beanzontoast
Guru
- Location
- South of The Peaks
I've given up with Specialized tubes on my commuter bike. The final straw came yesterday when I found the brand new 700x 20-28 Specialised tube I put in - Conti 700x28C Gatorskins by the way - on Friday (cost me £4) had gone flat. Thinking I'd done it putting it on, I removed it, partly inflated it and put in in the standard bowl of water to find the leak and fix it. Where was the leak? In the 'seam' where the two 'ends' of the tube are joined. Never seen this before, and when I very gently pulled the two sides of the seam, the joint separated as easily as anything leaving me holding a hosepipe instead of an inner tube! 
Totally unimpressed by this. I don't count £4 as a cheap tube, or Spesh as a cheap brand, and it's not the first time I've had one of their tubes fail in a non-puncture way.
This comes on top of another experience I had where, being unsure, I asked a member of staff at Decathlon what tube I needed for that size tyre from the range they sell. (Some tyre sizes are on the cusp of tube sizes - e.g. 20-28 in one size, 28-35 in another, as with the Spesh, and knowing that brands size differently, I wanted to be sure I got the right ones). Installed tube when got home. Pumped it up. 5 mins later - BANG! Tube had forced the tyre off the wheel rim and exploded. Ruined the beading on a perfectly good tyre in the process. Clearly not the right size tube at all (so much for doing the right thing by asking!) and Decathlon is a way from where I live, so not economic to take it back and get a replacement.
So, what I'm looking for is a recommendations please for decent tube for a 700x28 tube. If you can be specific about the exact tube to go for rather than just the manufacturer, it would be great - as you can see, not having much luck at the moment, so if you have similar sized tyres - 700x28 - and great tubes, do tell!
Totally unimpressed by this. I don't count £4 as a cheap tube, or Spesh as a cheap brand, and it's not the first time I've had one of their tubes fail in a non-puncture way.
This comes on top of another experience I had where, being unsure, I asked a member of staff at Decathlon what tube I needed for that size tyre from the range they sell. (Some tyre sizes are on the cusp of tube sizes - e.g. 20-28 in one size, 28-35 in another, as with the Spesh, and knowing that brands size differently, I wanted to be sure I got the right ones). Installed tube when got home. Pumped it up. 5 mins later - BANG! Tube had forced the tyre off the wheel rim and exploded. Ruined the beading on a perfectly good tyre in the process. Clearly not the right size tube at all (so much for doing the right thing by asking!) and Decathlon is a way from where I live, so not economic to take it back and get a replacement.
So, what I'm looking for is a recommendations please for decent tube for a 700x28 tube. If you can be specific about the exact tube to go for rather than just the manufacturer, it would be great - as you can see, not having much luck at the moment, so if you have similar sized tyres - 700x28 - and great tubes, do tell!
I bought 10 spesh tubes for £20 & not had a problem with any, apart from thorns & flint 
