Originally Posted by
noglider
Uh, but you wouldn't really use a 559 tube in a 590 tire, would you? If I had to get rolling quickly, I would, but not normally.
Always. There should be far fewer tube sizes available in general, I think. It's so wasteful selling two new tubes to people upgrading from 23mm to 28mm tires or whatever, but that's how you make rent.
e: what I mentioned was a separate issue, I guess. a 26x1.5" tube is a lot better of a fit than a 23mm in anything bigger. You just never use 26x1 3/8 tubes for anything else useful than 3 speeds if you keep em around the shop. I generally would rather give out a 26x1.5 to someone anyway, so that if they had to buy themselves a new tube they would know that the more easily available tube works from reading the old one.
-in response to no glider below