Ilbiker

Even with a number pinned to my top, I've decided to stick with butyl. Hard to be competitive with a flat and everyone else is rolling by. Added reliability for tubes and tires trumps ultimate performance for me. I'm just not at that level of performance physically or bike wise. I am competitive, so I'm better off giving myself the best chance to stay rolling and running.

gregf83 

Not sure why you consider butyl more reliable. Latex is less prone to pinch flats so should be more reliable.

PepeM

True. I am not sure where you get the idea that latex tubes are more likely to flat though.

Silvercivic27

Latex more prone to pinch in general because the latex tube finds its way into nooks and crannies easier. Less prone to puncture from road debris. More prone to fail due to heat from braking and puncture due to pinching caused by rim tape shift or wear, especially with plastic rim tape. Mavic goes as far as to recommend against latex tubes in all of their clinchers. It can be found in all of their user manuals. That may be a little extreme. I've personally called Zipp in the past and was told that it was fine to use latex in their carbon clinchers. If one or two watts per wheel matters that much to you (or if you THINK it matters, because honestly in mass start racing it probably doesn't, but maybe important for a TT or a Tri) go for it. It doesn't matter to me, and I will gladly take the lower cost and increased overall reliability.

gregf83 

That's not what is commonly referred to as a 'pinch' flat which usually occurs when you hit a sharp bump and the tube is compressed between the rim and tire giving a pair of small punctures or 'snake bite'. These are supposed to be less common with latex.

As far as latex finding its way into nooks and crannies I haven't observed any problems but it might just be a function of the type of rim tape on my wheels.

If you're going to run deeper profile wheels or shave your legs you may as well use latex also

Wildwood 

Latex in most of my tubulars.
Butyl in most of my clinchers.

Ilbiker

overall reliability - this matters most to me. I might ask some of my club mates who have way more competitive miles than me - from sprint tri's to full IM, including Kona, what they use and why. Never thought about it until now. Don't think that will sway my decision to stay with butyl. Some of these folks have wheelsets worth more than my bike. I will never be in that category.

Athens80

If 2 to 10 less watts rolling resistance is more important than more tire pumping, AND you're not running wheel and course combinations that overheat your rims, then go with latex. You can probably figure out how to avoid having your rim tape or spoke holes tear a hole in the latex, if you think about it.

If you want to bother as little as possible, or a little performance gain really doesn't matter, go with the cheaper butyl.

For me, I hang on to the group ride a little better because of the latex tubes. I had one problem (flat) once, and I figured out how to not have it happen again.

jamesdak 

Hmmm, I've got both in my bikes but run as much latex as I reasonable can. I ride 5000-8000 miles each year and flat rarely. I can say that I've yet to ever flat on a latex tube and have never had one fail for any other reason. They do seem to ride a little nicer to me so that's worth it. I just try to catch the sales on them from the U.K stores when I can to save cost. In my experience the only negative of them is the higher cost which may bother others. A non-issue for me as is paying the higher cost for GP4000s II tires.

dairyseb

Latex seems to fragile for me, butyl all the way.

jamesdak 

To each their own but if truly curious I'd say give it a try. I really have no issues using them. Nothing special about using them and what I have seen in years of real life use don't match what some other posters are claiming. I will say that I've only used the Vittoria Latex tubes. I've pinch flatted butyl as well as having them split at "seams" on several occasions over the year. And while I don't get many plain punctures the ones I do get have been butyl.

Now it's my understanding the latex is more difficult to patch. I've never had the need so I don't know. I'd have to dig into my logs to figure out for sure but I'm thinking some of my latex tubes in uses are 5 years or so old. I just don't get the "fragile" thoughts if I'm being honest.

Scarbo

There used to be a guy named Bulldog1935 on BF (was banned for some reason); anyway, he had said it was easy to patch latex and he said he'd get this stuff at Home Depot with which to do this (also, involved having old latex tubes to cut up into pieces). I just can't remember what his specific recommendation was!

I have a ton of latex tubes in my garage. I use butyl, I guess, because I've never had issues.

kais01

i actually find it easier to patch latex, you hardly have to sand it before applying solution glue.

on a commuter, supposedly ready to go every morning i prefer butyl. not that you dont have to pump that also once every three weeks or so. it is also long lasting, a bike of mine from 1968 still has one original inner tube.

for race bike and mtb i prefer latex. tire pressure is to be checked before every ride anyway, and i use my compressor for that. i use the only available 26 michelin latex tube on my 29er, no problem with that. used to go tubeless there, and while working fine that really causes extra work, having to take off the tyre and get rid of that dried in goo every six months or so. plus you have problems using the supple light-rolling tyres you really wish for. flats? very few and far inbetween.

the difference between latex and butyl is noticeable, in the club ride you start to outroll the others, on the mtb you get that sensation of effortless rolling over rock gardens and roots that butyl tend to keep away from you.

on my 29plus i use bombolonis without either stans or inner tube, works great. just as with any car tyre.

clincher carbons and heat? dont have them, but would not go for such rims without disc brakes.

PepeM

The current latex tube on one of my wheels has two patches on it. We're talking those small glueless patches. They have yet to fail. I can't imagine how patching a tube would be any easier than it was to patch that one.

rpenmanparker 

Chemist's take on what is easier to patch: The glue isn't really glue, it is latex dissolved in solvent aka rubber cement. The activating chemicals are in the patch. The solvent extracts the chemicals from the patch into the glue layer and makes a bond to the latex in the glue and then between the latex in the glue and the tube. In other words the latex in the glue bridges the patch and the tube making a bond. Butyl rubber is much harder to vulcanize than natural rubber latex, so IMO the latex tube should be easier to fix a patch to. And quicker.

ReneV

Screwing around/trying things out, either for fun, for potential use, or for frame of reference, is the best kind of reason ;-)

Scarbo

I've used latex tubes in the past. I stopped using them a few years ago when I lived in the San Francisco east bay. I used to do all of those climbs there (Mt. Hamilton, Mt. Diablo, etc.). Mt. Diablo, in particular, has a really long descent and I think I remember having a couple of failures on latex on days that were really hot (90-100+ degrees); and the combination of heat buildup through constant braking on long descents produced less than optimal results for me. So, I switched to butyl and have never looked back as they've been completely reliable for me in all conditions. I might take a couple and give them a whirl again. I'm used to pumping my tires up to spec before each ride anyway so that is not really an issue for me.

Sy Reene

For latex tube users, if you carry spare tubes on a ride, are your spares latex too, or go with butyl for the saddlebag?

I'm considering experimenting with latex. As my rims don't have rim tape, that's at least one less consideration I'd have to worry about.

jamesdak 

Well, heck, don't brake! LOL! Kidding!

I have a lot of climbs locally that I do a lot. But they also allow for pretty much brakeless descending at speed into the 50 mph range. Very little worry of heating things up. That said. I wonder what I was running in years past when I literally smoked the brakes on a descent in the Tour De Park City. Same turn got me two years in a row....

Nothing blew then, of course I was using allow rims too.

Sy Reene

How tolerant are latex tubes also of being specced narrower than the tire? Not much out there for 25mm tires in latex. Michelin seems to only have a 22/23c width -- which curiously is quite a narrow band for the spec rating? Vittoria has 19-24s or 25/28s but they only seem to sell LV versions (51mm or so)?

Scarbo

I love riding in Utah. You guys have great roads and highways there that aren't always packed with cars like they are here in California.

You're right--it all depends on the type of descent. On a long sweeper you would not worry as much about heat buildup in your wheels. The descents in the SF bay area and the Sierra foothills, more often than not, tend to be very steep and technical and require more braking.

PepeM

I carry butyl tubes as spares. Mostly because I had a few laying about so that's what I put in the saddle bag. I hardly ever get punctures.

I run the Vittoria 19-24s in all of my tires, from 23s to 28s. Haven't tried on anything wider.

Wested

I just load up on Nashbar ultralight butyl tubes:

Nashbar Lite Presta Tube - 48mm

About the same weight as latex, and I don't see any noticeable difference in puncture resistance between these and traditional butyl tubes that weigh 2x.

rpenmanparker 

Same as Performance.

joejack951

All this talk about overheating brakes has me shocked...SHOCKED...after reading countless disc vs. rim brake threads where overheating brakes never happens.

To stay on topic, I never used latex tubes until recently when I decided to give tubular tires a try and latex tubes came in my Vittoria tires. Having gotten very used to pumping once a week with butyl it still surprises me to find ~20 psi in my tires the day after I pumped them to 80-90 psi but it is hardly an issue. I keep PR'ing downhill segments which I can't help but feel has something to do with the tires/tubes. The ride sure is nice. I would have never thought just swapping tires could take so much 'sting' out of grooved pavement (prepped for repaving) but on a recent ride I got to experience just that. I still felt the grooves but they didn't slow me down anywhere near the amount they usually do.