mattscq

Is it just me or are these things super fragile? I've never really gotten flats before (I had a Brompton with stock wheels until I got a road bike outfitted with GP4000s) and I suppose I've just been pretty lucky since I ride mostly on city and suburban streets. One time I even got lost in a forest and ended up doing these busted up asphalt paths and light gravel and was fine.

Then I finally decided to try the Conti Supersonic tubes (butyl but 50gs each and not even that much more expensive!) when I was installing GP5000s and boom, I got a flat within a few days. I swapped out the tube and a couple of weeks later, another random flat.

When inspecting the flat tubes, the holes punctures are super tiny pin pricks and I couldn't feel any debris in the tire and it's not on the rim side either. I'm just going to swap in regular Conti race tubes whenever the next one flats but I'm wondering if anybody also has had similar experiences with the ultra light/think Supersonics?

I suppose one should know better but it was worth the try!

Branko D

In my experience, once installed right they work fine for about 3000km on average after which they, well, start leaking with no sign of outside puncture. There's not much material there, easy to wear through, but they do work absolutely fine once installed right.

However, they are a right pain to install right and I destroyed some installing them. Pinch them a slight bit struggling with tire levers in a hard to get on tire, and it's gone. I had similar issues installing super thin Latex tubes, though. I suspect this happened to you.

Continental race lights at 75gr or so are much more sturdy.

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