Eclipse inner tubes, a couple of months on…

Decided to try those Eclipse tubes, as Merlin had them at a good price and I trust their customer service if it went wrong… I picked up a pair of the biggest ones for the dh bike. What happened next…

First of all, one of them was faulty from new, it’s got a 90 degree “twist” in it as the seams have been laid up wrong. Merlin to their credit said try it, if it’s ever a problem let them know.

So, fitted them- the bike was in bits getting a new frame so they didn’t get ridden for a month. Went back to fit the wheels, the other (non-faulty) one had flatted, unridden! Checked it over and it’s burst at a seam.

The other one’s had a few fort william runs in the back of the bike and has been fine, so that’s encouraging…

Reason I post today is that when I contacted Merlin to return the flat one, they basically gave a long-suffering sigh and said “They’ll do that- we’ve stopped selling them because of all the warranty claims”.

So- too good to be true I guess. Not at all shocked, and glad I went with a good shop for the backup. But interesting thing to try and I’m sticking with the other one for now.

Well that was to be expected. I remember getting some fancy green panaracer tubes in the early 90’s and they were crap too, both split along the seams on the first ride.

Everything was crap in the early 90s 🙂

Some things were actually better in those days than they are now 😀

Mmm Doves 🙂

And another month on… The survivor was still in the downhill bike, it’d done an uplift at fort william and innerleithen, no bother. I run low enough pressures that an occasional rim bump does happen, and it stood up as well as a hefty dh tube. Finally flatted it yesterday, not totally happy as I honestly don’t reckon my spesh tubes would have (switched to one of those at the same pressure and carried on, no fuss).

But so ends the eclipse experiment- this one’s going in the bin, other one got a refund, at best they’re OK and at worst they’re *****.

Holy Thread Revival!!!! 😯

Review – A year on..
I’ve had the Eclipse Inner Tubes 26×2.25 in my Hans Dampf 2.35 tyres for over a year now running low pressures 20-25psi. They have been fine with everything I have thrown at them, including 2 trips to the Alps (uplifts, LaThuile, Pila, etc) I’m not a mincer but I’m not a riding God either. I usually get snake bites and a couple of punctures throughout the year. When in the Alps I was the only person out of 13 to not get any punctures which is pretty good and only had 1 puncture since fitting these tubes.

So I wanted to order some more of these tubes as they have been pretty awesome and find they are discontinued… Does anyone know why? Or had any other experiences with these tubes?

Does anyone know why?

“They’ll do that- we’ve stopped selling them because of all the warranty claims”

Only one I’ve ever seen in the flesh also split at seam, so I guess they didn’t sell that well, and the ones they did sell had a lot of failures.

I got a pair, and was excited to try them. Like Northwind one of mine was ‘twisted’ – the valve was on the outside of the tube when inflated, had to put a full twist in the tube to get it to fit, which caused a corresponding ‘dent’ in the tyre.

One split on the valve on the first ride. The twisted one flatted a few rides later whilst I was sat in Peaslake midway through a ride.

A shame, as on paper they look good. I still have them in my kit bag to show to people, who are all slightly bemused by them!

I guess I must’ve been lucky with the pair I bought! Is there an alternative to these? I see there are FOSS ones, but they seem as rare as rocking horse shit too!