New thread jumping off my not-so-happy experience with TPU. For fun and science I ordered a few Vittoria latex tubes in the 622 x 30-38 size, which I put in the 622-32 Rene Herse extra light tires on my Rivendell Road. The tires are new this year, with 500 miles on them when I installed the tubes. The rims are narrow, so the tires measure around 30mm on them. The tubes fit okay, but I wouldn't try to stuff them into any smaller tires. At ~105 grams, they weigh exactly the same as the Schwalbe light tubes they replaced. They come well-talc'd and feel pretty substantial - not fragile at all, especially compared to TPU. Installation was quick and easy. I inflated the tires to 60psi, then didn't ride the bike for a few days. At that point, on a pinch test, the tires were still overinflated. A few days later they were down enough that I brought them back up to 40psi, where I normally ride those tires. The rate of air loss is no big deal to me.
So, how's the ride? I try to be skeptical about squishy things like "road feel", but the difference these tubes make is on a par with the difference that the tires themselves made. In other words, I am utterly charmed. I've done about 100 miles on them over a variety of roads, but no gravel. Bouncing over rough road surfaces and standing to accelerate, there is a sense of energy being returned that I've never felt before, even on Paris-Roubaix tubulars back in the day. (Of course, I probably pumped those to 100psi...) A few times I thought "oh no, I'm losing air", and my riding buddy thought so, too, but nope, they're just that supple. I'm going to increase the pressure to 45 and see how that feels. No real test of durability so far, but given how many flats I've had so far this year, 100 miles without a flat is pretty good. And, no experience with patching, yet. I'm happy enough that I've ordered a bunch more. Jenson USA had the 622-30-38 ones for $15.99, which seems like a steal compared to TPU. I also ordered directly from Vittoria some 26x1.7-2.3 tubes for my 584-48 tires. 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/eee99c53-d2a6-4dbb-8fad-64966df64fa2n%40googlegroups.com.
