Originally Posted by laterider

for the tube stem failures - how are your rim strips looking?? I had one set that the hole was so big it looked like they were sized for schraders!! velox strips are real nice if you can find them, they have a pretty small hole in them to begin with and I think that cuts down on tube to metal rim contact. I'm using specialized and performance branded tubes, I had a few stem failures with my first set of specialized tubes, but I was turning down the nut on the stem too hard, now I just keep it barely even finger tight, just to keep the valve from being pushed into the rim when I attach a pump.