# Best tubes for touring?



## Barbelier (25 Aug 2010)

Apologises if this has been done before but a search didn't throw up anything obvious.

Continental Tour or Schwalbe Road for touring inner tubes?
Puncture resistance, quality of valves and air tightness?

Oh and why do most inners have a 42mm valve? 32mm seems more than adequate and looks much neater.

Thanks


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## upsidedown (25 Aug 2010)

No complaints with Conti tours here, i use them for touring and commuting and they've never let me down.

Yet.


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## Ben M (25 Aug 2010)

Inner tubes are inner tubes in my opinion (and I've seen it echoed quite a bit). They are almost all made in the same factory.

Just make sure they're the right size and valve, then buy the cheapest.


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## Riding in Circles (25 Aug 2010)

For touring you may want to consider slime filled tubes.


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## Ben M (25 Aug 2010)

Catrike UK said:


> For touring you may want to consider slime filled tubes.



... followed by quickly realising how pants they are.


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## jarushby (25 Aug 2010)

Ben M said:


> ... followed by quickly realising how pants they are.




+1

Spend the extra money you would need to get slime tubes and instead get better tyres with good puncture protection.


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## andym (25 Aug 2010)

I've been happily using Specialized tubes for years mainly because wiggle do (or used to do - haven't need to buy any in ages) a good deal on packs of 10. But any reputable make really. It's probably a false economy to get cheapo ones, but I'm sceptical about tyres that are branded as 'touring': I'd just look for something that is not too heavy and not too light. 

As far as puncture resistance is concerned then it's really down to the tyre.

I thought most inner tubes came with 32mm valves and that the longer ones were intended for use with deeper rims. Yes IME 32mm is fine.


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## John the Monkey (25 Aug 2010)

Continental.

They have yellow dustcaps.


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## Ben M (25 Aug 2010)

andym said:


> I've been happily using Specialized tubes for years mainly because wiggle do (or used to do - haven't need to buy any in ages) a good deal on packs of 10. But any reputable make really. It's probably a false economy to get cheapo ones, but I'm sceptical about tyres that are branded as 'touring': I'd just look for something that is not too heavy and not too light.
> 
> As far as puncture resistance is concerned then it's really down to the tyre.
> 
> I thought most inner tubes came with 32mm valves and that the longer ones were intended for use with deeper rims. Yes IME 32mm is fine.



That's strange, specialized are the only tubes that I have heard ill of.



John the Monkey said:


> Continental.
> 
> They have yellow dustcaps.


I prefer my green ones on my airwaves


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## willem (25 Aug 2010)

I have good experiences with both Conti and Schwalbe, but not with cheap brands. I now use the Schwalbe xlight or in recent months even xxlight on my Norway tour, and these prove to be just as reliable, but lighter and according to some tests they roll measurably better.
Willem


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## Davidc (25 Aug 2010)

Unless you're worried about a few grams of weight difference then what it says above - tubes is tubes is tubes. Just buty the right size and use them.

As John the Monkey says, Continental have the best dust cap colour.


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## andym (25 Aug 2010)

Ben M said:


> That's strange, specialized are the only tubes that I have heard ill of.



t'interweb? If enough people use a product there's bound to be someone with a gripe - eg conti gatorskins.


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## PpPete (25 Aug 2010)

I bought a batch of Conti tubes a while back when Ribble had a special on and I wanted to get an order for other bits up past the £50 for free shipping/extradiscount.

The 42 mm length is about right with my Open Pro rims

LBS supplied us with a bunch of Bonti tubes for the E2E. 36 mm valve stem was a little short I thought.

But on both brands I've had examples of dodgy valves.

Schwalbe are my favorite, but only when I can get them at decent price.


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## Ticktockmy (25 Aug 2010)

Barbelier said:


> Apologises if this has been done before but a search didn't throw up anything obvious.
> 
> Continental Tour or Schwalbe Road for touring inner tubes?
> Puncture resistance, quality of valves and air tightness?
> ...



Continental tours as well here


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## froze (8 Apr 2022)

Not all tubes are like other tubes, I've purchased cheap tubes thinking the same thing until I found out several things, one is the presta values are cheap and the stem thing won't last, second is the stem junction at the tube is weak and I've seen them rupture apart at high pressure and tear off with ease, so no, not all tubes are the same. By the way, Slime tubes were the WORSE!! Followed by SunLite pieces of trash...hmmm, I can't really decide which of those two were the worse, then another bad tube is Pyramid, Bell, and Q Tubes, and a lot of generic named Chinese made tubes.

One person said that they had heard that Specialized made crappy tubes, not true, I've used that brand for years and never had a problem with a bad tube except once when a seam came apart the first time I put air in it, but the place I bought it from replaced it. If you stick with the major brands of tubes than you should be ok, tubes like Specialized, Michelin, Vittoria, Challenger, Continental, Schwalbe, maybe Kenda, (I've heard good things about Kenda recently, but years back they weren't very good, so not sure personally about the newest crop). But if you stick with the major brands of tubes, you won't go wrong, just buy the brand that offers the best sale price because within those brands I listed as being good there can't be more than 1% difference separating any of them from another, though some people think that Michelin and Continental are the absolute best, but I haven't found any difference to quantify that statement.


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## neil_merseyside (9 Apr 2022)

11.5 yr thread revival, is this a record?


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## Darius_Jedburgh (9 Apr 2022)

neil_merseyside said:


> 11.5 yr thread revival, is this a record?


Sorry, no. There was a 14 year revival a couple of weeks ago. 
Some folk must have lots of time on their hands. 
Shirking from home???


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Apr 2022)




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## froze (9 Apr 2022)

HEHEHEHE


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## craigwend (9 Apr 2022)

neil_merseyside said:


> 11.5 yr thread revival, is this a record?


No this is...


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## Ming the Merciless (9 Apr 2022)

craigwend said:


> No this is...
> View attachment 639205



It’s a long play thread


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