This article is sponsored by Tubolito
Thermoplastic polyurethane. You may not know what it is but I can guarantee that you will have owned or used something made of it. See those trainers you are wearing – almost certainly made with it. Ever been in a hospital – it’s in everything from electrical cabling to diagnostic devices. Or reading this on your mobile fruit based device – it’s in the speakers. Developed in the late fifties as a material to be tough, flexible and durable, it fell to the combined brainpower of a chemist and mechanical engineer to realize that this made it the perfect material to challenge the dominance of butyl based inner tubes. Thus Tubolito came into being.
Coming in their signature bright orange colourway, their tubes offer three significant advantages over the competition.
Lighter weight
Offering up to 80% savings in weight compared to a regular butyl tube, as every cyclist knows, reducing rotating mass is the best place to cut weight on your bike to yield the biggest impact. Less rotating mass means less energy is required to get up to speed. It won’t mean that you will smash your Strava segments but there is something undeniably nice about pushing down hard on the pedals on a steep climb.
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Smaller pack size
Place a Tubolito tube beside any butyl based tube and you will immediately see the significant size difference. In this day and age, tubeless has become somewhat ubiquitous in mountain biking but it’s a brave soul who goes out on a big ride without a spare tube. If it’s going to be in your pack or fancy internal frame storage box, why take up valuable space that could be reserved for Jelly Babies?
Stronger
Compared to a butyl tube, depending on which Tubolito tube you use, they offer up to three times the strength.
For tech geeks, Tubolito offer three options.
PSENS – the one for the techno geek mountain biker. Utilizing an NFC chip, it is now possible to use your smartphone to determine your tyre pressure. No batteries, no faff and as easy as scanning a four pack of your favourite beverage at your local supermarket.
X- Tubo – the one for the cross, gravel, city, e bike and touring rider who wants to maximise the likelihood of avoiding punctures. On their website, Tubolito have a picture of one of their tubes resting on a nest of thorns. Truly the stuff of cycling nightmares but to help you sleep easily, every X-Tubo comes with a one year puncture replacement guarantee.
S –Tubo – the one for the racer. Designed as the lightest, most compact tubes with the lowest rolling resistance, these disc only tubes are the top of the tree when it comes to performance; the road version weighing a mere 23 grams and rolling up to the diameter of a £2 coin.
While this is definitely not a review, I can happily admit that I run Tubolito tubes on my mountain and gravel bikes and have placed my short arms in my deep Scottish pockets to spend my own money on them. Nuff said.
Sanny
