this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
14 points (81.8% liked)
Bicycles
3695 readers
17 users here now
Welcome to !bicycles@lemmy.ca
A place to share our love of all things with two wheels and pedals. This is an inclusive, non-judgemental community. All types of cyclists are accepted here; whether you're a commuter, a roadie, a MTB enthusiast, a fixie freak, a crusty xbiking hoarder, in the middle of an epic across-the-world bicycle tour, or any other type of cyclist!
Community Rules
-
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
-
Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
-
No porn.
-
No ads / spamming.
-
Ride bikes
Other cycling-related communities
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I've had good success using TPU tubes from AliExpress, at a fourth of the price of tubes in shops in my country.
Which brand? I'm seeing so many sold, but then you look up reviews (not on the Ali site) and they are horror stories.
I'm tempted to buy some, but I've seriously had only one flat (my fault) with standard tubes over well beyond 14,000 km year round. So, I don't want to introduce problems ๐ซฃ
I've been running the RideNow tubes, without any issues whatsoever.
Anecdotally, I've heard about people getting punctures when they've run the extra light variant, but I don't use that one as I'm not that concerned with optimizing weight.
There are also some general considerations with TPU tubes in that you need to be careful not to pinch them under the bead of the tyre, and that they may get damaged if you use a poorly cooled electric pump.
Other than that, I've had zero problems with punctures since I switched to TPU tubes. Allegedly, I get a performance benefit in less rolling resistance and weight, plus they are very easy to carry as spares in my saddle bag as they pack quite small.
Just to follow up on this, that Ridenow tube has a pinhole leak in it. Never ridden, so I'm guessing defective from the factory. I used one of their adhesive patches, so far it's holding air.
I'll check the rim to make sure there isn't something that caused it, but the butyl tubes are holding air fine, so it seems likely to be an issue with this tube.
I've had a few flats with tpu tubes, some of which were likely caused by installation error (accidentally twisting them).
I've broken a few of the plastic valves as well (Spingo brand), but I think that was because my pump had was failing and not sealing, and I thought the issue was the valve, not the pump. So user error there, too.
I bought some Ride Now tubes more recently. Of those, 3 of the 4 I bought have been fine. The fourth one isn't holding air, but I haven't had the time to figure out why. Just swapped to another tube to get the bike on the road. I like that the Ridenow tubes include patches.
Short version, my experience is that once they're in and working, they tend to be good for a long time. Gotta be more careful installing them. Overall, I do like them.
Thank you for the insight ๐
You're welcome. I've been buying a bunch of gear I'm quite happy with from AliExpress and I've been considering posting about it to share what I've learned, do you think that would be interesting to read?
For sure. I've purchased loads of stuff from Ali and have been pretty happy with the value, but hearing about someone's experience is always helpful.