Anyone tried out these expensive tubes?
 

https://www.tpubiketubes.com

$37. CAD for a tube 🤔.

Very cool. I've never tried them or heard of them.

The one for my bike were only $28 US, and they do have deals if you buy in quantity.

Hopefully, they are as good as they say they are. And hopefully, enough people buy them that the price comes down.

RideNow TPU tubes. $7.25 each from Aliexpress.

TPU tubes are awesome, and available in a wide range of pricepoints, but at that premium end of the range, I’d need some convincing to not go with the market leader, Schwalbe Aerothan.

We know not all TPU are the same in terms of performance characteristics, but it’s impossible to know which provide what, although all are certainly going to be lighter, have lower rolling resistance, and be more puncture resistant than regular butyl tubes. Start getting into lightweight variants of butyl and TPU, and there are permutations where butyl gets closer in one department, but TPU always has two feet up in other areas of comparison. Getting into the budget stuff, like RideNow previously mentioned, and it looks like buying butyl is straight up foolish.

I use both Aerothan and RideNow, and think they’re great. I prefer Aerothan because I know they’re durable, light, smooth, fast and repairable, but I’ve not tried patching RideNow yet and did have a failure at the base of the valve stem on one because I forgot to apply a little, ring-shaped sticker they provide to reinforce the area. Maybe not an issue on all rim types, but a slightly fussy solution I’d prefer not to have to deal with, which gives the advantage to Aerothan.

I’d say get some and give them a try.

Those and the Marathon look like threadless valve. Is it difficult to pump air.

You put the pump head on the valve, lock it on, and pump. Its no different from any other smooth valve stem.

^
This, what Terry sez

Not specific to the brands mentioned above, the Radavist has a recent article comparing two TPU brands; one cheap and one expensive. https://theradavist.com/ridenow-vers...r-tube-review/
Although tested on a MTB it's worth a read before deciding.

Against my better judgment I tried out some Aerothan tubes a few years ago. The quicker seepage of air and the ify ability of being able to patch them, including how long it would take to do said job, did not impress. I am currently running Continental Freeride tubes in my 2"X26" Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires.

this is year #3 using tpu tubes - currently on five bikes (#6 soon)

primarily Aerothan and RideNow - also used Pirelli Cinturato Smartube (?) on one bike for a bit

I have not experienced quick loss of air - if anything they appear to hold air as well or slightly better than lightweight / thin butyl tubes

Skip the overpriced marketing profit middleman. Buy straight from the factory via AliExpress for a fraction of the cost. It's a simple bicycle tube. The middleman is a leech.

go to amizon, list all bicycle inner tubes; list by average customer rating; all top rated tubes are butyl
jus sayin

I've been using RideNow TPU tubes for a couple years with no problems at all.

^ This again, or the OFFBONDAGE brand also on AliExpress as they have an aluminium valve stem if you prefer (and they're purple).

I got mine from aliexpress, I got a set of 4 for about $24, shipping took about 2 weeks.

If you're looking for TPU tubes with threaded metal stem Cyclami makes those. Just ordered one for 4 Euro.

I have experience with Schwalbe, Pirelli and RideNow TPU varieties in MTB, gravel, and road sizes. In 4 years, I haven't had any notable problems with any brand of TPU tubes. I am mostly riding tubeless these days, but still have tubes in a few bikes. I go back and forth between tubeless and TPU, but will never go back to butyl.

TPU tubes are very thin, so careful installation is a must, but once installed they are better than butyl in every way. They are lighter, hold pressure longer, roll better, and, as far as I can tell, have similar puncture resistance. When punctured, the TPU tubes seem not to deflate as rapidly as butyl and on occasion I have gotten a puncture and not even noticed it until after I got home and noticed the tire was a bit low.

I have had good luck patching TPU tubes with the Tubolito patch kit and the Ridenow glueless patches. Swabbing with alcohol before applying the patch is key.

The cheap Ride Now tubes are just as good as the premium branded ones IMO. I'm not a huge fan of AliExpress, so I order mine in bulk from Panda Podium.
https://www.pandapodium.cc/product-c...s-tubes/tubes/

So this guy went through 3 Tubolitos and 2 Ridenows and none of them lasted more than 2 rides. Sounds like an user error.

Also noteworthy that Offbondage has removeable valve cores. Ridenow and most of the other cheap TPU tubes do not have this feature.

looks like Jan Heine and Rene Herse is getting on the TPU ride https://www.renehersecycles.com/rene...ces-tpu-tubes/

I've had success with Pirelli P-Zeros that I got on sale for $16.

FWIW, the Park Tool Pre-Glued GP2 patches seem to work well.

That was a steal. 🤔

Actually, I just looked. I bought 5 at $19.99 each. Still, not bad...

While we're on a subject of patching TPU tubes, does anyone have PERSONAL experience doing it? I see a lot of people talking about how it's totally easy since their neighbor's dog had success using the Park patches, but I've tries Topeak Flypaper (which seems similar to Park?) and it did literally nothing for the micropuncture I was trying to seal. The Flypaper came apart when the tube was inflated... Perhaps it was just old and I need to refresh my kit but first I'd like to know what ACTUALLY works.

Yes, I have successfully patched tpu tubes on several occasions. You need a a tpu specific patch kit. The Tubolito patch kit, abundantly available online, is a good place to start.