wheelspeed

Hi everyone!,

Had a nice social ride with some other fine biking folks last week. We were the only tandem bike, but had no issues riding the hilly terrain with the mixed crowd of 'half bikes'. Of course, everyone was happy, being a nice sunny 50-degree day in late October.

At one point I noticed the one rider had a flat rear tire. I gave him one of my two spare tubes and loaned him my pump to get him going again. (Later I fixed a chain of another rider who broke a link... just one of those rides I guess.)

So now I'd like to replace the tube. Before picking up whatever the local shop happens to have in stock, I figured I'd ask you if there is any brand or material that is the hot setup for tandems?

We have the Bontrager Race Lite Tandem wheels... i.e. rim-brakes. 700x28C Gatorskin tires.

I don't think I want heavy double-thick tubes or slime tubes or anything like that. I'll just get standard road tubes if no specific suggetions.

Ride on!

Carbonfiberboy 

We run the same tubes we run on our singles. I always buy long valves. Fit everyone, so better for loaners.

zonatandem

We run standard tubes, 700x23 or narrower.

wheelspeed

Hmm, I was wondering about that. Some tubes are in 23-25 size, but I have 700x28 tires. Maybe that small difference isn't a problem?

10 Wheels

They would work OK.
I prefer 28 x 35 tubes for the 700 x 28's.

DrMarkR

Same for us. Standard weight, not ultralight. 19-26mm, if I recall. Gatorskins 25mm for us though.

I prefer to have the tube be more narrow than the tire, rather than wider. Makes for less tube to wrestle into the tire. Yes, I know it then thins the tube more with inflation, but it's still more rubber than an ultralight tube, to my observation.

wheelspeed

Ok, thanks for the replies. What you all say makes sense.

I did have a mtb tube split one time, but that was accidentally way undersized... like a 1.5 tube in a 2.1 tire. It split at a seam of the rubber while the bike was just laying on the ground. The bike wasn't even ridden in the past hour. Weird.

But I can see how a 23-25 tube should be able to stretch the tiny bit to a 28.

TandemGeek

Whatever I can find on sale. In fact, I tend to look for the 10-packs of 700c x 23-26 that sell for about $25 and re-stock when I get down to 2 or 3 left on-hand in the parts drawer. If I can find long-stem for our 30mm deep rims, all the better but if not, it's no big deal: I have valve extenders and washers in my patch kits so that I can use the standard valve tubes as well.

Brand name doesn't matter. In fact, I've never had problems with Performance-branded tubes or the ones I've gotten from JensonUSA, whereas an entire lot of Michelin tubes were all faulty a few years back. As you can see, I tend to buy all kinds of consumables -- tires, tubes, bar-end tape, derailleur cables, etc.. -- in volume so that I never come up short.

jnbrown

I had a similar experience with Michelin tubes that were bad out of the box.
I used to favor seamless tubes thinking they were higher quality and easier to patch but its very hard to find them anymore.
Performance (Forte) seem to be a good price when they are sale and there are plenty of Performance shops nearby.
I have seen these tubes bashed in other forums but I really haven't had a problem with them.

tredlodz

I'm very fond of the Specialized 700X20-28mm. Not too thin like the racy 19-23 tubes. Not so fat that you have to stuff them in like the 28-35s. The box is reasonably small so you can leave the tube in the box and avoid the ineventable holes from rubbing against your minitool in the seatbag. Extra long valve stem available and not too expensive. (BTW I run gatorskin 700-28 tires)

gracehowler

I like TG's idea, whatever is on sale! I like the non threaded presta stems though, easier on the pump, any thoughts?
R&J

specbill

I've used Performance Forte's for the last few years. Bought a bunch about 18 mos ago and from those had two that blew out within a few days of installation. The first one happened about a year ago and the second a couple of months ago. A big chunk of the tube just blew out...not along any seam, just a random partly jagged section about 3 inches long came apart.
Never could figure out what the deal was. I threw away the first one and did not have it to compare to the second one that exploded in a similar fashion. I just figured I did something wrong on the install as I've had no othe issues and continue to use other Forte's trouble free.

Bill J.

TeamTi700

We have used this same set up for years without trouble. We did switch to 700x25 tires last year.