Originally Posted by
Wilfred Laurier
from above
i have been lucky in this respect
but have also heard many people report this same failure
sadly most of the brand names printed on the tube boxes
are al printed at the same giant factories that make identical tubes for multiple companies
so while you might find another brand of tube that is less prone to this sort of breakage
it might only be a matter of time before they change suppliers and use the same tubes as your xlcs
the other failure than can occur at the valve
is when the stem is worked back and forth by rough handling
during pumping
and the edge of the valve tears out of the rubber
but this can mostly be avoided by careful pumping
and avoiding using mini pumps except in emergencies
and using the little nut on presta valve stems
These tubes have never been pumped up with anything but a floor pump. They were installed by a LBS.
I just noticed that they're 700x23/25C, whereas I think all my other tubes are 700x28/32C. My tires are marked as 700x28C. Did the LBS give me the wrong size tube? Would that cause this sort of failure? The LBS was replacing my wheel, and apparently they accidentally killed my old tube while doing so, so they installed this XLC tube in its place. It did not have a nut on it which disturbed me, but whatever.