Inner tube weakness, curious for explanation

Flâneur

Possibly the wrong forum however I am curious as to why this inner tube balloons up (see picture). Not expecting to fix it but wondering if it is avoidable. I expect it is just a random weakness in the tube.



http://flic.kr/p/smTQqQ

crankycrank

Most latex tubes I have used in the past would do this. I suspect it's basically a case of a very thin walled tube combined with the added stretch of latex and it becomes incredibly difficult to manufacture a perfectly uniform tube that doesn't cost a small fortune.

ai_1

sa0u823e wrote:

Possibly the wrong forum however I am curious as to why this inner tube balloons up (see picture). Not expecting to fix it but wondering if it is avoidable. I expect it is just a random weakness in the tube.



http://flic.kr/p/smTQqQ

I don't have any experience with latex tubes but I would expect this is the same as inflating a balloon and does not indicate a point of significant weakness but rather a characteristic of the material that once it starts to stretch at a point, further expansion there becomes the lowest resistance to further inflation so it dramatically balloons there before approaching the elastic limit and then the inflated portion expands in length until the whole thing is fully inflated. Have you ever seen a long tubular balloon like those used for balloon toys inflate evenly....No.
When inflated within the tyre, the max diameter is restricted and this ballooning will be reduced. I'm no expert but I don't think there's an issue except that you're inflating it outside the tyre.

dgunthor

pump it up inside a tyre as its designed to be if you want to avoid it

sungod

^^^this

no tube is perfectly uniform, so it will bulge somewhere, this has absolutely no bearing on performance when used as intended

the purpose of the inner tube is to provide an airtight chamber, the tyre/rim/tape are responsible for providing the strength to prevent the pressure causing the tube to bulge/burst

Flâneur

Cheers for the responses, assumed a weakness but I just became curious and thought some people with more knowledge could correct me if need be!.

Thanks again

pinno

Cool innit?