On the usefulness of inner tubes

crazy i might be posting this at this time of the night, thought i have a little story to share.

some of u might know of my creaking left crank problem you can hear me cycling from 200m away, caused by running an SR left crank on an ofmega italian b.b. when it ought to be JIS (as diagnosed by trampsparadise) - i blame the guy who sold me the bike entirely for mixing cranks - the right crank is a sugino which fits the italian taper perfectly. annoyed by it so much cycling home tonight i decided to stay up till i find a solution apart from getting new cranks which i can't afford at the mo.

the crank basically has ±5mm of play (at the pedal end). it's not very healthy to both the crank and the b.b. spindle as they seem to be wearing each other out already. i really dont want to break it whilst trackstanding or spinning at 120+rpm or mashing up a hill. seems to me that it can be solved by pushing the crank further into the b.b. spindle taper. i completely f**ked my campy crank bolt by turning the wrench too much and it still didn't work. lucky the spindle thread wasn't damaged too much and i have a spare bolt ready.

then it dawned on me that i need sthg in between the washer (which the bolt uses to hold the crank in place) and the crank to push it down so it'll stay in put. what better material would it be apart from a small ring of inner tube? best thing is it's elastic and can be compressed to hold something down tight! tried it, works like a charm.

well now just wondering if any of you have any tales about how you use inner tubes!

Good luck to you - sounds a bit dubious. I'm a bit of a conformist when it comes to matching cranks and bottom brackets.

I know people use inner tubes as headset protectors (off-road), workstand augmentation devices, anti-aesthetic frame adornments, making fetish trousers for pets, etc.

I'm boring and use them as rotating air cushions.

I've a hacked road bike conversion. Removed one of the chainrings but then the bolts were too long. I figured some washers would be easier than new bolts, but couldn't find any of a suitable size. It just cut some bits of inner tube instead. Works a charm.

edit: But is temporary

I use them for chainstay protectors on MTBs and riding on.
When I had a garage they were useful for hanging bikes and stuff from.
They make good slingshots between well-spaced trees.

What may look like an innertube 'anti-aesthetic frame adornment' on my bike is actually a foot rest. I get lazy sometimes.

condom

Glow/max gave me a length of inner tube to use as a top tube protector. Works like a charm. Cheers Max!

I had a damaged lhs crank after I hit the kerb avoiding a taxi. I made a shim out of bits of tin can.

When, a week later, I went to put on my new crankset, the bits of tin can were shredded up with the grease I'd put on the spindle into a tin can paste.

I wouldn't rely too much on an inner tube in your drive train to be honest.

no worries it's only temporary.
and it's not between the crank and the spindle. it's basically under a point where there's no real mechanical stress from pedalling it's just there to stop it creaking.

photoben Glow/max gave me a length of inner tube to use as a top tube protector. Works like a charm. Cheers Max!

word of warning: i'd used an innertube toptube protector for 6months but when I removed it, some of the nice sparkly paint underneath had bobbled/blistered slightly.
So instead I fashioned me-self a custom leather one stitched in place. May just have been my paint or something on the innertube, but irratating non-the-less.

another word of warning, Don't use latex inner tubes makes me worry about using condoms after having these fail so many times.

Cheers for the heads up.