KantoBoy

I've been searching on the net including EBAY and other websites and I could only find them for $6.50/pc if I include the shipping price (this is either in a pack of 5 or 10).

Any sites that you guys go for tubes? Regular 700x18-23.

dave1442397

Just keep an eye out for sales. I wait for my LBS to sell them at $5 each, then stock up. I've seen cheaper on Amazon, but when I read the reviews I passed. The tubes were cheap junk that you couldn't rely on.

PBK has sales all the time...sign up for their email alerts and wait. https://www.probikekit.com/tyres-tube...tReverse=false

Hiro11

Nashbar butyl tubes are about $4 a piece shipped.

unionmade

Keep an eye on chain love too.

Cyclelogikal

I buy on Amazon.

DXchulo

https://www.pricepoint.com/Brand/Pric...Point-Tube.axd

I use these and they are good quality. It's an even better deal if you buy 10 at a time.

mkadam68

I like Niagara Cycle Works on Amazon (search the other vendors on the linked page). They do very good by me, responding quickly to the one direct communication I had with them.
Tubes are $2.93 each, plus shipping ($8-9 for box of 10) resulting in ~ $3.80 per tube.

seymour1910

I use these and they work fine at $4.16 per tube https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-NEW-700-x-...item20d8ea95ba

hhnngg1

Get good high quality tubes and get a patch kit. You can reuse those tubes like forever. Batch patch as well - takes almost same time to patch 4 as it does 1 - just stash 'em until you can batch patch.

seymour1910

this is a good deal, even with shipping it still comes out to $3.58 per tube if you buy 10.

cthenn

I'll betcha Aliexpress or other Chinese websites sell them...just be careful what you ask for!

Elvo

https://www.jensonusa.com/Bicycle-Tub...sta-Valve-Tube

Carbonfiberboy 

Tubes have gotten expensive. I only buy >50mm valve, which makes it harder. I'm spending the money on Vredestein tubes now, from BikeTiresDirect. Better to have a more expensive tube and patch it IMO.

indyfabz

How many tubes are you going through that makes saving a buck or two a tube meaningful?

SirHustlerEsq

Smooth prestas aren't cheap but they are pretty.

jmX

That's what I'm wondering. I bought 3 spare tubes 3 years ago and still have one in the saddle bag 13,000 miles later. Even if I paid $20/tube I don't think it'd matter at that rate.

canam73

Depends what you did with the savings. Like what if you used the ~$40 to buy some blingy valve caps. See, that would matter.

Dunbar

You probably just jinxed yourself. I was bragging how I hadn't had a puncture in 8k miles and just spent $40 on tubes and CO2 cartridges in the past few days. First my latex tube experiment went bad. Then I picked up a tiny shard of glass which I couldn't spot at dusk on the side of the road. So I got flats on two consecutive rides.

indyfabz

Before we went tubeless on our road bikes, I would buy maybe two or three tubes/year for the GF and I and I don't even patch. I would simply stop by a LBS and pick one up when needed. Not worth the time to oder them in bulk just to save a buck or two. I get maybe 4 flats/year when commuting and doing loaded touring on my LHT. Still, it's not worth ordering tubes in bulk. I also view individual shipping as an unnecessary use of natural resources.

datlas 

Do you ride with a club?? Most cyclists discard perfectly good patchable tubes after a flat. Scrounge a few and batch patch.

Sadly, the fine art of patching tubes seems to be going the way of the standard transmission.

OneGoodLeg

I had a terrible set of tires and was going through a tube roughly every 30 miles at one point, my lbs even commented on the frequency of tube purchases. Since I switched to hardcase tires, I've had maybe 4 flats in the last 6000 miles. One of them was my fault, I hit a huge pothole and pinch flated my front tire. 2 others were caused by my 4000s being worn down to the belt and pieces of gravel worked their way through the weaving.

If you need to bulk buy tubes to keep the cost down, you may save more money by upgrading to better tires. Unless you live in goathead country.

I have an older sister who makes nasty comments about hanging on to old tubes and patching in bulk.

1.) Some can be fixed
2.) Tubes can be handy as shims and other re-purposed uses.

jmX

Getting a flat doesn't equal "going through a tube" though. What was happening every 30 miles?

hhnngg1

I've made this argument before, but it still holds.

Patching a tube (batch patching, actually) is really high bang for the buck moneywise/time. If you batch patch 4 premium tubes (long-stemmed valves, etc.) that sell for $10+each in a total of 30 minutes (that's actually extremely generous - usually it'll take <15minutes to batch patch 4 tubes) you've just recovered $40 worth of tubes in 30 minutes. That's pretty decent dollar value for the time spent, even if you only flat 2-3 times per year.

Last time I batch patched was about a year and half ago, but you better believe that once I get 4-5 tubes accumulated, I'll be rebatching. I tend to use a brand new patch kit every time I batch patch - worth it for the $2 spent on the patch kit, since I find that using fresh cement really makes a difference.

Dunbar

The problem is you can never shrink a used tube down as small as it was when new in box. So if you want to preserve space in your saddle bag new tubes do have their advantages.

hhnngg1

I get pretty darn close to shrinking a patched tube to the original size - have never had size issues for saddle bag fit. Roll 'em up and the air gets expelled near completely. Really easy.