TPU innertubes?

I’m curious about these new-fangled innertubes and hope to benefit from others’ experience…

All of the household bikes (mtb, gravel and road) have been running tubeless tyres for years now. I love tubeless and have no intention of going back to innertubes, however, I still carry an emergency innertube for the rare occasion that tubeless lets me down. I think this has only happened twice in the last two years… that’s a fair amount of miles. The two occasions that I’ve needed to use an innertube are when a metal spike pierced through the tyre and rim tape, and once when my CO2 / pump failed.

I have continued carrying around big, old, heavy and smelly innertubes but rarely need them. So, I got to thinking… maybe TPU tubes would save me space in my saddle-pack or inside frame storage? And be a bit lighter? And less smelly?

My main questions: Are the cheapo ones as good as the more expensive ones? Are they super-fragile? Will they last when stored? Do I have to buy the exactly correct size? Recommended brands or sellers? Anything else?

Thanks in advance 🙂

I have used ride now tpu tubes on road bike since April. One puncture, carry then as spares. I do put them in a zip lock bag to protect them in saddlebag.

So TPU is puncture proof, or more puncture resistant than butyl tubes? I take it they’re a bit more expensive then?

Ridenow (pink) get recommended a lot and are what i use. They work out about £5 each on aliexpress if you order >1. There’s also the brilliantly named “Off Bondage” (presumably a mistranslation of Un-Chained) purple tubes, Cycloami (green) and thinkrider (green) which all seem much the same.  There’s obviously still a fair bit of R&D going on as I’ve got 3x different variations on the ridenow tubes already.  Early ones had a fragile valve/tube interface, then they got reinforced and aluminum valve stems, the newest ones have plastic valve stems with non-replaceable cores and a sort of push-fit lockring.

I’ve used them on a couple of road bikes (my actual road bike in it’s winter tyres and my track bike as the outdoor velodrome is too puncture prone and abrasive concrete surface to make tubs viable. And so far touch wood neither has had a puncture.  I still think tubeless is better, but for winter road riding I figure I’ll trade a known easy puncture fix for the potential faff of a tubeless tyre issue even if it is infrequent.

I know at least one friend who’s had one perish in a backpack.  But I’ve had butyl tubes do that waiting for a tubeless puncture so it’s not really a new issue. I’ve stopped using a saddle bag and just put tools/spares in my back pocket so they don’t get left wet in the shed for long periods. Maybe that’ll help.  They do fold up incredibly small, I’ve got two strapped to my smallest multitool (about the size of a small matchbox) and the tool is still the biggest part of the bundle.

Downside is apparently they are difficult to re-use.

Latex have lower rolling resistance. I have a Tubolito S for emergencies. Used it this weekend. Folds small (tiny in fact), inflated fine, was better than the thick butyl tube it replaced out on the road. The puncture was due to rubbing at the seam of the rim tape, and when I removed the Tubolito there was no abrasion. Then the rim tape slow punctured another butyl tube! Now fixed properly.

Finally when I read some more, the lightest Tubolitos can’t be used with rim brakes. I like the idea, the company have done the research for sure (with bicyclerollingresistance) and I believe in rewarding innovators. One of our club mates had a disaster with a double puncture last year and plastic tubing everywhere which initially put me off the generic versions. But latex tubes have the lowest rolling resistance if you don’t mind topping them up daily – lower than tubeless if you go for non tubeless road tyres.

I was thinking of buying two more 40g versions as they cover 23-30c widths in a single tyre – which I thought surprising.

TPU tubes better/equal to tubeless? on the road

My own experience (road), used two of them so far and they have gone up OK at the time but then been completely flat and unable to hold air 24h later. One of them installed at home, one when I got a puncture on a ride, both times I checked thoroughly for sharp stuff inside the tyre both before installing the TPU tube and after it had then failed.

So TPU is puncture proof, or more puncture resistant than butyl tubes? I take it they’re a bit more expensive then?

99% of the puncture resistance is the tyre so any difference is going to be marginal.  I think it’s probably safe to say they’re not noticeably worse.

The advantage though is that they weigh less than half the lightest latex tubes which are themselves half the weight of a standard tube, don’t leak like latex (or even continental supersonic butyls), and so for I’d say are more robust (I’ve ripped the valve stem off a brand new conti supersonic before).  And fold up much smaller so don’t take up space.

Bought direct they’re about £5, so the same price as a regular tube and half the price of a fancy lightweight one.

“Latex have lower rolling resistance”

Huh? What resistance is there, the tube is inside the tyre?

Do you mean a lower rotational mass due to the lighter weight?

Just be careful with repairs, I followed the Ridenow instructions a bit too literally and didn’t bother sanding tube before applying the supplied self adhesive patch, which fell off again shortly afterwards.

Sanded tube, applied new patch, and it’s still inflated (as mentioned, holds air longer than latex).

I was a bit put off by how easily it seemed to puncture, 10km in to my first ride with TPU and I had pinch flatted without even realising what I’d hit. Am putting it down to bad luck but have sort of gravitated back to latex in the meantime…

Huh? What resistance is there, the tube is inside the tyre?

The ability to deform around small variations in the surface is a big part of rolling resistance, which is why softer tyres are actually quicker (to a point). Regular tubes add alot of stiffness to a tyre which reduces their ability to confirm to the surface, increasing rolling resistance. Latex and TPUs don’t add so much.

“Latex have lower rolling resistance”

Huh? What resistance is there, the tube is inside the tyre?

It is how the tube interacts with the tyre when rolling along the road – look up hysteresis

I’ve got a Tubolito that I got as a spare for bikepacking trip, attracted by the size more than the weight. I didn’t need it, but perhaps it’s telling that when I’m using my gravel wheels and space isn’t so much of an issue I take a regular butyl as a spare rather than the Tubolito. Maybe I read too many scare stories about their durability.

 look up hysteresis

Oh… I was just about to then the doorbell went. Maybe later?

Much later.

I tried the BMX ones and they wouldn’t hold air. On inspection the valves weren’t welded to the tube properly. And this was both tubes from a matching pair so 100% useless in my experience.