I spotted these tubes when they were first announced last year and I was intrigued.
Sounds like a good idea and the numbers quoted sound good - supposedly they also weight 260gms
Ordered some from CRC http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=61939 and the y arrived at the end of May.
My able assistant helped me with the unboxing
Not 260gms at all then!
344gms is silly heavy for me. My usual tubes are 120gms so these are putting over 200gms onto the bike - as rotational mass too which is the worst place :-(. These things had better work!
The tubey shaped bits go on the inside of the tread for the magic puncture resealing. The idea is that the tube is in compression when inflated instead of tension so if it gets a thorn puncture in naturally seals rather than opening up.
The tube's also got glycol slime stuff in it to also heal sealing punctures and a removable valve core so you can refill it with slime.
So the question is - do they work?
Yes!
3 months of hard riding including Mountain Mayhem and all the training rides up til then and I've not had one puncture! Not one! Not even a slow flat, or a sneaky garage flat! Zero!
Well worth the money, and, on balance, the extra weight for non-stop riding.
RUBYONONE RECOMMENDED *****
My concern is that, since you can't repair these, how long do they last? You see, even though you say you don't get punctures, you do but you don't lose pressure because the tube fixes itself. Eventually, these repairs must weaken the tube considerably, making total failure more likely. At least normal repairs have some structural strength. Given this and the weight issue, I'll stick with the old method.
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