Imagine a world where flat tyres never ruin your bike ride. In that same world, changing your tyre is a simple procedure that doesn’t involve milky hands or the inability to mount that tubeless tyre whilst puffing and panting over a mini-pump. People have tried to solve the problem of flats ever since air filled tyres.
But has anyone ever succeeded? Well, tubeless tyres and wheels these days are very good indeed, they are super light, punctures are infrequent and as long as you don’t change your tyres every other day there isn’t even that much faff involved with them. However, some folk still love tubes and particularly those who ride a little faster benefit the extra rigidity that the interface between tube and tyre creates (anyone who suffers from ‘burping’ tubeless tyres will know what we mean).
Well, word on the street has it that possibly the best tube yet has been in existence for quite some time, somehow avoiding nearly all mountain bikers’ radars. They are not claiming to be completely puncture resistant (patch kits available), but they are super light and in tests so far they have succumbed to nothing. Actually, there is a reason that word about these paper-thin tubes from Swiss firm Eclipse hasn’t spread like wild-fire… The price.
We can’t wait to get our own to put to test, although the piggy bank might need raiding first as these come in at an eye-watering €49.00 each..
The guys over on our sister-site, Dirt, have just featured these astonishing tubes in their Fresh Produce section. Click here to find out how they could work for all of us – from cross-country to enduro riders.
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