canopus 

So this isn't a bike discussion, may not even be C&V discussion but this has been driving me crazy because I can't remember....
Back in the 80's when I worked at a shop, we got in some polyurethane bicycle tubes for the mountain crowd. I used them in presta form on my cruiser and loved them. They were light, whitish/amber color, and came with a special patch kit in with the tube (different glue and patch required). They didn't stretch as much as a rubber tube but they didn't get flats either. I think back then they were almost triple the price of a rubber tube. I can't remember the name of them and when I picked up the bike I had them in, the original wheels were gone. I have never understood, except for price, why these tube didn't take over the world and why to this day I can not find poly tubes for bikes. Does any one remember these tubes from back then?

I saw a 5 yr old ad pager where schwalbe was trying poly for a tube but haven't seen anything since. If you ask me people would have no issues with a tube that was lighter, held air longer, resisted flats better and only cost a little more than a normal tube and came with a patch kit. Why are we still using rubber?

gugie 

i remember those, vaguely. I think I tried them, once. I can't remember why I stopped.

I've worked in semiconductors for over 30 years, latex gloves are the norm, but many places use polyurethane gloves as either an option, or because of perceived higher cleanliness. I prefer latex, it stretches as my fingers move. Poly gloves don't, and makes it difficult to use tools, type on a keyboard, etc. From that experience, I'm guessing that polyurethane tubes have to match tire size pretty closely since they don't stretch much. It might also be that they stiffen the tire significantly, and detract from the ride quality of a supple tire, but that's conjecture.

thinktubes 

Maybe Latex tubes?

canopus 

No they weren't latex. That's a good color, but these were translucent poly.
gugie is correct in that they have to match the tire size closely, I never noticed a harsher ride quality on the cruiser I was on, but I wasn't a road rider then either.. I was more interested in no more pinched tubes and glass flats. I was running slicks on it though since Phoenix was so flat.

Ex Pres 

There are some really lightweight tubes I've seen on European sales sites, but for some reason they don't seem to sell to the US.

EDIT: see Jensen Tubolito tubes

Edit2: This Euro site will ship these road tubes to the US:https://www.worldwidecyclery.com/pro...CABEgJmMvD_BwE

Edit3: Heck, after not looking for a few years, they're all over in the US now.


.

unworthy1

IIRC the early "thermoplastic" tubes like polyurethane were NOT a good ride, I had one as a a test and did not care for it, plus when it did flat I didn't pony up for the special patches so end of test. Looks like these new generation PU tubes have plasticizers mixed in which make for an even costlier tube but a much better ride (it we believe the blurb). I cannot recall what brand was the oldskool one, but that's expected since you are polling us grumpy old geezers!

Bad Lag

I don't think polyurethane is a thermoplastic, I believe it is a thermoset material.

Tubolito, at $30 - $40 for a single inner tube, just isn't worth it to me, not even close.

Dylansbob 

I remember one that claimed you could seal a puncture with a lighter and your fingertips, but I can't remember what they were called or made of.

Was it Foss Tubes?

https://road.cc/content/news/70707-j...ss-inner-tubes

unworthy1

The material can be formulated to be either thermo plastic (abbreviated as TPU) or thermo-setting plastic, but my assumption is for a highly elastic and thin walled product such as a bicycle tube this almost certainly uses the thermo plastic type of PU. Want to test the theory? Apply a torch to the $30-$40 Tubolito

Oh NVM I'll save somebody the money. Here's what the interwebs tell us (for free!) " Tubolito uses a material referred to as TPU.... TPU is a thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer, a sub-species of the TPE family of materials".

T-Mar

There were several polyurethane inner tubes marketed in the 1980s, though Panaracer's Poly-Lite seemed to be the most popular. in my region. Advetised as 3x the puncture and 25% less weight than a standard inner tube.

canopus 

And T-Mar nails it for the win... those were the ones I was thinking about. Thank you!
My brain can settle down now.

Ex Pres 

And @ $15.95/ea back in the 80's, not cheap then, either.

Bianchi84

We used to (try to) sell those Poly-lite tubes at the shop I worked for. They were right next to the "Mr. Tuffy" tire liners.

Blu3Suede

anyone have a chunk bigger than this? I had the whole tube last year but it started falling apart in a week.

CliffordK

Ewww...

That looks a lot like Mom's rim tape.



There are a lot of plasticizes that just don't last forever.

Perhaps I'll try out some 50 year old sewups. Although the ones I can find just have no
gum in the threads.

The Tubolito tubes look interesting, but at $20+ each, there is a lot of incentive to go back to the old faithful rubber tubes at $2 to $5 each.

repechage

Panaracer marketed them. Problem was that the tube to tire match had to be respected, try them in too big a tire and they tore. The repair system was different also. The cost was higher, they were lighter.
I stopped working for a shop in 1986 and did not see them again.
The new Turbolito tubes appear similar, but the valve stems are too long for me. Have they marketed a shorter version yet?

ClydeClydeson

I tried panaracer Greenlite tubes in the late 90s. I did not find they were more puncture resistant, and felt foolish for buying unreliable tube to save a couple grams when I weighed over 270 lbs.

droppedandlost 

In case anyone is interested:

Tubolito
Pirelli TPU
Schwalbe Aerothan
Revoloop

Random article with test data
https://cyclingtips.com/2020/10/upda...still-fastest/

squirtdad

they are back, and expensive https://www.jensonusa.com/Schwalbe-Aerothan-700c-Tube
https://shop.sportsbasement.com/prod...AaAhM_EALw_wcB

foss seems to be polymer, nt tpu https://www.coloradocyclist.com/foss-polymer-inner-tube

and a good discussion

jethin

Just goes to show you that there really was a future in plastics.