Context: My “fast bike” is just a gravel bike with Conti Ultra Sport III (32mm wide) tires, and I do not train for speed, but endurance (total amateur, never been in a bike race, and don’t plan to).

I put RideNow TPU tubes (36g version) in the tires a few days ago after hearing on and on about how good TPU tubes are.

I never had an issue with butyl tubes, and collectively, they’ve been trouble free on three bikes with a combined mileage of 15,000 km+ , so I’ve been pretty apprehensive about changing them.

The last three rides have been on TPU for about 150km. I’ve been riding in the same areas I usually do (strava says some segments have been ridden by me over 60 times).

My efforts have NOT been all out, and I’m not even trying to be fast (i.e. not getting aero as often as I could), so I come home quite fresh.

Over those 150km, I’ve recorded dozens of personal bests, including the first ride out with them, which had some nasty headwind.

I’m comparing my speeds with my previous bests, and they are something like 5km/h - 10km/h faster. This is with a ton of extra weight on my bike: metal bottles x 2 or 3, dashcam, headlight, bike computer, heavy-ass toolkit (butyl tube + hand pump + electric pump + multitool + extras…), frame bag, top tube bag, two “snack bags” hanging off the handlebars, and snacks.

Two days ago, I actually maxed out my gears at a cadence of 100 on the flats (over 50 km/h).

I’m speechless.

If this is the kind of difference that TPU tubes make, I honestly can’t imagine what race tires would do. No wonder the pros are able to go so fast!

Is this the typical TPU experience?

  • horse@feddit.orgEnglish
    81·
    1 month ago

    TPU tubes are objectively faster than butyl tubes, due to reduced rolling resistance and they are also about 100g lighter per tube. 300g weight saving (100g per wheel, plus one spare tube) is not too shabby and even with the more expensive brands (I use the Pirelli ones) TPU tubes are probably the cheapest way to save that kind of weight on your bike. The effect is definitely quite noticable imho, but if you’re going 5-10km/h faster, then I doubt the gains are 100% from the inner tubes.

    I use TPU tubes on both my road and my gravel bike and would not consider going back to butyl. Tubeless would probably be even better, especially for gravel, but I’m not ready to commit to that.