What do you use old innertubes for ?

[wisdom]

What do you use old innertubes for? i use them for protection where my lights fit.
Ideas and photos if possible please.

 

[Bromptonaut]

To cover the chain bit of my lock. Padding bars to fit lights.

 

[derrick]

They make a good catapult.

 

[Arch]

I make bags out of them!

https://sites.google.com/site/wastenotwantit/products/bags



(also, useful as shims for fitting inside bike light mounts etc)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Ghetto chainslap protectors

(and catapults, siege engine propulsion)

 

[Fab Foodie]

Fat old MTB ones I cut into 14" lengths, tie a knot in the end and use 'em for Condoms. The knot knocks about 2" off the length ...
They're tough enough even for use in Yorkshire .....

 

[HLaB]

I keep hold of them because they always become useful, I think one as acted as a window seal in my parents house and my last one is cut up and is used on my seat clamp to stop the saddle sliding after the BSO bike shop bent the clamps building the bike just over 2000 miles later, it seems to be working. In the past they've also been used to protect a carbon post from a street clamp.

 

[BrianEvesham]

Here is one of mine, well a little bit of one.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

They are great for lighting fires with - pieces burn really well, you only need a small strip, abut 5cm by 10cm to light damp twigs. A single match can easily be used to light a fire using a piece of inner tube even if the inner tube is wet with water. You just have to hold the match in the same place for a little longer than you would expect...

I also use them instead of cable ties, cut into longer strips and then tied off, as well as protection from my panniers rubbing the paint of my rack...

 

[Drago]

I make fetish mankinis out of mine.

 

[ColinJ]

I know this will sound preposterous, but they work really well as inner tubes! What you need to do is to take them off the wheel that they grew old in, and rejuvenate them by patching any holes that have appeared in them. You can then either put them back on or keep them as spares for when your new inner tubes become old.

OTOH, if you have clumsily ripped a valve out of a tube, gashed it to within an inch of its life, dissolved part of it in battery acid, had it half eaten by a frenzied badger, (whatever), you could make a bag out of it, or a catapult, or a chainslap protector, or even a condom (wash carefully before use, and tie two knots in it to be on the safe side and to act as DIY ribbing)!

 

[LarryDuff]

They are good to use to tie young trees to support posts when you plant them.

 

[mcshroom]

I have one wedged in the toilet cistern keeping the mechanism away from the edge of the tank which makes the whole system quieter. It's been doing that for 3 years now.

 

[Night Train]

As a cabinet maker, I haven't had the need to try it yet, but one use is as a press for gluing glulam (glued lamination) timber.

When making bent laminations (or even straight ones) the glued timber strips are placed in the former (or mould) and an old inner tube, cut near the valve and sealed at both ends, is placed in the former with the timber. The former is lightly clamped, or otherwise constrained, and then the tube is inflated to apply the pressure to the timber.

Ordinarily both halves of the former have to be a very precise fit to ensure an even pressure on the timber but for complex shapes that can be difficult to get right. Also for a one off, or short run, it may not be worth the effort to get both sides of the former exactly right.

So if an inner tube is added to provide the pressure in the former then only one side needs to be precise, the other side can be approximate as the inflated tube makes up the difference in fit.

Here is one using a fire hose to form skis.

http://skibuilders.com/howto/

 

[biggs682]

i use them to help secure bikes and frames that are in storage hanging inside the garage , and then like others have said to secure trees .

must admit if the other half allowed bike things in the house we could use them as bondage straps.......... but until then dream on !