I've had five flats in two weeks on both wheels. The last flat was from glass but the other ones have been along the tube seams and they have all been on forte tubes from performance that were on sale. So does the brand of tube or age of it mater? Or and I just having a string of bad luck...

I'm sure some brands are better than others, but I've also just had a bad batch of tubes. I had two that were cracked and defective, but bought others from the same brand that were fine.

I have Forte tubes on my ride and not one flat in over 1400 miles and counting. Are the punctures at the same spot, relatively? Have you verified that nothing is sticking in through the tires or that the tires don't have wires or what not poking the tubes to flatten them? Are you making sure to not pinch the tube between the rim and tire when mounting and inflating?

You could also have run into a bad batch but I have not had any issues with my tubes from Performance.

I would be curious to see a study comparing each different brand of tubes. Could/would be interesting.

Michellin Airstop Butyl - they're pretty stout and stand up to abuse well.

I've been using SunLite bicycle tubes that are sold at my favorite LBS these last ~5 years (and of course have used them on repair jobs when I worked there). The only problem I had was a few years ago, a latent defect I suppose... the rubber portion of the schrader valve between cap threads and rim ballooned and blew after a few hundred miles.

I've used three our for different brands at least, and never had that problem. I'm guessing bad batch of tubes.

My favorites are Sunlite, mostly because I can pick them up from the local bike coop for $3 or 4 a piece, and the coop has the long stemmed ones, which are nice to have with my deeper Dyad rear rim.

I had a similar problem and found I was buying the "lightweight or racing" style tubes that are lighter and all of them were splitting at the stem. I've made sure I've purchased the "normal" weight tubes and the problem went away.

I've had this exact same problem (with Forte tubes) for the last two weeks. 4 flats in two weeks.

I used to buy Innova thorn resistant tubes because they were thick, but also quite heavy. Lasted 1000 miles before getting punctured. I now use Kenda regular tubes because they had them in the size I needed. Going to get a flat eventually regardless of brand.

I've been using Continental seamless tubes recently. They never, ever split along the seams.

I've used a number of Forte tubes and never had a particular problem with them.

I would highly recommend the Michelin Protek Max tubes. They're a bit heavier than regular tubes, but due to the new tech, they'll get you home even with a substantial puncture and they not as messy as liquid/gel filled tire.

I use Sunlite because they are cheap and available in my size at the LBS. Got my first pinch flat on yesterday's morning commute - hit a rock on the road riding through a construction zone. That might have happened with any tube, I guess. Other than that, no problems for about 500 miles riding so far since replacing my crummy rim tape.

In all the years I've bought tubes, aside from the latex vs. butyl thing, I'd never noticed any differences until a few months ago, when I bought an inexpensive BikesDirect bike. It flatted three times on stock tubes, at which point I onspected them closely and could see irregularities in the rubber, like little pock marks. I replaced both and haven't flatted since,

Long story short, yes, I think there are quality differences between tube manufactures that can result in flats. I don't think it's a widespread issue, though, and you'd probably really have to dig up a weird, cheap, off brand to find the problem.