I found this article on bicycle inner tubes. I am considering TPU inner tubes for Midwest road racing. Are TPUs worth the investment?
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3Actual UCI-sanctioned racing? Are you using spray adhesive on your pin-on number yet so it doesn't form a mini-parachute when you're racing? If it's not for UCI-sanctioned actual races and you're not already doing things like that, don't waste time or money overthinking the merits of different tubes. Get out there, ride your bike, race, and learn.– Andrew HenleCommented Jun 18 at 20:38
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Buy one, ride it, and form your own opinion. They're cheap on aliexpress, btw.– Criggie ♦Commented Jun 19 at 9:55
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I’ve used the Tubolito S-Tubo Road for 6Mm now and so far I’m happy with them. They are a bit of a hassle to install because they are so flimsy. I had one big puncture (a cut in the sidewall caused by a big, sharp piece of gravel) which I was easily able to fix with a glueless Schwalbe TPU patch and it’s held up nicely so far.– MichaelCommented Jun 19 at 18:50
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1 Answer
Nobody can tell you if something is worth the investment for you. That you have to decide yourself. But to provide some data to base your decision on, Bicycle Rolling Resistance has done a test, where they compared Continental GP5000S TR with different inner tubes (and tubeless). In that test, tubeless was the best, followed by two latex inner tubes before TPUs and finally butyl tubes. Second from last was a TPU tube, however, being worse than some light-weight butyl tubes.
The differences between any of these are quite small. At 80 psi, the best option (tubeless) is 10.3 watts and the worst (Continental race butyl) is 13.0 watts. So 2.7 W of losses in rolling resistance for one tyre in this test setup.
If the question is, are TPU tubes worth the money given their savings in rolling resistance, I suppose they are if you have 25mm GP5000S TR you want to use with an inner tube which is not made of latex, you drive 29 km/h with 42.5 kg load on each tyre, and you want to gain approximately one watt (the difference between the best TPU and best butyl). The results probably generalise to different tyre widths and to slightly different speeds and weights, perhaps even to different tyre models and different surfaces. Whether the price difference is worth the savings is for you to choose.
If the question is, are TPU tubes worth the money given their weight, the same test reports the weights of the tested tubes. The lightest TPU is thereabout with the tubeless sealant at 22 g (this of course depending on how much sealant you use), while the heaviest butyl tube (Conti race 28) is 80 g heavier. Is saving 160 g worth it? As bike parts go, this is probably one of the cheaper 160 g weight savings, but it doesn’t necessarily make it worth it.
There are other benefits with TPU tubes. I have some that I bought for spare tubes for my road bike because they pack incredibly small, meaning that I can fit them easily to my saddle bag with other stuff I have there. Their problem as spares is that they are harder to patch if punctured and some electric mini-pumps can melt their valve stem which is also made from the same TPU material.
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2Maybe not such an issue for a road cyclist but TPU tubes tend to be more fragile for storage. If the rolled tube is left floating around a riding pack without a protective cover the edges will develop holes. Commented Jun 19 at 7:16
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That’s a very good point, @WarrenBurton. Spare tubes tend to be just put in the saddle bag and left unused until needed. At which point they might be completely unusable.– EyeBrownCommented Jun 19 at 9:32
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@WeiwenNg ...which might only push the problem down the road though - a metal stem will efficiently conduct the heat to the tube itself, which is even worse at coping with that. Commented Jun 19 at 19:42