What are these valves and are they any use to anyone?

[thenorthwind]

See attached picture. Found in an old puncture repair kit in my grandad's garage. Didn't want to chuck them out in case they were useful to anyone.

[tatanab]

Woods valve a.k.a Dunlop valves as used on 3 speed hub roadster machines and the like.

[meic]

Still reasonably common on the mainland. Which means such innertubes have turned up in Aldi/Lidl quite recently.

[simonhill]

They are the most popular valve in Japan. Often called English.

They also call:

Schreader = American.

Presta = French.

I haven't been there recently, but the Woods used to be common in India. I suspect a legacy of the Empire.

I wouldn't think they have any value apart from sentimental value.

[resus1uk]

Still very popular in Holland & Germany.
My Gazelle Impala was supplied with Woods/Dunlop valves. Easy to replace with Schrader /Auto valves when a new tube is needed.
Now I have a pump that fits the newer valves but does not fit the pegs on the bike. That's progress.

[Gattonero]

Woods valves are meant to be used with screw-on hose


a common slip-fit rubber as used in most of the pumps won't fit well and leak.

Thankfully, Schwalbe makes their Woods Valves with a slightly longer end of the stem, so to have more room to grip in a standard slip-fit pump end.

Or you can thread on a simple adapter and leave it there, they used to cost 50p or something like that

[thenorthwind]

I did google "dunlop" and "woods" as they were the only valves I'd heard of but not seen, but I thought they looked different. I bow to collective knowledge however. Does anyone on here still use them then? Happy to stick them in the post FOC rather than the bin.

[MikeF]

I did google "dunlop" and "woods" as they were the only valves I'd heard of but not seen, but I thought they looked different. I bow to collective knowledge however. Does anyone on here still use them then? Happy to stick them in the post FOC rather than the bin.

Those in the picture look like a modern version. Older versions had a sleeve of rubber tubing that went over a hole. It acted as a non return valve and the rubber tubing was normally included in puncture repair kits as it split or perished with time.

Not long ago I was out cycling and a father of a young lad asked me if I could pump up the tyre on the lad's quite modern looking bicycle. I found it had a Wood's valve and my pump wouldn't work with that.

[ANTONISH]

I remember these valves appearing as a substitute for the woods rubber sleeved valves in the mid fifties.
They were definitely an improvement but could become leaky if a dust particle stuck in the valve seat.

[Brucey]

... Schwalbe makes their Woods Valves with a slightly longer end of the stem, so to have more room to grip in a standard slip-fit pump end....

I hadn't noticed that they were longer but I had noticed that the plain shank normally extends slightly above the locking collar, and that this allows adapters that seal on the shank (such as the one in your picture) to seal properly. Valve inserts with ridges on the body do not make any kind of seal to the locking collar, and this means that with a typical woods valve connector, there is nearly always some leakage when trying to inflate the tyres.



The most common (and arguably best) Woods valve insert type is the 'Aligaro' pattern as above. I think it is so named because the rounded end looks like a little alligator's head. This pattern is easy to pump and not very prone to leaking.

A Brucey top tip; if you do have an aligaro insert that leaks slightly, and no replacement, it is very often possible to stop the leak by adding one tiny drop of oil to the inside of the insert.

cheers