TPU Tubes from AliExpress: the Good the Bad and the Ugly

The price from the industry is crazy.  A butyl tube will cost around $5 to $8.  A latex tube will cost $10 to $15 and the TPU tubes from brands have prices up to $30 to $40 a tube.  This makes getting a flat a financially painful event especially if you flat both wheels.  You could be out of $80.

The Ugly

Well, our friends from China have the fix for these overly expensive plastic tubes.  Ride Now on AliExpress has tubes that cost around the same price of a butyl tube.  So you get all the benefits of the TPU with the cost of a butyl tube But too good to be True?  Yes, it is.

The Valves Leak

Bubbles coming from the plastic Valve of the TPU tube which means a leak

Here is a picture of the tube underwater with the valve closed as you can see the tube is leaking air and you can see the bubbles.  I carry the TPU tubes in my saddle and I would transition to the TPU tubes as my butyl tubes would flat.  I had a flat while riding.  I changed the butyl tube to a TPU tube.  The next day the TPU tube was flat.  The best way to investigate where a leak is coming from is to submerge the tube under water as a leak will produce bubbles.  I submerged the tube under water to see if the tube had been damaged, no bubbles.  So this eliminated the chance was punctured on the riding home afterwards.  So I submerged the valve and found bubbles!

The bubbles came from  the plastic valve next to the valve core.

The Bottom Line…

The RideNow has a new improved design to solve the leaking problem.  The new RideNow tubes come in a shiny box with a mental valve.  The older versions had a hard plastic valve, probably where the leaks came from.  The newer RideNow tubes cost around the same price as a Latex tube so not too bad I will try the mental valve TPU tubes and report back.  But for now I suggest you stay away from the non-mental valve tubes.

Here is my Youtube Reviewhttps://youtu.be/SkBMxddc4KI