Tube valve nut...

Schoie81

With a lunchtime ride on the cards today, I came into work early so I could check my tyres and put a bit of air into them if necessary. Topped both tyres up and as I was doing the front, the nut against the rim seemed a little loose, so I tightened it a little. All seemed fine.

Two hours later, sat at my desk with my bike across from me leaning against the wall, and I can hear a hissing noise. Its air coming from the valve (somewhere). Its not coming from the end, but I think it may be coming from the base of the valve. Loosened the valve nut off a little and it stopped. So have I overtightened the nut and damaged the tube where it attaches to the valve? If this is likely, how tight should the valve nuts be? What is their actual purpose?

The air stopped when I loosened the valve nut off, but this could have just been as the pressure in the tube dropped. Should I pump it back up and see if it leaks again, and if not go out for a ride? Or should I swap the tube now anyway?

Another possibility is that I took the tyre off at the weekend and put it back on - purely because I've never done it before and thought it was time I did it, so I know what to do if I get a puncture out on a ride. Could I have done something wrong then that's caused this? Should have left well alone methinks!!

Schoie81

Done some reading around and the almost unanimous advice is that the nut is pointless and is better removed. Primarily because they tend to get over-tightened, damaging the tube - so it seems likely that's what i've done. :oops:

If that is the case, is it a repairable mistake, or is the tube bin-fodder now?

marcusjb

The nuts are definitely pointless.

If you are lucky and don't p***ture often, they can easily corrode on as well.

I went to change tyres on our tandem and found a corroded nut (never p***tured on that bike) - it took hacksaw and pliers to get the tube out, if it had happened on the road, we'd have been in trouble! I promptly went around and made sure no bike in the fleet had nuts on them.

In your case, you may have damaged the tube yes - whip it out and get some air into it and see/listen to what is going on before doing anything else. All you can do really.

schweiz

They're not useless if you don't keep your tyres pumped up. They stop the tube rotating round the wheel and damaging the base of valve. I leave them on my mountain bike for when I'm running with low pressures.

drlodge

Just bought some tubs and the valve stems don't have a thread. So no nut!!

Schoie81

Looks like the lunch hour ride is going to be a tube swap instead.

denniskwok

After getting annoyed with the rattle of loose valve nuts and having to periodically tighten them up, I've now ditched them and pull some electrical tape down over the valve stem instead.

cesco

lose the nuts and throw the caps after them while you're at it.

(Maybe it's your bike telling you not to mess with her wheel direction )

Schoie81

cesco wrote:

lose the nuts and throw the caps after them while you're at it.

(Maybe it's your bike telling you not to mess with her wheel direction )

Oh don't start that again! I wasn't wanting to mess with her wheel direction - I wanted to make sure I wasn't unconsciously doing just that! Last thing I want to do is upset her!

Nuts are going, but i'm keeping the caps - i've got silver anodised alloy caps rather than the plastic ones that came with the bike/tubes - call me sad, but I like them....

Got the tube out, split in the tube at the base of the valve about 1/4 of the way around the circumference of the valve - my fault, lesson learned. Good job tubes aren't that expensive...

chris_bass

i was wondering about the caps the other day, i generally leave them on just because they are there! do they serve any purpose with presta valves?

keef66

Chris Bass wrote:

i was wondering about the caps the other day, i generally leave them on just because they are there! do they serve any purpose with presta valves?

I and many other cyclists think not. However if you have a spare tube sitting in your seat pack or back pocket for months a plastic cap may prevent the valve from wearing a hole in the tube.

nferrar

I leave the nuts on although more through habit than anything else (you need them on MTB tubeless and suspect you would on road tubeless though), def don't over-tighten them though. Caps are there just to stop the valve from damaging the tube in it's packaging so I throw mine once I'm using the tube.

Monty Dog

I have some red caps on my MTB valves to match my red anodised rims! Caps keep the crud out the valves if riding offroad / filthy conditions - if you use a CO2 inflator you could blow wet cr@p into the valve and it can freeze open, letting all the gas out.
If the tube is damaged by overtightening the lock nut, then I suspect it's due to a burr on the inside of the rim around the valve hole, rather than the action of tightening the nut.

rattyc5

keep them loose. i tightened mine then blew tyre up. suddenly the tyre went down. i took tube out and there was a rip where valve joins rubber. i could pump the trye up so far then it would go down again. if you over tighten, the expanding when being pumped up rips away from valve whcih cannot not move with it.

Schoie81

Rode without the nuts yesterday with no ill-effects I can tell. If they can't be screwed tight, I can't see that they're doing anything, so until a problem presents itself, i'm just going to use the nuts (loose) to hold the valve still while inflating the tube when its completely flat (ie. when new) and then take it off again and ride without them.

slowbike

you don't need the nuts on there to hold the valve still when deflated ...

just push from the other side as you push the valve on.

Really - it doesn't matter if you use the nuts or not - they make no significant difference. I used to use them, but it's just another thing to do up/undo ...

As for the valve caps - depends what sort of riding you're doing - if it's wet muddy stuff then valve caps may stop a bit of crud from entering the valve - otherwise they're not really doing anything either - but it doesn't matter, removing them isn't going to increase your average speed ...

smoggysteve

The nut was made for one purpose only, to prevent the valve rattling in the hole. It is not designed to do anything else. You can remove it and just put some tape on the valve if it does rattle. I used to get a big ticking noise coming from my carbon tubular rims. It was the valve extender doing the same thing. A bit of black n nasty (gaffer tape) solved it.

Rodrego Hernandez

SmoggySteve wrote:

The nut was made for one purpose only, to prevent the valve rattling in the hole. It is not designed to do anything else. You can remove it and just put some tape on the valve if it does rattle. I used to get a big ticking noise coming from my carbon tubular rims. It was the valve extender doing the same thing. A bit of black n nasty (gaffer tape) solved it.

No it wasn't. Valves don't rattle without them.

Most likely is that it can keep the tube central when it goes flat and is in a loosely fitting tyre but how often does that happen?

Take a look at the best tubs and tubes - they generally don't have thread on the valves.

smoggysteve

So you are telling me Chris Froome didn't tape up his valves to stop them rattling? He just stuck tape on his wheels to make them look pretty? I can show you exact pic in cycling weekly that confirms this.

slowbike

SmoggySteve wrote:

So you are telling me Chris Froome didn't tape up his valves to stop them rattling? He just stuck tape on his wheels to make them look pretty? I can show you exact pic in cycling weekly that confirms this.

No ... he didn't .... his mechanics may have done though!

smoggysteve

But I'm sure he told them to. Why would a mechanic stick tape on his wheel unless he told them the rattle was driving him mad. My carbon rims do the same with the valve extender

Rodrego Hernandez

SmoggySteve wrote:

So you are telling me Chris Froome didn't tape up his valves to stop them rattling? He just stuck tape on his wheels to make them look pretty? I can show you exact pic in cycling weekly that confirms this.

Sometimes with tubs you get a ticking noise around the valve due to the tub / rim glueing interface being slightly uneven at the valve. A bit of tape around the valve usually stops this. Different mechanics use different solutions but this is different to inner tube / tyres as these guys use tubs.

pilot_pete

Both tubs and clincher tube valve stems can rattle in a rim. How anyone can claim categorically that they "don't" is talking waffle. Not all rims are the same, not all valve stams are the same and wear and tear of either can amplify the issue.

I have 4 different sets of clincher wheels and don't use the stem nuts because they seem more likely to cause a potential problem (as highlighted by others) than to solve any perceived problem. All four sets have then experienced some kind of noise (tick through to plain old rattle). In every case I have cured it either by wrapping a single layer of electrical tape around the stem where it contacts the hole in the rim (to make it a snug fit) or by cutting a square patch of tape, putting a hole in the middle of it and putting that over the valve stem and sticking it down to the rim, or a combination of both.

If you inflate your road tyres to the recommended pressure before riding the tube will not move inside the tyre thus pulling against the valve (presumably the main reason for these nuts). They certainly don't provide as long a term fix to the rattle problem as tape does, and if they do it is because they have corroded on! They can easily be over tightened in an attempt to stop them coming loose, leading to possible tube damage and depending on the profile of the rim can either have a large contact area that can gouge an alloy rim or with a more V shaped rim can have a minimal contact area that can cause even more damage when tightened!

I personally use valve caps for the reasons stated about storing them in a seat pack....the presta valve stem can easily cause damage to the tube if gently being jostled around in a seat pack ride after ride. I also wrap each spare tube in copious cling film before putting them in my seat pack as just the tubes rubbing together, or against other items, or even just the sides of the seat pack itself can cause holes in the tubes. A mate thought I was talking crap until his son punctured on a ride and they found that both his son's spare tubes and his were damaged from being in the seat packs for months on end rubbing together.....

PP

hutch6447

Hi,

I have been a roadie for 20 years+ always threw the jam nuts away!

Recently had a dabble at a TT bike with nice carbon aero wheels.

Went out terrible rattle turns out was the loose presta against the rim.

Not believing I was putting this nut on! This nut that has been banished and removed, hey no rattle smooth as a babies bum. I must admit now I have changed my mind those ridiculous useless nuts are actually very useful.