Lightweight spare inner tubes

They’re great, until you come to use them 6months/a year after buying them and find they’ve split where they’ve been folded so tightly for so long.

Honestly, I have no idea how these companies come up with their pricing.By example, a continental tube comes in at about 100grams29er 1.75-2.50 and costs £3.50 The turbolito one weighs about the same.(93grams 1.8-2.50) priced at £45

Not sure where you’re getting that from? Conti’s ‘light’ MTB tube is listed at 160g (RRP £8), roughly double the tubolito (85g) which comes with a pressure sensor, and is €30

Hard to actually find out the weight, but on the halfords site its listed at 99gms. Must be wrong.

They’re great, until you come to use them 6months/a year after buying them and find they’ve split where they’ve been folded so tightly for so long.

Is there an alternative to suggest which packs smaller than a regular tube and won’t degrade when stored? Or would unpacking the tube and then rolling up a little less tight help?

Vittoria latex, they do MTB size too.

to save a bit of weight I have carried undersized tubes. ie too narrow for the tyres.  Ok for emergency use

I don't understand the point about them failing on the fold.

They're literally sold like that in the package, and they sit like that for years on shelves and warehouses. Unless you undo them then fold them up again badly - or ram them into a too small saddle bag or against other things regularly - I don't see the issue. Just find a place to store one and keep it there.

I had two butyl tubes fail on me when I was using the dumb 'enduro' strap it to the frame method - due to dirt getting in there and bring ground down.

Just wrap the TPU tube in a thin plastic bag before putting it wherever you carry spares and treat it with some care.

I carry two tpu road tubes in the same space and 1/2 the weight of a single butyl. Same goes for gravel tubes. On the MTB I tend to take butyl ones because the only time I've used a tube in the last 15 years of being tubeless was when I gave it to someone else. And I'm not giving someone else a £40 schwalbe aerothan!

Having seen someone desperstely stuffing their tyres with tourism leaflets as their Tubolitos refused to be fixed I'll just stick to normal tubes as a spare and take the weight hit. Not sure that "get you home" spares are where big weight savings should be made. Sure, normal tubes wear out too, but you can replace them 5x over for the same cost.

Standard tubes are best for nearly everyone and tend to be more reliable plus easy to repair. Paying loads more for incremental weight loss is just not worth it for most people.

seem a bit risky/daft to me.
When you do come to use it, youve got to pull a dozen thorns out of your tyre, being more careful than you would for a normal tube, your bike's filthy, so increases risk of damaging the tube actually inserting it and reseating the tyre, and then you have to ride more carefully at higher pressures not to pinch it, as it would be more fragile than a proper tube?

not worth it.

to save a bit of weight I have carried undersized tubes. ie too narrow for the tyres. Ok for emergency use

much better idea i think. Would be easier to get in the wheel damage free if its a bit thinner than it should be, and once its inflated against the tyre makes no real difference

Having seen someone desperstely stuffing their tyres with tourism leaflets as their Tubolitos refused to be fixed

They require special glue and patches. I gave mine away after they both punctured in under a week of use on road - they doubled my annual puncture tally in one week.

I've not used my tubolito yet but a mate has and it worked fine. I make sure mine is in a plastic bag so it can't get worn.

When it comes to price, yes they're expensive for a tube but what would the cost be of saving that much weight on another part of your bike? They also give you more room to carry other things.

Latex or some thin continental Race inners for road use. Really this is not a place to be saving a lot of weight. An extra 50g is a lot better than walking!

I just carry lightwight butyl inner tubes as spares (normally undersized as well). They last decades, don't succumb easily to falling apart in saddle bags and are easy to patch.

Interesting replies, thanks.

I see 2 benefits to this to me.  Save a bit of weight for a small (ish) sum and also free up some space in my downtube storage (to add more weight with other bits - I've currently got a 100cc OneUp pump/EDC tool in there plus tyre levers and a regular tube but it's a real squeeze, I'd like to fit my new Dynaplug pill in there).  I've currently got a cheapo Lifeline 29er tube in there which comes in at around 260g, looks like a butyl Conti lightweight is 160g, so I would assume there's less mass so it will take up less space and would be a reasonable compromise for little outlay and less risk of not working.  Am I missing something?

Re: latex, I generally like latex tubes but based on recent trailside experiences would only want to be installing them at home in nice sterile conditions. Wouldn't want to be inflating trailside with a mini-pump unless it was one of those Topeka track pump ones (Mini-Morph?).

9 times out of 10 you'd probably be fine but I don't like those odds for my get-me-home repair!

There is a type of inner tube similar to those Tubolitos called Ride Now which are miles cheaper and available through Ali Express, Ebay etc. Not a personal recommendation but have heard them talked about by various YouTubers. Might be worth a punt.

Does anybody have experience with the RideNow TPU tubes?  I just recieved a bunch and found the valve stems are plastic, not sure if that could become a failure point on a hot day at 90psi?

I’ve used a RideNow TPU tube on my road bike after a tubeless puncture that would not seal. Worked fine. It’s still in there after a few months.

No chance of it melting on a hot day here, I’m in Scotland.