Originally Posted by
mkatz
But Tubelito represents advancing technology... and that must always be seen as being good... isn't it?
truthfully, I am somewhat concerned about relying onTubelito tubes for the bike I've ordered, but might as well try them.
Actually, the Tubolito aren't bad. They have advantages: much smaller to carry them, much less weight.
But some claims aren't true: they aren't puncture proof as claimed.
And there were problems (hopefully some problems are fixed:
- reliability (leaks at the valve/inner tube welding, hopefully solved. They must solve it to become a sustainable business, in my case, they sold 2 Tubolito's and had to replace both of them due to welding issues, what cost them a lot of money, replacement innertubes + shipment cost + handling costs).
- puncture repair patches weren't reliable in the long term (hopefully solved).
- identifying were is the leakage for slow leaks. I think this cannot be solved because finding slow leaks require inflating the innertube at high pression and the material used doesn't allow to inflate the Tubolito at high pressure without a tire.
Note that Schwalbe now offer a new innertube that seems similar to Tubolito (haven't tried them because it doesn't exist in the size I need).
The puncture repair issue is important because the Tubolito remain very expensive, replacing a classic inner tube costing 4-5€ at each puncture isn't a major issue, replacing a Tubolito costing 25-30€ is more a problem.