What Size Inner Tube Do I Need
The humble inner tube may be 1 of the simplest parts on your bike merely, with a wide range of sizes available, different valve types and a choice of materials, choosing the correct tube isn't necessarily as elementary as information technology sounds.
That's if your bike has inner tubes at all. There was a fourth dimension when every bike had an inner tube in each tyre. That's changed at present, with the advent of tubeless tyres, first in mountain bikes and now increasingly in road bikes as well.
In a tubeless setup, there'due south no inner tube; the tyre itself has an airtight seal to the rim and holds the air, without a tube.
But even if y'all're happily riding your tubeless tyres, it'due south a adept idea to carry an inner tube with you, but in case y'all go the mother of all flats, which the sealant in your tyre or a tubeless repair kit won't handle and you lot need to fit a tube to get going again. Trust united states of america, it happens.
So, whether your bike is fitted with inner tubes or not, read on for our guide to the bike part every cyclist loves to hate.
What is an inner tube?
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Inner tubes come up in many different sizes and materials, and are what agree the air inside clincher tyres. Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
In a conventional clincher tyre setup, the tyre has a bead on each side which 'locks' onto the rim when inflated only doesn't take an air-tight connexion. Information technology's the inner tube, sitting inside the tyre, that holds the air.
The inner tube has a valve, used to keep it pumped up. Well-nigh inner tubes accept either a Presta or Schrader valve, which we'll come on to. Ensuring y'all have the correct valve type for your cycle's wheels is essential.
What size inner tube practise I need?
The uncomplicated respond is: one that fits inside your tyre. But like many bicycle-related things, it'southward a bit more complicated than this.
Your inner tube needs to fit the bicycle's bore and also the width of the tyre fitted, so at that place are two significant measurements to get right.
Let's start with diameter – brand sure you lot've got the correct size inner tube for your cycle'due south bore or yous'll find it difficult to fit.
Road wheels are unremarkably '700c' sized (622mm in diameter, when measured from the bead seat to bead seat) and will need 700c tubes to lucifer. These are sometimes referred to as 28in tubes, but that'southward relatively uncommon.
Meanwhile, mountain bike and commuter bike wheels and tyres are typically sized in inches.
There are more options here, with 26in, 27.5in and 29in wheeled bikes beingness sold.
27.5in wheels are the same bore every bit 650b, the smaller wheel size you'll sometimes find on gravel bikes in place of 700c wheels. And 29-inch wheels are the aforementioned size as 700c, though they're normally wider.
Kids' bikes will have smaller wheels, usually 16in, 20in or 24in, and need smaller bore inner tubes and tyres, equally will most folding bikes.
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The recommended bicycle and tyre sizes should exist stamped on the inner tube itself. Simon Bromley/Firsthand Media
While it's vital to lucifer wheel bore with the bore of your inner tube, there's a bit more than leeway in tyre width, typically measured in millimetres (sometimes confusingly expressed as "c", e.g. 25c) for road bikes and inches for mountain bikes.
All inner tubes will come with a recommended range for tyre width – for example 700 × 20–25 for traditional route tyres, 700 × 25–32 for wider road tyres.
A narrower inner tube will balloon out to fill a tyre a few millimetres wider than its recommended width – only don't take it too far or it might explode.
Likewise, a tube rated a chip wider than your tyre will unremarkably fit, although it tin be awkward to fit one that'due south a lot wider than the tyre.
- How to replace an inner tube
Mutual inner tube sizes
Inner tube sizes vary by maker, so one time you've decided on a brand you lot need to check the options it sells, but typically they'll include options similar to those listed below:
Road, gravel, cyclocross and hybrid (driver) tyres: 700c wheels
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
- 700 × 20–25mm – for traditional road bikes with 700c wheels and 20 to 25mm tyres
- 700 × 25–32mm – for road bikes with 700c wheels and 25 to 32mm tyres
- 700 × 28–37mm – for route, cyclocross, gravel and hybrid bikes with 700c wheels and 28 to 37mm tyres
- 700 × 32–47mm – for road cyclocross, gravel and hybrid bikes with 700c wheels and 32 to 47mm tyres
Mountain bike tyres: 26in, 27.5in (or 650b), 29in diameter wheels
The following sizes are common for mountain bicycle tyres, regardless of whether your automobile has 26in, 27.5in (650b) or 29in wheels.
There is some overlap in sizes betwixt 650b gravel and mountain bike tyres, but gravel tyres are commonly sold in metric sizes as listed in a higher place.
- Upwards to 2in width – narrow, former-schoolhouse MTB tyres
- 2–2.3in – typical XC (cross-state) MTB tyres
- 2.three–2.6in – trail, enduro, all-rounder MTB tyres
- 2.six–3.0in – 'plus' sized MTB tyres
- Over 3.0in – fat bike MTB tyres
Inner tube materials – butyl vs latex
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
Inner tubes are typically made of prophylactic: either butyl or latex.
Butyl safety tubes are the most mutual. They're cheaper than latex, but they are heavier and the interaction with your tyre creates more rolling resistance.
Along with affordability, another plus of butyl is that it'south easier to repair using a standard puncture repair kit, so you should get more life out of information technology than a latex tube.
Some makers sell lighter-weight butyl tubes with thinner walls aslope their standard range, if yous desire to relieve a few grams.
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
For even more than weight saving, latex tubes are significantly lighter than butyl tubes, plus there's less friction against the tyre, resulting in lower rolling resistance.
On the other hand, they're much more delicate and more awkward to fit because they're floppier than butyl tubes.
If y'all have carbon rims on a bike with rim brakes, you as well need to exist careful non to drag your brakes on long descents because overheating can cause latex tubes to fail. Some wheel makers recommend confronting using latex tubes with their rims.
Another drawback of latex tubes is that they leak air more quickly, and then yous may need to pump them upward before every ride.
If y'all practise get a flat, they're hard to repair also and y'all need a different blazon of repair kit. They're an option you might choose if you're seriously into racing or fourth dimension trials to give you that extra border in place of everyday practicality.
Schwalbe
There are also more esoteric inner tubes out there. Tubolito, for example, sells tubes that are claimed to be lighter, more flat-resistant and more than compact than a standard butyl tube, and more robust than latex. Schwalbe'due south Aerothan tubes brand similar claims.
At more than than ~£25 each, both are an expensive choice, only might suit the weight weenie or help save space and weight if yous continue one as a spare.
Presta or Schrader valves?
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
Every bit nosotros've already alluded to, your bike'due south wheels are nigh likely to exist compatible with either a Presta valve or a Schrader valve, with Presta the more than common of the two standards on enthusiast bikes.
Presta valves are longer and narrower than Schrader valves. They have a screw at the tip that you lot unscrew when attaching a pump for inflation. Yous can too printing down on the unscrewed tip to release air.
Some Presta valves take a removable core, which tin be replaced in the event of harm, but exist careful non to accidentally unscrew the core when pumping up your tyre.
Schrader valves are shorter and stubbier, and will look just similar the valves on your auto tyres.
When buying inner tubes, make certain y'all get the right valve: a Schrader valve won't fit through the valve hole in a cycle rim drilled for a Presta valve. And a Presta valve is too narrow to fit securely in a Schrader valve hole. Endeavor to employ this combo and the rubber effectually the valve will be exposed and rub confronting the valve hole, risking a puncture.
Some Presta tubes come with valves with removable cores (the bit that actually holds the air in), whereas in others the cadre is fixed in identify.
Removable cores unscrew from the valve stem – there's a lilliputian tool available to grip the sides of the cadre – so y'all can supplant a faulty one or squirt sealant into the tube (more than on than below). They tin sometimes unscrew by accident when y'all're using a pump, though.
What about the Dunlop valve?
Aside from Presta and Schrader, at that place'southward besides a third type of valve – the Dunlop valve (sometimes referred to as a Woods valve), more common on urban bikes in mainland Europe. It's very rarely seen in the UK/U.s., or on road and mountain bikes.
The base of a Dunlop valve is similar in diameter to a Schrader valve, only is inflated with the same pump head as a Presta valve.
Inner tube valve lengths
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
Presta valves come up in unlike lengths also. With deeper section rims becoming more common, it'due south of import to make sure that your valve is long plenty to beetle through the rim and allow you attach a pump to it.
We've been on rides where we've got a flat and plant that the spare inner tube kept in a saddlebag equally default didn't have a long enough valve for the wheels we were riding. Fortunately, we were carrying a few patches and could gear up the punctured tube.
Presta valve inner tubes are available from a range of makers with valve lengths up to 80mm. At that place's no harm in using a valve longer than y'all demand, although information technology might look a fleck odd to use a peculiarly long valve on shallow wheels.
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
If your wheels are even deeper than the longest valve you can find, you tin buy valve extenders to add length to your valve. At that place's a range of lengths available: Zipp for instance makes extenders from 27mm up to 98mm long.
Valve extenders screw onto the height of the Presta valve. Some are just hollow tubes, others include a valve at the superlative, which means that you need to remove the valve core from your inner tube before screwing on the extender.
The former are simpler to use, only add a expressionless space above the valve, making inflation harder, while with the latter you lot need to make sure that in that location'southward a fully airtight seal to the inner tube's valve stem, or your tube will leak air.
Also look out for valve rattle with deeper section wheels. It's an annoyance rather than a problem and tin can unremarkably be stopped by taping around where the valve stalk protrudes from the wheel rim (this is a classic play a trick on used by pro team mechanics).
Puncture protection
I of the big advantages of a tubeless setup is that the sealant within the tyre should seal many of the flats that typically bedevil the cycle passenger.
If you don't want to go tubeless, or you haven't got the components on your bicycle to go tubeless, you may reduce your chances of getting a flat tyre by using inner tubes like those from Slime, which come up filled with sealant.
Fitted exactly like a normal inner tube, they're a bit heavier and more expensive only should self-seal if you become a smaller puncture.
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
Another choice is to put sealant into a normal inner tube. It'due south a task that's easier if yous can remove the valve core: the sealant can glue up the valve, making it tricky to go air into your tube.
And some sealants volition weaken latex tubes, causing them to fail, and so brand sure that your combo is uniform.
Simon Bromley/Immediate Media
Or, if you've really had information technology with flats, at that place are solid tyres from the likes of Tannus and inserts such as Vittoria'due south AirLiner.
Both brands also sell anti-puncture liners that sit between the inner tube and the tyre tread. Nosotros'd recommend upgrading your tyres or trying tubeless kickoff, though.
Or go tubeless
David Caudery / Immediate Media
If all this seems like difficult work, and you've got tubeless compatible rims and tyres, there's always the choice to become tubeless.
To recap: a tubeless setup removes the need for an inner tube (the clue is in the name). Instead, the tyre creates an airtight seal with the rim to hold pressure, but like a automobile tyre.
Tubeless tyres are used in conjunction with sealant, added to the tyre during installation. The sealant should fill the kind of small-scale cuts that could otherwise cause a flat with an inner tube.
With that in mind, a tubeless setup should result in fewer punctures. You can also run tubeless tyres at a lower pressure because in that location's no take a chance of pinching the tube, potentially improving condolement and grip.
On the other paw, getting an closed seal can sometimes exist tricky when setting up tubeless tyres, peculiarly with high-force per unit area road tyres. And there's the cost of upgrading your setup, too.
If you lot do get tubeless, it's still a expert idea to accept an inner tube (and a tyre boot and plug kit) with you, and then you have the option of adding a tube and making it home in case you get a serious apartment.
- How to set up tubeless route tyres
What Size Inner Tube Do I Need,
Source: https://www.bikeradar.com/advice/buyers-guides/bike-inner-tubes/
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