Inner tube help

vince133

Hi.

I have just upgraded wheels to 50 mm deep. I am running 700 x 28 tyres. Can anyone advise on a good tube choice with an 80 mm presta valve please?

Regards

Vince

Dorset_Boy

Conti tubes

vince133

I’m a fan of conti. Can only see 700 x 25 with 80 mm valves. Not sure if they would be ok.

super_davo

Ridenow TPU.
You can get a pack of 4 from Aliexpress for about £25, plenty of Ebay sellers too.
Save loads of weight vs standard Butyl (about 70g per tube), pack really small, less rolling resistance - not quite as good as latex but with far less hassle.
Can't recommend them highly enough.

daniel_b

super_davo said:

Ridenow TPU.
You can get a pack of 4 from Aliexpress for about £25, plenty of Ebay sellers too.
Save loads of weight vs standard Butyl (about 70g per tube), pack really small, less rolling resistance - not quite as good as latex but with far less hassle.
Can't recommend them highly enough.

Do you have any links to any you have bought?

I bought some Pirelli ones for the Addict, but would like to get some additional ones are a more competitive price shall we say!

I did look last year, and had some likely candidates, but managed not to save any of the details.

super_davo

Going into my history I ordered from this link:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005217739296.html

I ordered a set at the beginning of March and they came about a week later. I expect they have an EU warehouse or something to speed up the process, significantly quicker than anything else I've ordered from Ali. Came with the special puncture repair patches too.

Other than being great on the bike itself, as spares they pack so small I can fit two tubes, a Topeak Micro Rocket pump and a Hexus multi tool in a Muc Off wallet that fits into a jersey pocket, no need for a tool bottle any more.

vince133

Thanks I’ll have a look at those.

daniel_b

super_davo said:

Going into my history I ordered from this link:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005217739296.html

I ordered a set at the beginning of March and they came about a week later. I expect they have an EU warehouse or something to speed up the process, significantly quicker than anything else I've ordered from Ali. Came with the special puncture repair patches too.

Other than being great on the bike itself, as spares they pack so small I can fit two tubes, a Topeak Micro Rocket pump and a Hexus multi tool in a Muc Off wallet that fits into a jersey pocket, no need for a tool bottle any more.

Cheers, I have just ordered 6 X 24g 45mm, and 2 X 24g 85mm ones - guess they will be here in 3-4 weeks.

sungod

bear in mind you can use extenders with tubes that have a removable core, saves having to get different tubes for different wheels

just unscrew the valve, fit the extender *tight*, then put the valve on the end

the vittoria presta ones are good, they include a nice alloy core tool...
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Vittoria-Valve-Extension-Aluminium-Inc-Spanner-Pack-of-2_128999.htm

MidlandsGrimpeur2

I just buy the Lifeline branded tubes off Wiggle, £2 a pop usually.

Speaking of which, has anyone been on Wiggle today? Either the website has been hacked or they have totally rebranded (not in a good way, it looks ****).

pangolin

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

I just buy the Lifeline branded tubes off Wiggle, £2 a pop usually.

Speaking of which, has anyone been on Wiggle today? Either the website has been hacked or they have totally rebranded (not in a good way, it looks ****).

Yeah they actually took it offline for several hours yesterday to make the change. I was really surprised they didn't do it out of hours or at least much faster.

sungod

hardly ever look at wiggle these days, just checked to see what they did

it's not good, not good at all, i felt the need for eye protection, i blame wiggle

daniel_b

MidlandsGrimpeur2 said:

I just buy the Lifeline branded tubes off Wiggle, £2 a pop usually.

I believe tubes of this ilk are way lighter and have less rolling resistance, plus they take up less room to carry spares etc.

They also, or the pirelli ones at least, seem to be incredibly good at retaining air.

Butyl ones do lose a fair bit, latex leak like a sieve, but these are above and beyond.

Be interested to see if these £4 ones behave the same.

super_davo

I've had Lifeline tubes - they do the job, and cheaply. The race ones at about £3.50 are pretty good.

But the TPU tubes are another level. I've never spent £20-30 on Pirelli or Schwalbe but I really struggle to see how they can be any better than RideNows.

In terms of weight saving alone, Dan will have saved c300g across the 4 tubes for £16. That's about the difference between 105 and Ultegra.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

I believe tubes of this ilk are way lighter and have less rolling resistance, plus they take up less room to carry spares etc.

To be fair I have never really done any experimentation with tubes. I know people say the latex one's really do improve rolling resistance but I have no experience of it.

As long as the wheel and tyre combo works for me, I have been happy to leave it at that. I am tempted to give some of these a try, largely to to the lower packing volume.

daniel_b

I hadn't until I bought my aero bike, and then my thought process went along the lines of:

It's meant to be a fast bike, and it feels it
I've put deep section rims on and GP5000s
Let's try and maximise the performance/reduce drag as much as possible with latex tubes.

Primarily the pirelli and aliexpress ones will be for my newish climbing bike, where I have gone for the lightest bike I can achieve that still has disc brakes and a double at the front ;-)
It will have an 80g saddle on, so I didn't want to compromise it with heavy and greater resistance inducing tubes.

I'll probably put them on the TT bike as well at some point.

My winter bike and all other bikes will just have the standard butyl tubes though.

MidlandsGrimpeur2

I think that is the best approach Dan, keep the regular butyl for winter and stick some of the light weight tubes on the best bike.

davebradswmb

I'm tempted by these TPU tubes. There is some concerns about them failing if they get too hot when used with rim brakes, are these concerns realistic?

sungod

there's some test data on tpu vs. others here...
https://www.bicyclerollingresistance.com/specials/tpu-inner-tubes

latex still has lower crr than any of the tpu ones they tested, but is heavier

re failure when hot, i remember seeing discussion about that on weightweenies a while ago, might be worth a look

super_davo

davebradswmb said:

I'm tempted by these TPU tubes. There is some concerns about them failing if they get too hot when used with rim brakes, are these concerns realistic?

TPU tubes are not super fragile, not compared with something like a Conti supersonic, and especially if you get the standard models over ultra light (RideNow have announced a super light model, but not seen on sale yet).

TPU is rated to withstand 80 degrees C, so I doubt you'll reach that point even on a rim brake bike on a mountain descent.

daniel_b

super_davo said:

(RideNow have announced a super light model, but not seen on sale yet).

TPU is rated to withstand 80 degrees C, so I doubt you'll reach that point even on a rim brake bike on a mountain descent.

I went for the 24g ones - are you saying they are making one even lighter than that?
Must be incredibly thin.

I noticed there were two more beefy options available.

P.S for general knowledge, my order placed yesterday has shipped overnight (27th) so I will try and remember to update with when it lands - likely to be at least 2 bank holidays inbetween then and now which could skew things a bit as well.
I'm taking a punt on May 12th.

super_davo

Actually you've got the super light ones then...

daniel_b

super_davo said:

Actually you've got the super light ones then...

Interesting!

Haven't I just - looked up the Pirelli ones I have, and they are 70g each, so these are crazy light.

As an amusing aside, I had an e-mail from aliexpress today entitled:
"To pair with that you purchased"


I've had to use a smiley face to obsure the top left picture, but I'm not overly seeing what she has to do with bicycle related kit.
Unless there is an inflatable angle I suppose.

daniel_b

Well apparently it is already at Heathrow, and likely to be delivered by RM tomorrow.

That's impressively fast if so.

daniel_b

Well they have indeed arrived today, pretty impressive, and good news for anyone who can't wait the predicted time, well unless I got really lucky.

Delivered packed in two jiffy bags, slightly squashed but no issues that I can see.

They are comically small, and light, 22g on my scales.

Compared to a continental tube, I'd say volume wise they are around a quarter if not a fifth of the size.





I did rotate the images correctly before pasting in, no idea why they are anywhere but correct, but there we go, you get the idea :-)

super_davo

Must be 8 days tops... I've had deliveries from the UK that have taken longer than that.

Be interested to hear how you get on with the ultralight, how robust they are etc. The standards are only 36g and not much bigger, so didn't feel the need; they do not feel flimsy in the slightest despite the size / weight.

Looking at your photo, they make butyl tubes look very old school indeed, for not much more money either.

JimD666

Blimey. Really didn't expect so much of a difference in size.

daniel_b

Me neither, nice 400g weight saving when on the bike carrying two spares, but also means more room for food/clothing should I want it.

I normally take a small saddle bag with a butyl inner tube, tyre levers, latex gloves, then in my back pockets one is usually filled up with innertube no 2 plus a mini pump, phone/keys maybe some clothing layers in the middle pocket, then bars/clif bloks in the one remaining pocket.

These would probably mean I can pack two in my saddle bag, plus a gilet, and have almost an entire pocket free on the back of the jersey.

I'm guessing the only caveat might be if you pack them in the saddle bag, that nothing in there can damage/rip/tear them.

ibr17xvii

The weight savings on these is really tempting me especially for carrying round as spares.

My only concern is how durable they are. No one likes punctures & I especially hate a faff at the roadside even in summer.

I have Bontrager tubes in at the mo that I believe are circa 115g each & I usually carry 2 spares in a tool bottle (& other stuff obviously) so that is some saving.

I suppose I could use one of these at the roadside & then put a Bontrager in when I get home but that's adding to the faff.

Anyone been running these for a while that can report on how they've held up?

daniel_b

Pretty sure @super_davo has been using the marginally heavier ones for a while.

ibr17xvii

Just had a look at those Pirelli tubes, they are frighteningly expensive.