I don't have a whole lot of reporting to do, but according to this thread, I installed two 650B x 48 Rene Herse tubes on my custom Falconer on April 22. I have not ridden that bike since that time. Checking that bike right now, after two weeks, the tires are pretty firm. I'd definitely ride it. Finger gauge judges they're probably at like 25psi, and I would have pumped 48s up to maybe 30psi at install-time. So, I'd consider that normal air retention and leagues better than latex, and on-par with butyl.
Bill Lindsay El Cerrito, CA On Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 4:02:38 PM UTC-7 Ted Durant wrote: > Update on my experience. I continue to like the ones that successfully > inflated on my 700x32 tires. Yesterday I took out that bike for the first > time in a couple of weeks and the tires were quite soft. So, the tubes > don't retain air as well as butyl, but it's not worse enough to be a > problem. And I did a pretty hard ride and was pleased with how fast it > ended up being. > > I also ordered some 650x48 tubes, but RH sent me 700x48. By the time they > responded to my inquiry they were sold out of the 650's. Fortunately the > next batch arrived pretty quickly and they promptly sent them to me. I > mounted those today and once again needed 3 tubes to get 2 wheels done. > These ones felt sturdier than the 700c skinny ones, but maybe it was just > the extra width. Installation went fine, but as I inflated it the valve > stem got sucked up into the rim. Weird! Deflated, checked for any snagging, > and tried again, same result. Repeat, same result. So I decided to remove > the tube and see what was going on. The tube came right out of the tire, > minus the valve stem which this time stayed firmly put in the rim, fully > detached from the tube. > > RH still hasn't responded to my inquiry about the two 700c tubes that > failed, which I sent back with the mis-shipped tubes. After this one, at 3 > out 9 tubes failing, I am well put off by these. I certainly wouldn't carry > one as a spare ... I'd have to carry at least three to feel confident that > in crappy field conditions and dead tired I'd be able to successfully > install one. I also think that doing a patch in the field would be a roll > of the dice - no way to be sure you could get the tube out without tearing > it. > > I'm very interested to hear the experience of others. Could be user error. > But I have over 50 years of wrenching experience, including 2 summers in a > bike shop, so if these are beyond my skill level, it's pretty hard to see > how these would be useful to anyone but a competitive rider with a budget > (or product sponsorship) and highly skilled support. > > Ted Durant > Milwaukee WI USA > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/63cb4dd2-0156-4d7d-838b-d750d5acd21bn%40googlegroups.com.
