Fuck me, the price of inner tubes!

Wish I'd seen this a fortnight ago. Treated myself to two Tubolito tubes for the road bike & fitted last week. Both lost about 80% since & not even ridden the bike!

what places take tubes for recycling? guessing bike shops but I’ve never seen it advertised

Schwalbe mostly. It’s why we used to solely stock their tubes. You might pay £8/9 for the tube, but in the process we’ll get your old one recycled.

If anyone wants it, I've for a code for a free tube as part of the warranty.

I'm not going to use it, so if anyone wants a shit tube let me know and I'll send it over.

(It's for the X Tour one).

.

Decathlon in Ealing collects tubes and tyres and bike part scrap. I hope they're actually recycling it.

That's annoying to hear about the Tubolitos. I was thinking about getting a couple of them or the Aerothan or Revoloop tubes for our gravel setup and/or my 29er to save on pack-space. They shouldn't need to be used (TL) but there's no point carrying a spare tube into the middle of nowhere that doesn't do its job.

If you want to try one, I've still got the original warranty replacement I can post out. I replaced it with a normal tube as didn't want to be stranded if it went again mid mini tour around Oxford.

Nah, I need 650B or 29er and if they're shit there's no point. These will be for when I can't fix my tubeless tyres.

Aerothan

I've also had a painful experience with these with very very fine punctures which a more conventional tube wouldn't have deflated. Additionally, requires special patches to repair IIRC & not compatible with screw on pumps (same for Tubolito tbh) too.

These are all sound like they're more trouble than they're worth. Thanks for the info.

I'll leave my kilo of 29er tubes electrical taped to my Stanton for now :D

Just going back a page I hummed and hawed about the slime tubes, in the end I got a pair of 29er Marathon Plus tyres, have to say they’ve been great and they’re worry free as far as punctures are concerned (touch wood).

What's the best cheap (sub ~£4) inner tube out there? (700c x up to 32mm, presta) Lifeline ok? Not desperate to give wiggle my money so happy to hear options. I miss innertubeshop :'(

Had my first Tubolito (kindly given by @ RonnieOatmilk) puncture after 2 months abuse on rear wheel. Have been impressed by it. Think I have to get the patch kit as they can't be patched normally?

I know the pound is weak but WTF? Just spent £6 on an emergency inner tube.

Lols.

Have a bunch of tubes which I've used for some time now, all of the approx 25mm variety. Swapping up to 32mm tires and am wondering if I need new tubes? Decathlon, my usual purveyor of biek consumables, seem to specify their tubes are 23-32 so am thinking should be fine, but thought I'd check with the people here who know a lot more than I do!

You’ll be fine.

Thanks - thought as much but have seen people on other forums say differently, I know which bunch I trust though.

I've run 18-23mm tubes in my 32mm tyres before (during ALPI4000 was the last time I recall) with no issues. I generally try and size up so the rubber isn't stretched as thin but they worked just the same.

For ages I had a 650b inner tube in my saddle bag and that was used to get home on the 26er, the 27.5, the 700c and my Guv’nor 28”. You’ll be just fine.

Fun story.

I got a puncture with my 650b 42mm tyres, no problem, got spare tube.

I only got the 700 x 23 type tube.

Gingerly I pumped it up in the 650b tyres, and to around 25psi to avoid any kind of issues (normally 40psi), rode 10 miles to the nearest shop and swap tube for an MTB one.

Tube can stretch and work fine, it’s running tube bigger than the tyres (says 28-32 tube on a 25 tyres) that cause headaches.

Also I fit tube for a living.

Ime Vittoria road (18-23mm) tubes do not like to stretch any larger. They are prone enough to randomly puncturing near the valve stem in 23mm tyres, I’ve never managed to get one up to anything like a decent pressure in a tire over 25mm.

Getting a 26” tube on a 700c rim was a challenge but managed to achieve without injury or swearing (well, swearing happened when I realised I’d got the wrong tube).

Not recommended but it got me home and survived for several months after

continental 26" mtb tubes are really crap
i've had three now split on me at the valve
can't repair just got to be binned

never had any tubes do this before ( on any size wheels ) three now in the last 6 months
i'm not treating them abusively or anything just very weak at the valve joint

DO NOT BUY

Odd, I've used loads of them over the years in all sorts of sizes and valves and never had that problem. I wonder if it's just a bad batch, or they've changed the recipe