Inner tube sizing question
 

So I'm finally going to buy some inner tubes in bulk this season and have a question/concern. I am riding on a 700 X 23cm rim and I have two options for inner tube size. One is 700 X 18/23 and the other is 700 X 23/25. What are the pros and cons of going with one vs. the other? Does it matter at all whether I go with the slightly smaller or slightly larger option? Thanks in advance for your help.

Doesn't matter.

Just make sure the valve stems are long enought.
They come in different lengths.

http://www.pricepoint.com/detail.htm...9&style_id=345

23/25 if it is meaningful will be thicker, 18 has some expansion, to fill in the volume

but really, it Doesn't matter.

ever blow up a balloon? :twitchy:

I usually go with the thicker of the acceptable options in situations like this, based on the reasoning that I always read on message boards that manufacturers tend to go small to save weight/money. Don't know if that's valid reasoning or not, though . . .

If it were me I'd use the smaller one. Less weight on the outside of your wheel allows you to accelerate easier. As others have said though either is fine.

Thanks everyone for your help. I think I will go with the 23/25's if they are a little thicker. I live and ride in a city and I'm averaging a flat every 80 miles or so (about 1 every 5 days). So, every little bit of extra rubber that could help prevent another flat...:)

If you get something in the tire it'll work it's way through sooner or later. So likely you'll still average the same number of flats. However the bigger size will not need to stretch to fit your tire so any hole it gets will tend to remain smaller and leak slower. So the odd time you get one close to home or to your destination you may be able to just pump it up once or twice and sprint home and change it there instead of having it go flat in a block or two like would happen with the smaller tube stretched to fit the tire.

The 23-28 tube will be a little "fatter" when deflated so a little extra care will be needed to avoid trapping it under the bead when mounting the tire. But all in all the 23-25 ones is what I'd go for.

If you really want to avoid or reduce your flat frequency swap the tires over to ones with the kevlar or other style of flat resistant belting. In the past I've used the Pasela TG and Tserv tires from Panaracer and they really do work. Flat frequency with those tires was somewhere around a tenth or less the frequency of the other tires. In fact I'm pretty sure that with the Tservs that I went for 5 years with no flat at all where on my other bikes (I had a "fleet" of 4 bikes that shared commutter duty based on how I felt that morning) would seem to get about one a month.