Thinking of TPU Inner Tubes? Think Again!

The Sell

You may have seen on Francis Cade, rebranded to Cade Media, and been influenced to check out Tubolito, or some of the competitors, for TPU Ultra Lightweight Inner Tubes.

Joe Whittingham, from China Cycling and Panda Podium, is pushing the RideNow Ultralight Bike Inner Tube. A 6 pack of which is $48 or €44.

Other options include the Schwalbe Aerothan, Vittoria RVC and Pirelli P ZERO SmarTUBE.

TPU Tubes offer better rolling resistance than Butyl tubes. Their Rolling Resistance is almost on par with Latex and Tubeless.

TPU Tubes are about 100g less per tube than Butyl. You could be looking at a total system weight (2 TPU tubes in the wheels, 2 TPU tubes as spares) of 200g to 400g, the latter is roughly the weight difference between Shimano 105 and Dura-Ace.

TPU Tubes retain air pressure better than Latex tubes. If you wanted lighter weight and lower rolling resistance, you might be looking at Latex tubes. Alas, you need to pump Latex tubes before every bike ride, as they leak air.

TPU Tubes, and all other tubes to be fair, don't need Sealant refilled on lesser-used Tubeless bikes.

The Issue

Have you've never seen Francis Cade repair a roadside puncture in his videos? Interesting.

To repair a roadside puncture, you'll be down to two options, Mini-Pump or CO2.

If you plan on using TPU Tubes as Spares, you'll be down to no options.

The main drawbacks for TPU Tubes are that they don't have a threaded Valve Stem. They just have a small amount for the Dust Cap. So if you have a mini-pump that threads on to the Valve Stem (I have a Topeak Race Rocket), you'll need to buy another pump. I've been on numerous bike rides where other non-thread on mini-pumps, looking at you Lezyne, were tried, but invariably, the Race Rocket is always whipped out to get proper pressure into the tyre. 

Maybe you're thinking, "sure I'll just use CO2 to inflate the TPU Tube". Be warned, if you use a CO2 Cartridge and Inflater, it'll freeze and crack the Plastic Valve Stem.

Also if you're out with your ride buddies. You may be very hesitant to share your luxury tubes with someone else.

The Solution

It would seem that there are a number of ways to address the issues.

In the short term, I'd recommend only using TPU tubes in the tyres, and Butyl/Latex in your spares. As this fixes the issue with the Roadside puncture repair.

In the long term, TPU valves need to stop the "Race to the bottom" with regards to weight. They could have a longer threaded valve, or a Two-part valve stem where we can use a metal Valve Core extender. They also need to beef up their material around the valve, as they are liable to fail in that area, according to some users.

If you want to persist with two spare TPU Tubes, maybe a flip heap Mini-Pump, such as the Topeak Roadie, might be the solution to a roadside puncture.