Today’s quick tip comes to us from RBR reader Brian Rees, who offers a tip about carrying a spare tube or tubes:
I not only put my spare tube in a ziplock bag with a touch of baby powder to make it easier to install, I put that inside a shoe-shine cloth (provided in some hotels) to ensure it doesn’t rub against tools in my saddle bag. It also provides me something to wipe my hands off with after fixing the flat. (Any such cloth will do; the main thing is to protect your spare tube(s) from anything that can rub or poke them.)
Putting baby powder in with tubes is great unless you have wet weather. Yhe powder creates a sticky mess when it gets wet.
I don’t have or use baby/talcum powder – it’s pretty toxic stuff, environmentally speaking, and I don’t have a baby in the house! Arrow root powder works as well, is inexpensive, and available at grocers.
Is this a tip from 1985? I use tubeless tires, as does any reasonable person who embraces convenience and performance. Almost all of my punctures are fixed with sealant and the rest are fixed easily with a plug . I now carry one of the new thermoplastic tubes for an extreme situation. But I haven’t had to use a tube in at least 5 years. Please consider offering tips more relevant to 2023 than 1993.
I have tubeless as well and I carry a plug, an inner tube, and a spare tire, just so that when I’m in the middle of nowhere I can get going again.
you are always welcome to NOT read the article. or start your own web page and post whatever the F you want!
WOW! Congratulations on the most rude comment I’ve read on this site. I used to belong to a Sport Touring Motorcycle Group run out of Norway. The webmaster had to shut it down because of rude and ad hominem comments.
“as does any reasonable person who embraces convenience and performance” . . . Wow, really? I consider myself to be a reasonable person (who also embraces convenience and performance), and I use tubes in about half of my wheelsets . . . And you’ve been using tubeless technology since 1993?? (“consider offering tips more relevant to 2023 than 1993”)
It’s fine to use tubes. They’re not nearly as convenient and rolling resistance is compromised (unless you’re using latex). Do you embrace the rotary dial phone, too? The 1993 reference is called exaggeration. Been using tubeless about 10 years.
The baby powder trick only applies to butyl tubes, and NOT thermoplastic (e.g.Tubolito) spare tubes.
I only use organic, Fair-Trade, non-scented corn starch from Peru. Because it is grown high in the Andes it is less dense and saves weight, thus worth the added expense.