majorminer

This may be one of the things that is warned about in the thread for new posters, but I can't really find anything online to discuss what I'm seeing. I'm putting a new tube in my tire, but there seems to be a few inches that fold over on themselves when I'm slipping the tube into the tire. I've only inflated the tire with a little air to give it some shape, but if I finish putting the other side of the bead of the tire on the rim and inflate the tube, it doesn't seem to me that an excess of almost 4 inches is going to work itself out.

I should probably also point out both the tire and tube say they are 26". The rim is 26x1.50, so I bought tires and tubes that give room on either side of 1.50 for width.

jeepr

Sounds like the wrong size tube to me. It should be roughly the size of the tire.

FBinNY 

When you inflate tubes they stretch getting fatter and longer. If you lower the air pressure, you should be able to stuff it uniformly into the tire with no folding back on itself. Try this with the tire off the rim, and make sure it can spread itself out evenly.

If not it's possible you may have the wrong tube, is, a 700c for a 26" wheel, but that could only happen if the box was mis-marked so it's unlikely.

BTW- don't worry about them stretching in use, that's what they're supposed to do filling all the space within the tire. Tubes are only an air bladder, like inside a football, and it's the tire that determines the size and shape.

majorminer

Ok. So I took it back and exchanged it for another 26" tube. I noticed the difference right away, so I'm thinking it was a product in a wrong box, or it was a return that someone else brought back that they had either stretched out or put in the wrong box.