Pepi’s Rokkline Tire Noodles

Pepi’s Tire Noodle is another foam sausage designed to fit betwixt rim and tyre, protecting both from those nasty pinch flats and dings. Due to their colour, which is much more fluorescent than my camera or screen can reproduce, these are probably the most Enduro tyre inserts we’ve seen yet. You also get two for the money. They don’t sell them singly, so you could either put them in both wheels, or just go for the back and eke out longer life.

This is the tenth insert I’ve reviewed for Singletrack. Since trying out Procore in 2015 though, I’ve become a big insert believer. I used to smash so many wheels, and now I don’t. With so many inserted into 2019 though, I am running out of things to say about tyre noodles. While writing this, I definitely, one-hundred percent absolutely did not waste an hour inserting them into famous works of literary fiction and poetry.

Setup

When Pyotr came back in with the tyre inserts Ivan Ilyich looked at him distractedly for some time, unable to work out who he was or what he was doing there. Pyotr was embarrassed by the long look. The embarrassment brought Ivan Ilyich to his senses. ‘Yes,” he said, “Tyre inserts… Good. Leave them there.”

Pepi’s Tire Noodles come in two densities and three sizes, to fit any rim/tyre combo or use (if you’re wondering, there’s a chart on their website). These yellow ones are the heavier Rokkline, but Pepi’s also do lighter, red ones named Raceline.

Claimed weight for these large Rokkline Pepi’s Tire Noodles seems to be 88 – 90g, but I weighed one at 132g. Compared to other inserts, it’s light for its size, and unlike most other inserts, it’s wrapped in plastic; all the better for shedding sealant.

The valves these ship with are nice and long compared to a standard cheapo no-name tubeless valve. Like the ones that ship with CushCore and Rimpact, they have solid bases with cross holes to minimise any airflow blockages. Weight: 12g per valve.

The wheels and tyres I used these with were 35mm internal width Sun Ringle Düroc Pros, running 2.6in wide WTB tyres – which are not the easiest beads to mount. I was glad of the extra space though, and the noodles went in without much drama. A little bit of stretching and bead stuffing, but that’s it.

At first, the insert was squashing down hard enough on the valve to block airflow. After a little jiggling though, it went up quickly like any other tubeless tyre.

The only insert comparable in size is Vittoria’s Air Liner, and Pepe’s Noodles feel a little softer than that, which makes sense given the comparison of weights – 132g for this, compared to a measured weight of 246g for an Air Liner of similar girth. Albeit, that size air liner is meant for plus tyres.

As I’d expect for such a lightweight but large bit of foam, giving the tyre a squeeze revealed that Pepi’s Noodle compresses quite a lot under air pressure. It was still wide enough to cover the sides of the rim though, and snug enough it wasn’t rattling around inside the tyre.

Ride and Removal

Do not go gentle into that big drop,
Old rims should bend and chip at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the tyre.
Though wise men at their end know inserts are right,
Because their forks had jumped no bombhole they
Do not go gentle into that square edge.

(Sorry).

As with most of the inserts in this grouptest, I ran my tyres around 16 – 17PSI. Given the large cross section of the Pepi’s Tire Noodle, I expected it to affect tyre damping more like the Air Liner, which takes up quite a lot of space. It didn’t though, so some combination of shrinkage and softness seems to give plenty of remaining air volume inside the tyre.

The bike this was in was given a month of abuse by me and another rider, who punctures fairly often. Neither of us are gentle on bikes. We usually rode it on alternate days, so it saw constant use and did not have an easy life. Plenty of rock music from the rear wheel, enough that I definitely expected to see rips and cuts on removing the insert.

There weren’t. It was a bit wrinkly all over, presumably from being at 17PSI compared to atmospheric pressure. The wrinkles were all over it, especially on the inside, but didn’t correlate to the edges of the rim or anything. The square dimples caught a bit of sealant, but it wasn’t soaking in or sticking it to anything. As far as I can tell, it hasn’t permanently shrunk or expanded either.

I suspect long term, those dimples might gather crud and germinate Stan’s monsters. So far, every insert I’ve run for more than six months has succumbed to lumps of latex, but some are better than others. Short term, Pepi’s has been one of the more wipe-clean inserts in the test.

Overall

At 144g per wheel these are low weight, high volume, non-stick, low drama inserts that work. They probably don’t give as much protection as higher weight inserts, but did escape Calderdale without any visible damage.

Review Info