I need to restock on tubes for my road and CX bike. Is there any advantage in paying for branded ones or do I just get the cheapest? Can anyone recommend any with weight/puncture resistance in mind?
Are there any decent multi pack deals around at the moment?
Thanks
Directional ones are faster.
Only real difference is weight and valve quality. Some have removable cores and are fully threaded which makes fitting extenders easier. Some are lighter. some might fit your tyre sizes better e.g. I prefer to use a 28-33 for CX rather than a 30-45 (weight mainly). None correlates to cost unless you buy light weight or latex ones.
Having weighed a bunch of tubes for the hill climb season I'd recommend Michelin Axx as they seem to be lighter than most and cheap enough.
If you're worried about weight / puncture resistance probably one of the main advantages of the branded tubes is they make tubes for every purpose. So you can get ultra light latex tubes, not so light latex tubes, normal, touring light and heavy touring etc. Essentially you can choose one that suits your needs. With some of the unbranded ones you're not quite sure what you're getting or the quality.
If you shop around or find a good LBS a lot of places will do 3 proper branded tubes for a tenner and things like that so hardly worth getting the cheapos.
[i]Are there any decent multi pack deals around at the moment?[/i]
I bought 10 conti race tubes from high on bikes ebay shop for £24.95 this morning, best deal I could find. [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360365833956?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT ]here[/url]
There was an article in this months cyclists magazine (yeh dull I know and these articles are one of the reasons I cancelled by sub) that explained the difference in cheap/not cheap inner tubes and why thick butyl rubber is less puncture resistant than thin (to a certain extent).
