure they're *tight*

did i mention that they're *tight*?

hint, *tight*

cycleclinic

Again as sungod has siad nothing wrong with the tubes. Just check the valve core is tight when taking it oput of the box.

dee4life2005

I think what you're trying to say is that they need to be tight ?? :-p

The do seem like quality tubes, it's just I never realised that they all typically come with loose valve cores - now I know. It was a bit of a pain in the rear to have the valve core pop out, in the cold, after ten minutes inflating it.