I just received a box of tubes that I ordered from Rene Herse, so here's my 1-ride review.
Bike and rider weight is about 70kg/150lbs. First impression ... they are crazy small and light. Clear plastic tubes with shiny metal valve stems and "Rene Herse blue" caps - nice touch! Unfolding them they seem fragile, especially the valve stem junction. I ordered some 700x20-32 and 650x45-68. I installed the 700c tubes on my Waterford, which has 32mm Stampede Pass EL tires on DT TK-540 rims with Velox rim tape. The rear tire is fairly new and had a bit over 500km on it. It had been reinstalled a few times (March is a bad time for flats in WI!). The front tire is a year old, probably has 3-4000km on it. Both tires come off the rim and go back on without tire levers. The tubes are a tight fit on the rim and have to be stretched a bit to get around the rim. The tires popped right back on, and I inflated to 60 psi to seat the beads, then backed off to 45psi. On the second wheel the tube/stem interface immediately cracked and I had to grab a 3rd tube. I don't know if that was a bad tube or user error. No tire lever, but it's possible I didn't push the stem up into the tire enough to ensure the tube wasn't trapped by the bead. Given how fragile they feel, it seems it won't take much to cause that to happen. First subjective observation - I can really feel the weight reduction handling the wheels. Noticeably less inertia around the perimeter. First ride was 100km of road riding across the north side of Milwaukee (urban riding) through the western suburbs and exurbs to some rural roads around Holy Hill. At 900m of climbing, it's a pretty hilly ride but not crazy. Some of the road surfaces are beautiful, freshly paved goodness. Others are, well, lunar. I often take my Breadwinner out there for its 48mm tires. Immediate second subjective observation is that the tires sound different. There's a "whoosh whoosh" that sounds like nice tubulars. Third subjective observation is that the bumps feel and sound different, more "thwip thwhip" than "thump thump". Third subjective observation is that it FEELS like the tires return more energy from deflection, whether from bumps or, especially, when swerving suddenly to avoid an obstacle or making a quick acceleration. I have no idea if there really is less hysteresis loss, but it feels that way. No flats today, but clear dry roads, even crossing the north side of the city, aren't usually an issue. So, I very much like the lightness and the feel of them, and the light blue stem caps are a nice touch that will look good on most of my bikes. I'm concerned about the fragility of the valve stem interface. No data or anecdotes, yet, on durability and ease of repair. Ted Durant Milwaukee WI USA -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/46d1fcbb-a080-4b76-a32f-461658716273n%40googlegroups.com.
