Cycling UK Forum

There seems to be quite a variety of prices for inner tubes and just wondered if anyone had a good recommendation for reasonably priced and good quality tubes. I'm mainly interested in 26in schrader and 700x25 presta.

I like to get mine from Ribble.

These are my favourite 26" at the moment cheap and very light in the 1.1-1.5 size.

I also got the Vittoria Ultralights from them because they came as a special offer with my chosen tyres

http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... itttyrf610

Evans sometimes sell off Specialised inner tubes at half price and I stock up when they do that. The fact that they dont charge postage helps because I seldom want anything else from them.

Not in the list of tyres you want but for my 35mm 700Cs I like the Conti Cross inner tubes.
These are handy as they will work on my 700C 25/28mm tyres as well.

My preference is for cheap and light, so no Schwalbes.

Schwalbe,not light,not cheap,but very good IMO.

I know Reohn isnt the sort of person to count the grams but,

I can get a 60g difference between two different inner tubes in a 28mm tyre.
55g is the weight difference between a £40 Open Pro and £18 Open Sport rim.
Or the change in weight from a 28mm Ultragator to a 35mm Marathon Racer is 40g, which could be exceeded by the increase of weight of the bigger inner tube.

I do come across people who spend the extra money to save weight on tyres and rims and then stick in a heavy inner tube, which is odd as the tubes are often the cheapest way to lose weight AND they tend to be longer lasting than the tyres and rims.

reohn2 wrote:Schwalbe,not light,not cheap,but very good IMO.

Very good in what way? Noticeably less punctures? I've only ever used Spesh since I lived next to a concept store and went past evans on my commute. My new LBS stocks Schwalbe so was going to give them a go.

reohn2 wrote:Schwalbe,not light,not cheap,but very good IMO.

I would say VERY VERY good.
I won't buy any others now.

Dunno about fewer punctures coz I rarely get them, but they hold their pressure so you pump them up less.

Alex L wrote:

reohn2 wrote:Schwalbe,not light,not cheap,but very good IMO.

Very good in what way? Noticeably less punctures? I've only ever used Spesh since I lived next to a concept store and went past evans on my commute. My new LBS stocks Schwalbe so was going to give them a go.

Altogther more robust than others I've tried,less chance of valve parting company at the base.I can't say they puncture less as I don't puncture a lot(usually two to three times a year) whichever tube I use.
Meic's right though,they're not light,TBH I've never really looked at saving weight on inner tubes preferring reliability,but it could be worth while for lighter tyres,60g saving is quite a bit as he says and thinner tubes can add to comfort too.
One word of warning about schwalbe tubes is that they have a threaded removable valve(presta),it's always a good idea to tightening it up before fitting as I've had a couple of slack ones over the years which can unscrew with valve cap when topping up.

IME lighter weight tubes have a shorter life. I used to use Specialized lightweight tubes. After a while I would start to get weird punctures - ie with no obvious cause. Swapping to a combination of Michelin and Schwalbe I've had much better reliability. A lightweight tube might be fine if you really want to save weight, but otherwise go for a mid-weight.

If you want to save money get 3 good-quality tubes (one for the spare to carry with you) and a puncture repair kit -cheaper in the long run.

I've never had an issue with tubes, so thought I'd try a couple of cheap makes two years ago (Airwave/Kenda). It really was a false economy, the airwave tubes in particular being very poor (I eventually realised the source of punctures, was due to bits of the tube material "flaking off", leaving holes in their wake. It was also quite notable when blown up out of the tyre, how an airwave tube would be 6" diameter in one place and 1" in another I.e. huge variations in thickness of the tube wall)

I've gone back to Scwalbe, though have previously been quite happy with Vittoria ultralight, when I could get them on the cheap!

andymiller wrote:......If you want to save money get 3 good-quality tubes (one for the spare to carry with you) and a puncture repair kit -cheaper in the long run.

One spare tube!
I always carry two spare tubes,except In winter when it's cold and or wet I carry three and a PRK

morzov wrote:There seems to be quite a variety of prices for inner tubes and just wondered if anyone had a good recommendation for reasonably priced and good quality tubes. I'm mainly interested in 26in schrader and 700x25 presta.

Decathlon. They have 26" and 19-25 700c tubes at £2.99 a pair.

I also use the Decathlon tubes and have found them to be very serviceable.

andymiller wrote:IME lighter weight tubes have a shorter life. I used to use Specialized lightweight tubes. After a while I would start to get weird punctures - ie with no obvious cause. Swapping to a combination of Michelin and Schwalbe I've had much better reliability. A lightweight tube might be fine if you really want to save weight, but otherwise go for a mid-weight.

If you want to save money get 3 good-quality tubes (one for the spare to carry with you) and a puncture repair kit -cheaper in the long run.

I have had that with the Specialised tubes as well. I caught one once and it was the valve separating from the tube, when deflated you could push the valve and see for about 60 degrees of its circumference into the tube but when you popped the valve back into place you could inflate it and it sealed up to normal pressures used in the tyres. I no longer get these sorts of problems, I notice the tubes are now made in China instead of Taiwan where they used to come from or it could just be that I am now very careful how I treat the tubes.

I can see peoples point about more robust heavy tubes, they also need inflating less often.
In practice the only failings I have had with lightweight tubes are Specialised separating at the valves and the winder snapping off a brand new Vittoria. (I had a lot of trouble with Schwalbe valves unscrewing before I learned how to deal with them. If the valve winder had broken on the Schwalbe, I could have replaced it, I had to throw the Vittoria away.)

The Geax tubes are good and cheap, I also suspect they are the Vittorias under a different name.

meic wrote:I had a lot of trouble with Schwalbe valves unscrewing before I learned how to deal with them.

Come on tell us how to deal with them - others may have the same problem.

At this point I s'pose it's worth mentioning a the 25mm square of old innertube with a hole in the centre,pushed over the valve stem and snugged upto the tube to protect the valve seat