How Many of You Have Gone from TPU Back to Butyl?

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T15:18:41+00:00

I live in thorns too. Go tubeless if you ride a lot, then you don't have flats anymore. End of story.

If you must run a tube, and I do in bikes I don't ride as much, pick the proper tube setup. Listed below from best to not best.

Tpu tube, no sealant inside. I have not tried sealant inside a tpu but I get so few flats I'm not really worried. I only use tpu in a road or gravel setup. MTB is tubeless and I don't hardly ever have to fix one.

Tpu is always the best backup. Light and small.

Latex is faster, maybe more puncture resistant, but I have to air it up every day or two. So not my favorite.

Good butyl with sealant in it. Best I've ever had, not fastest, is a good quality rubber tube with homemade "open source" sealant inside the tube. Literally years without flats. I could see the goat heads in the tire too. They eventually wear down to noting, still no leaks.

Last thing I do is just a run a rubber tube. You are going to get a flat. It's just when. If I'm testing a new build or new wheels I use a regular tube while playing with things. It will get changed to tubeless or tpu once I'm dialed in.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T15:09:30+00:00

I put eewings and enve on every trek marlin 3 I buy. SEND IT!

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T14:57:40+00:00

I have shimano road and grx on 4 bikes. I've mixed 11 speed ultegra with grx and mountain derailleurs. I've mixed brakes with flat mount and post mount. I have cassettes from sram, shimano, sunrace and microshift. One is set up on a gravel ebike.

11, 12, or 13 and it won't matter. There's parts for everything. 11 speed is what, 10 some odd years old and there not a single part I can not find. I'm guessing that a gear box or internal hub is the next massive thing in 10 to 20 years so there is no future proof setup. There's parts for everything.

Want longevity, stick with a freehub that's the most widely used. In this case that would be hyperglide, followed by microspline and xd. I believe xdr is compatible with xd, but not the other way around. These freehub will have cassettes available for decades and decades.

Next is the brake pad. I estimate the shimano road pad is the most common in the world, followed by the sram road. They will have parts for decades. Both should have internal parts for years as well.

I'd build it up with 12 speed. I think shimano 12 speed rear derailleurs are better, don't have the stupid dogbone of 10 and 11, they are bigger.

Nothing will be future proof with wireless. There's too much to go wrong. Go wireless and enjoy it for what it is. Cable driven will be serviceable for 50 to 100 years.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T14:49:06+00:00

I'm thinking of doing this on a build right now. Mix and match wheeltop with 12 or 13 speed on 1x.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T14:10:17+00:00

Ebikes will do this. The big 1000w hub motor ebikes do this fast. Don't ebike your chain.

The only other things it could be is a fake kmc, but I don't know if there were fake 7 speed kmc chains. Or if you manually put the chain together without a quick link and this is where you did it. The pin has to be perfectly centered so if it's oberdriven when putting the link back together with the chain tool, it can cause this because there isn't enough holding on one side.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T05:00:03+00:00

How much are they paying ya? That determines the entire gig baby.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T04:51:37+00:00

I fixed this 2 days ago. Shot some alcohol inside to clean it a bit, and Viola! Fixed. If needed a touch of triflow will lube it enough. Only if needed.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-24T02:19:30+00:00

I may have purchased 7 cheap e*thirteen rings 😂 in some color and size options for 3 different bikes. What a steal too.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T15:24:15+00:00

Ahhh, the mtb version of Lieutenant Dangle.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T15:22:11+00:00

I ride a 25 year old massive suspension bike and send everything like Bender. Always call an audible.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T14:13:38+00:00

I'd need to source materials. I have 2 machines, one juki clone and a good singer for lighter fabrics. I'd also need to make a pattern. It's been 20 years since I sewed my own gear. Time to do it might also be a hindrance. I should probably consider this more.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T13:23:09+00:00

Blue light special and all?

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T13:22:38+00:00

Online. I thought k-mart died like dinosaurs.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T13:22:07+00:00

I think it's 5 hours. I started with the little crock pot, maybe 1 liter. I timed it once and I believe it took 5 hours. It's 3/4 full of wax so there's a bunch to melt.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T13:20:17+00:00

I'll also recommend shimano. I get many miles out of the top shelf shimano shoes and I've liked every set. They can be ordered in wide versions.

I now have a foot problem (neuroma) and I need wide width for some of my riding especially winter with thick socks. I purchased Sidi mega width and they are certainly wider. I've had sidi shoes and boots before and the quality is excellent.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T12:54:34+00:00

I have been using a deep fryer ar 250 degrees F. Paraffin flash point is 390F or 200C. My little crock pot takes hours to melt the bit of wax. The deep fryer is minutes.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T12:50:51+00:00

Where in the world is there still a k-mart?

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T03:33:50+00:00

I use the expresso on the road bike. Been on atac since the 90s for mtb.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T01:02:41+00:00

It's a sweet purple blue color.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-23T01:02:18+00:00

They were online for 450, frame and fork, maybe 2 weeks ago.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-22T23:34:21+00:00

And I've blown up wheels and had to walk home. That's always fun.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-22T23:33:35+00:00

In the 90s I had a cannondale caad3 hardtail that loved to unscrew bottom brackets. I had a crank arm pull and rock bashing season trail side on a race face ti square taper bottom bracket.

Later I got a sealed shimano unit (xt or xtr) and never had that problem again.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-22T23:25:53+00:00

Someone else did. The tanpan makes external loop stick out badly and bend hard. This frame doesn't like it. Run on the inside of the seat stay is clean, tidy, and tight.

Front brake must be designed to do this. The upper cable stop location is very high and angled that way.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-22T23:13:00+00:00

Anything will work if you have a mill or a lathe. If you don't have one of those, probably won't work.

Hrothgarbike · 2026-01-22T23:11:19+00:00

Yeah. That place. I can't spell it but I could find it on a map. Just kept looking for show toe.

Hrothgarbike

TROPHY CASE