TPU Tube Pre-Order
We want to apologize to our customers who have been trying to order our TPU tubes: We didn’t anticipate this much demand. By the time many customers saw our newsletter announcing the last re-stock, the most popular sizes were already sold out. We understand your frustration. It wasn’t intended that way. When we got our recent shipment of Rene Herse TPU tubes, we thought there would be enough to last a while…
Of course, we are happy that our customers share our excitement about the light weight, superior speed, excellent strength and superb quality of these tubes. But that doesn’t do much good if riders can’t get the tubes they need. How to make sure all our customers get their TPU tubes? We’re now offering pre-ordering for the next shipment. The tubes are on the way from Germany, where they are made in small batches. (We don’t want to keep your money for longer than necessary, that’s why we only offer pre-orders once the tubes are in transit.)
All sizes will be in stock, however, we were not able to manufacture every valve style. We’ve prioritized the 70 mm black valves, since they fit with all rims. Those are incoming in all sizes. We’re also getting the shorter 50 mm valves in silver and black in some sizes.
The feedback about the new Rene Herse TPU tubes has been extremely positive. For a component that’s so lightweight and offers such excellent performance, there isn’t much need for special precautions. You install them like any other lightweight tube, and then forget about them.
I’ve raced the new tubes in Unbound XL across the appropriately named Flint Hills of Kansas. (Above is my bike after the race.) I also ran them for our local Bon Jon Pass Out gravel race that included bombing down pothole-strewn gravel descents at 40+ mph (65 km/h) in the rain. I had zero flats and zero problems in either race. And the speed and comfort of the TPU tubes certainly helped. (And I need all the help I can get!)
If you run your tires tubeless and it’s working well for you, we’re not trying to persuade you to switch to tubes. But if you’re curious about our new TPU tubes, you can pre-order them now. We expect them to arrive in 1-2 weeks, and we’ll ship pre-orders first, in the order they were placed.
More information:
- 700C TPU tubes
- 650B / 26″ TPU tubes
- Real-world rolling resistance tests of TPU tubes are in the Summer 2024 Bicycle Quarterly.
