What Are The Best Inner Tubes For Cycling? | Butyl Vs Latex Vs TPU

Which inner tubes do you use? 🚴 Let us know in the comments below! 👇

I've been on latex on 2 road bikes for over one year and can deffo feel the difference, and lower rolling is a fact. Have to check tire pressure every ride, but I did that before anyhow, not an issue for me. They are diffidently Smoother and quieter. Have a tpu as a spare, they are brilliant for that, light and small.

Switched to (Pirelli) TPU over summer, from butyl, and can definitely feel a more lively but compliment ride. Like it. No punctures yet. Cost soon forgotten. What's strangely weird is NOT smelling rubber when you let the air out.

Only Alex and Ollie could have that much fun discussing... inner tubes.

Solid info here, you nailed this one. I'm a latex tube guy myself. Pumping them daily is no big deal because it's so important to ensure tire pressure is correct, I always did that daily even with butyl tubes.

Just switched to tpu, more compliant ride. Had a normal flat, used the pirelli puncture kit: worked great.

Started with butyl, then for a short time TPU, and now the last 4 years I ride Vredestein Superlight Latex inner tubes with Michelin Power 25mm tyres, this is for me the best and fastest combination.

I have been happy with the RideNow TPU tubes. (GP5000 tires & Alpinist CLII wheels.) A lot of the roads around here are pretty rough and they've held up fine.

Traditional tubes are trivial to repair in field and a patch kit - of 50 patches and two glue tubes - will last several years. I had tubes with as many as 15 patches applied to them before I had to trash the tube. Likewise - butyl tubes play nicely with tubeless sealant ( yes, i know ), which creates double-protection against punctures - which Is great for commuting.

I just swapped to TPU ridenow tubes. Very very suprised and the weight saving is great. I just put up a review up on my channel of my first experience with them. 👌👍

Ollie is building quite a trusted persona. He's a smart guy. He's passionate about technical details. He's eager to learn about product performance. He's intellectually honest. Ergo... we can trust what he says.

Love this video! Very informative and helpful, I was wondering if there was something wrong with my latex tube because it was deflating overnight , now I know!

I've gone tubeless on all my bikes now. However I always carry a spare tube just in case. TPU is perfect for this, the small size is biggest advantage. When I have used them they have been faultless and I haven't really noticed a difference from the tubeless set up. Well worth the additional cost and probably the best bang for buck upgrade you can make on your bike, even if it's just carrying it around unused.

I’ve been using Latex (Vredestein) for 15 years now on my road bikes. I wouldn’t use anything else! Much better feel and I think my secret weapon to going fast on the flat or downhill. I carry butyl as a spare and use butyl in my commuting/ shopping bike. Would only ever consider TPU for hill climb races which I probably will never do as I’m useless uphill! Incidentally I use Vredestein fortezza tricomp (old stock), now superseded by fortezza senso. The higher TPI version not the cheaper all weather. I have not had a single puncture in 15 years due to anything getting through the tyre. The only punctures I have had are when the latex tubes age (after about 5 years) and fail typical around the valve stem or abrasion on anything sharp on the inside of the wheel such as caps covering the spoke holes which I was using instead of rim tape to save weight. Just thought I’d mention as Vredestein rarely gets a mention. Grip is also excellent (better imho than equivalent conti GP) though arguably they wear out faster. They certainly feel fast especially with latex tubes.

Have used butyl the most. Tried latex and loved the feel. But as mentioned, did not like having to maintain pressure constantly. I found this also made them more susceptible to pinch flats. Started using Ridenow TPUs. In the last 2 years, I've had one really annoying valve with a slow leak. Since then, no issues. Love the Ridenow TPUs for the balance of price, performance, and practicality

Recently switched to Schwable Aerothan 60mm on GP5000s with Roval Rapide CLX rim brake wheels. It’s important to mention that TPU can be used on Carbon Rim Brake wheels. I rode a 100 miler with TPU and had no issues. There were some rough roads and had no issues. I believe they inner tubes helped my climbs and speed on the flats.

Currently using Cyclami 38g TPU, I'm so impressed with its weight/ air retention & road performance. Every time I ride w/ TPU just like ride w/upgraded wheels set. But got punctured/ leakage due to quality issue on some manufacturer is so frustrating anyway.

As a racer, I've used all three types of inner tube. And tubeless. For me, tubeless doesn't seal above 50psi. I've been stranded too many times. Much easier to get going with an inner tube setup. Latex is fast but fragile. TPU can be found cheap online and makes a cool sound when rolling. If including the spare, you'll save about 300g in weight. I'm not going back to butyl.

Latex tubes (green or pink), 28mm GP5000 on wide HED Ardennes rims at 38-40 psi: comfort, speed and easy to maintain. Cornering with wide rims is something you have to experience to appreciate, the 28mm and HED rims make this possible (no light bulb deformation of the tire in cornering). Great job guys, as usual. Need to come up with a new "doctor" moniker for Ollie...

I use lightweight butyl tubes on some of my bikes. But I use tpu in the saddle bag, can fit 3 tubes in a smaller space, and carry a small tpu repair kit, just in case.