R.I.P. Hutchinson Inner Tube

[garrett01]

First of all, I'm not a bike fanatic. I use bicycling as it's my only source of transportation for now.

-------------
Well, my 5-month old Hutchinson tube gave up the ghost today. I had a short valve stem (as part of it was inside.) Deflated the tire then tried pulling it out. No success. Took the tire off and pushed the valve out. That worked for a bit.

My tires are maximum inflation pressure of 50 PSI. I wanted to go 40 PSI on it. Got to 40 PSI then decided to go to about 42 PSI since I knew the thing would leak air trying to get the pump chuck off.

Well, I put in another huge pump from the pump when I hear a loud "PSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTT" come from the valve stem. Then my tire was half flat. I pulled out the valve stem just to make sure it wasn't it, but sure enough the tire went flat.

Took the tire off again. Inspected the tube. Sure enough, there was a crack near where the valve is vulcanized to the tube. Pushed it through the hole, and the thing fell off. I still have it. I'm just so lucky it didn't happen when I was riding. Because it could have happened if I didn't put two more pumps in.

Well, that's another tube wasted. Don't know where to get a GOOD quality of tube for a low price (like below $15). I really thought this Hutchinson tube would last, but it only lasted 5 months.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this tube. Perhaps fill it with water? Make rubber bands out of it. Just cut the think into one big sheet of rubber? I'm thinking about filling it with water, then cutting it into the one big sheet of rubber.

When I buy the new tubes I'm probably going to buy two; one for the front and one for the back. I guess I'm going to have to use the Kenda as a spare. (sigh..)

--
BTW, has anyone on here have any experience with running Continental inner tubes?

[Painkiller]

look up, do you have a black cloud following you around? I have never really had that bad of luck with tubes, sorry to hear about that. If you are in the US checkout pricepoint.com. I buy tubes from there quite often. I go for the 5 qty. deal where you get 5 tubes for around $15
http://www.pricepoint.com/detail/17440-345_PNTRT7_SET-3-Parts-74-Tubes/Price-Point-Tube---Set-of-5.htm
I think they are worth the money and as good as anything else and better than most for the price. Just make sure you do not have any burrs or hairline cracks in your wheels, use rim tape or strips. pricepoint sells those too.
some tubes just do better than other tubes even of the same brand

[Joe_W]

(11-21-2012, 11:25 PM)garrett01 Wrote:  Well, my 5-month old Hutchinson tube gave up the ghost today. I had a short valve stem (as part of it was inside.) Deflated the tire then tried pulling it out. No success. Took the tire off and pushed the valve out. That worked for a bit.

... and by doing this you cut the tube on the valve hole. Don't use force there, don't press the tube against the possibly sharp rim of the valve hole. It is (well should be) covered by rim tape (mostly), but using force is not a good idea there. Please check that the rim tape is still intact there, otherwise you can end up having the same problem again.

Quote:Well, that's another tube wasted. Don't know where to get a GOOD quality of tube for a low price (like below $15). I really thought this Hutchinson tube would last, but it only lasted 5 months.

Wow, tubes sure are expensive in the US. Even in the local bike shops you get Schwalbe and Continental tubes for about 7EUR (10 USD?) a piece. Even if you use the vending machine outside the bike shop.

Quote:BTW, has anyone on here have any experience with running Continental inner tubes?

I have tubes by Schwalbe and Conti (and Michelin, but those are lightweight latex, so they are... different). They are both decent brands and I have not had any problems (except self inflicted when I didn't know better, like using sharp tools to install the tyre, not checking the rim tape for damage, not finding the metal shards in the tyre, having a great big gaping hole in the side wall and stuff like that, yeah, all of it embarassing, but I did learn from that). Good luck!