Anyone using TPU tubes?
 

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I tried the Tubolito on my Moulton Jubilee.

Very bad experience, after a short time, one of the two I bought started to slowly leak. Since its not possible to inflate the Tubolito at a pressure above 1 bar when they aren't mounted in a tire, it was impossible to locate the place where it was leaking.

Some time later the second one started to leak the same way.

I contacted Tubolito who shipped me for free a pair of new Tubolito's.

After some times, one of the two started to leak the same way, also without possibilities to find out where it leaked.

The last one had eventually a real puncture that I repaired with the special patch sold by Tubolito. But after some times this patch begin to leak. This problem of the special patch that do not remain air tight was solved, Tubolito has now another type of patch that seems reliable.

From what I read, it seems that the type of leakage I experienced come from problems at the seat of the valve, were the valve is attached to the tube. The vlave which has a plastic body seems also fragile, many users had problems with it.

I read many tests of several brands of TPU tubes, it seems that the Revoloop are better?

If it is for your All-Packa, Revoloop has tubes for ETRTO406 wheels, other brands like Schwalbe, Pirelli... have only TPU tubes for bigger wheel sizes.

The main benefit of TPU tubes is a lower rolling resistance, a lower weight and a smaller packed size (interesting for people carrying several spare tubes), definitely not puncture resistance.

Mine's the other way. I got a set of Tubolitos for free,the rear had a hole in it. Another mechanic friend loves them,so I used his patch kit,and I've been running them in my commuter S6 for like 4 months with no probs. They can be a pain to put in,but I've yet to pinch one. They def hold air better,I went from putting air in my tires every 2-3 days to once a week. They're also stupid light,which can help offset heavy tires,and pack smaller than regular tubes. I'm a fan,we haven't had any issues with them in the P and T lines.

Quote from Jipe: "This problem of the special patch that do not remain air tight was solved, Tubolito has now another type of patch that seems reliable." end quote.

I had trouble making repairs. The patches only stayed airtight for a very short time on two occasions. After the first failure I took special care with cleaning but it seemed to make no difference. I don't know if I have the new improved kit or not. The patches in my repair kit are simply small pieces of the same TPU material that the tubes are made from together with Rema Tip Top Camplast cement and some alcohol cleaning wipes. Is this the new or the old kit?
After the above failures I switched to a tubeless set up and have covered about 2000 miles over a period of two years without any flats. I carry a Tubolito as back up but have never needed it so far.
Also for me, the 30 minute waiting time before inflating after a repair is too long. When riding with Butyl tubes I frequently only carry a patch kit because the repaired tubes can be inflated within a few minutes of fixing the patch, so the interruption to my ride is tolerable.

yes, tubolitos: feels great when riding however, when it comes to punctures, they are bad. You need specific TPU glue and patches which cure in 30min rather than the classic 1 to 2 minutes for butyl. I got 3 punctures in under 1 kilometer once and swapped to tubeless... would I use TPU tube for long ride or off road ride, nopes; butul or tubeless is much much more practical...

but I fitted some tpu "ridenow" tube on the minivelo last month because my 406 wheels are not tubeless compatible and when race 10miles TTs, performance is more important and should puncture happen, 5k walk max it is...

I've been using them for a couple of years and no problems at all. I've had several punctures and the patch kit works great.

That's the new repair kit.

The one I had, the first type was auto-adhesive, no separate glue.

I am using Ridenow Aliexpress brand TPU tubes for my folder and "regular" bike and it works great. Need to inflate tubes more often though.

Jus' sayin'.

Yep, by inflating more often Ive also meant once a week.

I found that I got more puncture incidents over the year after switching to them. (on both road bikes and folding bikes)
Patches are useless, so the safest bet is to carry a spare or two.
It does seem that not going for high pressures seem to make the TPU last longer.

Pros : Weight; Compliance
Cons : puncture issues (various from puncture resistance, to slow leaks to valve are failure)

+1, TPU weight less, roll better and are much more compact and much easier to carry as spare tubes..

But have a higher probability of puncture and other leakage.

And in case of puncture or leakage, due to the fact that they cannot be inflated outside of the tire and the special patches they require, difficult or impossible to repair (on the 4 Tubolito I had, 3 of them had slow leakage and it was impossible to find out where they leaked).

Another drawback is that they are very thin, easily damaged during the mounting, therefore not the best spare tube for long distance travel.

Currently, the main market for TPU is race road bikes where the TPU are competitors of the tubeless tires or spare tubes.

And Latex tube.

Many road cyclists carry spare TPU inner tubes, for long-distance racing in case of a tire cut or failure with tubeless systems. These options are light and compact, making them easy to pack.

I use my 650b tubilito as a backup; it serves as a "get me home" solution and, honestly, feels like a lucky charm. It’s like a multitool—you only need to use them on the day you forget to bring them with you.

The difference with latex tube is that TPU hold pressure much better.

The drawback of this lower weight of TPU due to very thin walls is that these tubes are fragile and mounting must carefully be done to avoid to damage the tube when the tube is inserted into the tire and inflated for the first time.

Tubolito has now thicker walls, heavier TPU tubes aimed at cargo bikes, I wonder about their puncture resistance? The other issues of Tubolito remain: fragile plastic valve, air tightness of the assembly of the valve on the tube.

For real? What happens iif you try?

Yes, for real and its specified by all brands of TPU tubes.

The TPU material is not elastic, if its inflated above about 1 bar outside a tire = without a "casing" that prevent it to become too large, it behaves more or less like a bubblegum, it become larger and larger with its walls becoming thinner an thinner until it explode... like a bubblegum!

And once enlarged, it doesn't come back to its original size.

May I ask you why you want to use TPU tubes? Is it to save weight, have very small packing spare tubes, have a lower rolling resistance...?

As already written, from what i read, the Revoloop have a better appraisal than the Tubolito and they exists in ETRTO406 for wide tires (due to the lack of elasticity of the TPU material, TPU tube width must closely match the tire width).
For stronger TPU, Tubolito has cargo TPU tubes also available for wide ETRTO406 tires (as used on many front wheel cargo bikes). But I never any review of those cargo tubolito's

Interesting!

Yes, yes, and yes.

I may try the cargo tubolitos - might be a good compromise between weight savings and durability.

Explodes easily and usually some areas over inflate compared to other parts of the tube and result in a weakened tube wall for that area.
Its still possible to lightly inflate one, try to find the leak and patch it, and then comes the other problem that the TPU material itself does not allow most adhesives to adhere well to it.

I am in the process of trying out heavier TPU tubes and seeing how they are, if I still get more punctures over this year, likely I just go back to a good butyl

they pop... yes, I tried

I have heard many good things about TPU and now a few caveats. Price has been holding me back but now I think I will hold off a little longer and see if some of the bugs can be worked out. I am sure there are other formulations of TPU tubes that could accommodate some of their problems. Certainly the TPU patch needs work...

I decided against them on my newest recently acquired C&V bike because it has single wall rims.

I'd decide against them on a folder because any hardware store or Walmart is very likely to have a patch kit and fairly likely to have a tube in 12-16-20 inch sizes

Tubolito claims that "Tubo-Cargo is three times as robust as a standard butyl tube and therefore your ideal ideal companion in the urban jungle.".

But they also claim that all their tubes are more puncture resistant than butyl tubes which was up to now never demonstrated, all testers said that over a long time, they had in average more punctures with Tubolito's.

Now what does robust mean (they do not say 3 times more puncture resistant)?

For a cargo bike, who cares about saving 100 or 200g for bikes that weight typically between 35 and 50kg, who cares about a lower rolling resistance for cargo bikes that have for most of then an electric assist? On my Tern GSD, I mounted Continental Hermetic Plus tubes, these are heavier tubes but very strong with a better puncture resistance.

So the puncture resistance is actually the only useful features and its very important: nobody wants to have to repair a flat tire on the side of the road with his children's in or on the cargo bike!

P.S. I just discovered that Schwalbe has also cargo Aerothan TPU tubes.

My experiences with TPU tubes hasn’t been what the sellers said. I’ve had more flats than on butyl tubes. Started with the cheap ones, moved on to Schwalbe aerothans, they flatted and one of the stem’s failed, the connection holding it to the tube. Then went with some Nano’s from Auz. Even with E. Dubied sealant, flattened on both, and the sealant didn’t hold. Finally to E. Dubied, and they have suffered flats. The Aerothan patch kit worked, as did the E. Dubied. Finally a patch failed, and my experience was if you remove the old patch a new one won’t stick on the used surface, even with a thorough alcohol cleaning. Running out of patches, ordered some of Rene Herse, 2 patch kits. I think that R Herse’s tubes, sealant and patches are made by E Dubied. The Herse patches were smaller and couldn’t be removed from the backing w/o the back covered in paper. Impossible to remove without contaminating the sticky side. Wrote to Herse, and received no response, lousy customer service. So if you don’t flat they are an improvement over butyl, but here in OK, you do flat, and TPU more than butyl, so I think they are being oversold. Waiting on a Pirelli patch kit that uses Rema Camplast cement, and will cut up a donor tube for patches.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b3fc411978.jpg

I am very curious to have your feedback about these cargo tubes.

Did you check the weight to see if its what Tubolito announced?