Best innertubes?
 

Just wondering if anyone had experience with different brands of innertubes? Did you find one that is thicker and even more puncture resistant than others you've tried? I'm specifically using bikes that are between 23mm - 32mm size.

Good quality tubes from a known quantity and quality are the ones to go with, Continental, Schwalbe, Q/Teravail, Specialized, Bontrager...all good quality and thicker tubes are the worst. You want normal butyl tubes. Thicker tires are fine those don't need to stretch but tubes need to stretch and thicker tubes don't really stretch. If you are getting punctures get more puncture protectant tires and make sure you are keeping your tires at the proper pressure and that will help greatly with stopping flats.

Thicker tubes are often the cheap ones - they need to be thick because they use lower quality materials. It's not really the tube's job to resist punctures anyway; it's there to hold the air in while the tyre does everything else. You can get better quality extra thick tubes sold for downhill mtb, their purpose is to resist snakebite punctures, but in normal use you can just use sufficient pressure that snakebites are unlikely. If you're having a specific problem with punctures it could be that a different tyre, or even just different inflation pressure, would perform better.

It's a toss up. I haven't had any issues with cheap tubes that I have not also had with better tubes such as Continentals. The better tubes are lighter by maybe one ounce. I think with either, people just have a rash of flats because of installation errors and other things and then of course we want to blame the tubes.

I agree and also remember that even when getting tubes or tiers from these suppliers you still need to inspect them closely. Partially inflate the tubes and give um a quick squeeze and stretch for thickness. Then do a close inspection of the area around the valves. Same with tiers. Check the thickness and quality of the bead on tiers. Yep, even suppliers with excellent reputations have a few lemons every now and then.

And of course ya never know when a knockoff is going to sneak in...

I will jump in here and tout the Schwalbe tubes. I work in a bike shop and have serviced quite a few bike over the last 13 years. My wife and are also avid long distance tourer. Lst year we rode from NE Ohio to Tacoma, Washington and I switched our tubes to Schwalbe. I was very impressed with the way they held pressure for weeks at a time without having to be topped off. Never had tu es like this before. BTW all our tires are Schwalbe.
So 2800 miles of riding and only 1 slow leak. Had to replace a tube in Great Falls, Montana.

I suggest thinking instead about the outside of a wire protecting the copper on the inside, or an outsole and and insole on a shoe. Two different layers for two different jobs.

Lemons can happen but if you are buying from authorized sellers and distributors the problems of knockoffs is pretty much nil. Anything is possible but extremely less likely. If you buy them from random sources then the chances are high you can get a knockoff or a cheap tube or whatever.

You should always be inflating your tubes anyway if you are putting tubes in uninflated you are going to have more problems. I think in all the tubes I have installed I don't think I have examined a new tube from a known quantity and quality and rarely have had an issue and usually that issue is because someone hasn't checked the tire or there was an issue on the rim. I have had a few tubes that have failed at the seam or the valve but it is truly a few.

Tubes just are not puncture resistant. Others have made the point but by the time you’re relying on the tube, it’s too late.

Don't forget Michelin. I've had great luck over decades using this brand. And as others have pointed out, unless you are talking about the super-thick thorn-resistant tubes, inner tubes will do nothing to prevent flats.

True. That's why I always buy the cheapest tubes, but only from Universal Cycles, Jenson USA, Bike Tires Direct, or any trustworthy bike parts distributor. I don't care about the heavier weight of cheap tubes, and their reliability has been at least equal to that of the tubes I've bought over the decades from Schwalbe, Continental, Michelin, etc.

For me, the best inner tubes are TPU…..lighter in weight and lower rolling resistance than butyl and with about the same resistance to punctures. As others have already stated, though, the role of puncture resistance is largely due to the tire.

An inner tube is nothing other than an airtight bladder confined by the tire and rim. Back when I worked in a bike shop, we had a customer who installed new inner tubes every year. During that time, I never had to buy inner tubes. His were just fine for many more years on my bike
I seldom experience flat tires. It has been years since I had to replace an inner tube out on the road. In fact, the last time I repaired a flat on the road, it was another person's bike.
The only time I had a rash of flats, I was using schwalbe lightweight inner tubes which I had purchased from the distributor I was working for at the time. These butyl inner tubes only weighed 50 grams, so I wasn't really surprised. After a few flats, I mostly used them as spares in case I had a puncture during a ride since they took up about as much space in my bag as one of the current TPU inner tubes. I used up the last one fixing a flat for a guy I met out on the road. I told him that what he should do was to learn how to fix a flat himself and take along what was needed to do that. HE didn't even have a pump, much less a spare inner tube. He insisted on paying me even though all I wanted was for him to do the same for another person. I am a big believer on paying forward

No experience with standard Schwalbe tubes - but do not recommend the Schwalbe Superlight butyl tubes - specifically SV18 which is listed for 28 - 42 mm size tires but will fail if used in a tire size > 38 mm

I personally don't think that tube thickness has much, if anything, to do with puncture resistance. Anything that goes through the tire is going to puncture the tube. At least that's my experience. Lightweight tubes haven't caused me any more punctures on my road bike than regular weight tubes.

Latex tubes are purportedly better at resisting punctures because they are very elastic, so despite their thinness they can stretch around foreign objects instead of being penetrated by them. But they do lose air quite rapidly anyway because they're significantly more permeable than butyl.

I once noticed what looked like a push pin with a whitish teardrop-shaped head sticking in my tubular tire. I tried to pull it out and then realized it was the latex tube poking out of a cut in the tire carcass.

The weak link seems to be the point where the valve stem is attached to the tube. That has been my experience with house-brand tubes and what I read from others here with TPU tubes. Continentals have been very good to me.

I had been using tubeless tires for years (10) then I reverted back to tubes to avoid the cleaning of the residue from the rims and tires apart from the rim corrosion problems during the early days.
Furthermore, I used tubeless because I did a few races and didn't have support. I had less flats with tubeless.
Also fixing a flat during a brevet at night, in the cold or in the rain was terrible.
Since I don't race anymore or do long brevets I have gone back tubes.
My son recommended Tubolito. He hadn't had a flat in a year using them. I flatted on the 1st ride. Its coincidence.
I replaced the Tubolito with Schwalbe aerothan and a Vittoria latex. The latex loses air inbetween rides and eventually got a unrepairable hole by the base of the valve that could not be fixed.
I rode with the Aerothan for a year before getting a flat. Patched it with a glueless Parktool patch and it is holding up well. In fact, the glueless patches seen to stick better on an aerothan tube than buytl.
I cannot say for sure that the ride is softer with these inner tubes, but they are definetely lighter.
Flatting depends on the tire mostly.
The flatting resistance of the tires has improved alot in recent years.
I am getting much less flats than in the past even though the roads are worst.

I have settled on Continental Lite tubes as giving me the best result overall in ride, minimal flats etc

I probably will try TPU again at some point in the future....my first attempt was not a good experience

I firmly believe that flats are dependent on the Karma and the flat tire gremlins. I have bad luck with Vittoria Corsa graphene tires and great luck conti 5000.... other have the opposite experience

I generally run Kenda tubes in my clinchers. They are a decent compromise between cheap and dependable. I have found that with super-cheap tubes, they have cheap valves that tend to leak more over time, and the pintles tend to bend easily.

Many years ago I used Vittoria super light tubes, but they stopped making/selling them.

Bell tubes. Happy with them. I've had half a dozen Rema Tip Tops on one of them, and it still works without a loss of air. It could do a dozen Tip Tops; I am confident about that.

Having said that, ever since I moved on to and started riding on Continental Ride Tours on two of my road bikes about one and a half year ago, I have yet to patch a tube. :D OTOH, Rema feels neglected. :(

This is the truth.

I'm commuting on GP 5000 tires, probably loading them with too much weight, so I've had a few too many flats on the rear, but that's my fault.

I was a bike shop mechanic and have probably fixed thousands of flats. Maybe there are better tubes than others, but I haven't noticed. I use cheap tubes, whatever is available. Maybe it's a bad move. Hey maybe that's why my Continental tire gets a lot of flats. But no, probably not. As someone said, the most common defect is where the valve stem separates from the tube.

Yea. I get about a flat a year, or less. That's one per 5000 miles, which is about how often I change my tires.

The last 2: ran over a sharp sheet metal screw on a busy road. Second was a thin wire that I am told is from car tires. Either shed or in recycled tires used in road paving. Was on a new road. Neither required a new tire.

That said, I am sure that I will have a flat soon, probably today, just before dark.

I had a pair of Schwalbe AV7C 20", with the C denoting the Lite version in 406x47 marathon tires which split along the seams. The first one after a month and the second one about 1 year. I also had another pair of the same model with the valve not seating properly and would slow leak after a pump if I didn't push the valve once after removing the nozzle of the pump.

But haven't had problems with the regular ones.