Lightweight tubes?
 

Do you think they're better/faster?
Do you think they pucture more often?
Your thoughts?

Do you mean latex, lightweight butyl, or both??

Avoid them unless you are racing

At my LBS, you have your choice of standard, lightweight, ultralight, and latex....I generally get the lightweight ones. I agree ultralight or latex should be avoided unless these are in race-only tires. And if that's the case you may want to be riding sewups anyway.

how much weight are you really going to save on tubes? some of you guys and your weight issues... worse than a bunch of high school girls...

Yeah, but it's ROTATING WEIGHT! That's what matters most, right?

Doesn't make much difference with flats. You're talking about the minimal difference after something cuts through the tire. If lighter tubes improves rolling resistence and reduces weight, why not?

Do you talk this way with people you work with?

If you're really worried about inertia/rolling resistance, ride sew-ups (tubulars).

Why avoid them unless racing?

in my line of work, people don't fret over such trivial matters... so, no.

They leak air faster and puncture easier. But I like latex tubes for my flat kit because they fold up smaller so I can fit two in my small saddle bag, where I can only fit one of my regular butyl tubes. I only use 'em to finish a ride, then I patch up the regular tube and put the latex back in the bag.

The latex ones leak air faster, sure, but I don't think they pucture any easier unless you're clumsy when you fit them. If some glass or a thorn can get through a kevlar beaded tyre it's not going to care what the tube is made of, lightweight or not is not going to make any difference to the puncture happening.

Hey, never mind. You're right - it's trivial.

But this isn't work, it's the interwebz. So who cares?

Some clincher/latex combos have lower rolling resistance than nearly all sew-ups.

Now that is an interesting idea.
On long rides with my touring bike, I carry a rolled up Pasela TG as a spare because it packs much smaller than the Marathon Supremes on the bike.
I'd never thought about extending that idea to the tubes.

It took me way too long to come up with that solution. For a while it seemed that I was either stuck with only a single spare tube in my small bag, or using my overly large bag to carry 2 tubes and having everything rattling around in there because of the abundance of space. Until one day I happened to notice one of the guys at the LBS unrolling a latex tube and I noticed how thin and squishy it was. It had occurred to me that I could just buy an in between-sized bag, but that is kind of a silly problem to have to throw extra money at.

Plus carrying a spare tube is lots less weight than a spare tire

I personally haven't found much difference in flats between varying weights, but the lightweight ones fold up smaller to fit in my seat bag.


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Exactly. Most stuff that's made it through the tire casing will easily deal with your tube next, whether it's standard, light, or ultralight, unless you've got the mondo-thick "thorn-proof" variety.

I usually opt for the lightweight ones on my daily-driver road bike, and the ultralight butyl (Continental SuperSonic) on my raceday bike. I'd use the SuperSonics for daily use but (1) they're really expensive, and (2) the thinner rubber IS more difficult to patch, and unfortunately my routes have more than their fair share of broken glass.

Performance-wise, I do think the ultralight butyl tubes are worth it for raceday. My club insisted that I race in the Masters state RR championship, instead of just marshalling, so after dangling a 3-man break in front of the peleton for 25 miles, I ended up outsprinting the last survivor by less than half a wheel. He was coming by, but not fast enough.

Tubulars? Oh sure, if I owned a set of Zipp 202s, that would've been a great wheel for the race. Want! Cannot afford. Superlight tubes, yeah I can afford those.

just ordered some 50g performance brand tubes to try ill let you know how they work out. i should have them in the next day or 2

I don't get the obsession with tubulars.

Latex tubes can save 5w @ each wheel, so that's 10 watt total savings if you use latex tubes compared to butyl (this was "scientifically" tested, it can vary).

Also, there's some very nice clincher tyres that have extremely low rolling resistance.

I ride with very thin tubes in the front, med in the back. I had problems in the back using the 45g tubes.

In my opinion and experience, tubulars corner much better, making them ideal for crits. They seem to be rounder and more uniform, which would explain why I seem to experience a smoother transition from upright to leaning into a turn. I recently switched to Open Corsas to see if they really do act like tubulars, and they do. I can't tell the difference between butyl and latex tubes in them, though.

ultralight tubes in my saddlebag, because they pack much smaller.

Really??? Still spreading this line.... Your math skills are scarier than this fantasy you keep having.
Since you insist that advertisement counts as science.
Let me refresh your memory:

"..in the lab should experience latex resulting in a reduction of rolling resistance from 1.4-5.6w. Rolling resistance should be higher on the road, and thus the savings greater. The cost of rolling resistance on the road could be 50w or more for a 200-pound person. Latex tubes can reduce that cost by 10-20%. "

10% of 50W is 5W, 20% of 50W is 10W === how did you get 20W out of that math, you should at very best use low end as real.

Next:

"We pumped up the tires and rode. We didn't notice the tubes making a performance difference, ... saving even 5w would be hard to measure on the road."

I just tried the Challenger latex tubes. They are in the low 60s gram range. I also put 105 psi in the front tire and 110 in the back. I didn't have any trouble for 350 to 400 miles. Then, as an experiment, I decided to go back to the 120 psi I had been using in both tires. The wheels did seem faster, but in less than a mile I heard a big bang; the tube was blown outside the tire (only the valve stem was inside the tire). So, I am not sure what I will try next. Maybe a lite butyl tube. Maybe stick with the latex but just stay around 100 to 110 psi. The latex tubes do leak faster than butyl tubes, but that did not bother me. I ride almost every day and I could get two rides out of an air job. Was this just a freak accident. If you use latex tubes, do you inflate to 120 psi without having any regular problems?

It's not the tube's job to keep the tire on the rim, so the most likely answer is that you had the tube trapped between the tire bead and the rim, and it eventually heaved the bead overboard. Alternately, you may have a marginal fit between your individual tire and rim. In any case, we'd all be in serious danger if it were our inner tubes' job to keep the tires from blowing off the rim, so if you liked the tubes, maybe try again. After installing, peek between the rim and tire bead all the way around to ensure that the tube's not under the bead at all.

I only ever use latex tubes. They are lighter, take less space and seem to roll smoother than butyl tubes. Some people think they are difficult to install and lose air quickly. The first one depends highly on the skills of the person installing them. The second, I inflate my tires before every ride anyway so thats not a problem for me. I'm never going back to Butyl again...

It's just a myth that they puncture easier! Whatever goes through your tire will puncture your tube, doesn't matter if its butyl or latex, lightweight or thick.