SCHWALBE Bicycle Tube - 40mm Presta/French (17 x 1.25-18 x 1.75-40mm Presta - SV5)

I have purchased and used these tubes before and have been happy with them. However, this time around the tube had a pinhole leak when I first took it out of the box and did a test inflation. So, quality control may be an issue here.What I can say with certainty is that I am unhappy to find that this broken product, sold by Amazon, is not able to be returned as defective and replaced.I didn't see anything on the product page indicating it could not be returned. I have returned defective products to Amazon in the past with little to no hassle. But this defective inner tube, for some reason, cannot be returned. I was directed to a long, general page of return restrictions that I'm loathe to slog through for an $8 item. There's probably an entry in there that says "inner tubes can't be returned", for whatever reason. Regardless, this is terrible customer service.

Poor quality tube. Schwalbe is usually known for good quality tires, premium tires. The tubes are a let down though.The tube itself is thick and holds air pressure for a good amount of time. However the valve seam is poor. In the middle of a fairly easy ride the valve seam tore and left me stuck with a flat. This was my back up tube and because it failed around the valve itself, I could not patch it. On the plus side, I had a very nice, scenic 3 mile walk back to my car...The tube was not over inflated and was being used with a properly sized tire. My concern is because I'm not the only reviewer to have this exact same failure.If this had a good valve seam, this would be a great tube. It resists pinch flats really well and holds air pressure amazingly well (if the valve seam is not torn...).Personally, I can't recommend buying this tube. I'll be going back to my old sunlite brand tube. They pinch flat easier, but at least I can patch that and ride home...

These are great light tubes that fit a very wide range of tire widths. I've used them on my touring bike for several thousand miles of self supported solo touring in the US and Canada in 700x32 Gator Skins and 700x42 Travel Contacts. I had a couple of flats and discovered that these tubes have some kind of white power in them that both slows the leaks down and marks where they occur on both the tire and tube! I never needed to fix a flat on the road because the leaks were slowed down enough that I could just pump up the tire every hour or so, and it was always trivial to find the hole and, if it was still in the tire. the object that caused the hole. Brilliant!, as Brits would say.These tubes, used in the Gator Skin tire on my front wheel, also made for a very comfortable ride. The fact hat they have replaceable presta valve stems is also important to me. I have had to replace tubes because I damaged the stem when pumping tires up on the road.Note added in late May:I 've kept these tubes as spares and when I first used one, it leaked down overnight. When I removed it for the tire and tested it, I found that that leak was in the valve. I ordered some replacement valve cores and replaced the core in this one. The leak is gone. They are great tubes, but I'll test them in the future before I use them!

I commute to work 22 miles by bicycle, ride a tandem with my wife on the weekends, go cycle touring, and try to do everything else by bicycle also. Because of this I have several different bikes and some of my bikes even have more than one wheel set so I need a lot of tubes and tires. My wife wanted to ride her mountain bike in comfort on paved and hard packed trails so I purchased these 40mm Presta/French (26 x 1.5-2.5 - 40mm Presta - SV13) Schwalbe bicycle tubes so I wouldn't have to pump her tires before every ride anymore and I installed them in a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires Schwalbe Marathon Supreme HS 382 Touring Road Bike Tire (26x2.0, Triple Nano Triple Nano Folding, Reflex) so I wouldn't have to repair any flat tires. I also had to buy a pair of Stem Savers VALVE STEM SAVER WOB ALY 1pr so I could use these Presta tubes in her old Schrader rims and now I only need to have one style of pump for all of our tires and Presta valves are said to leak less air than Schrader valves. I can now go about 2 or 3 times longer between pumping up her tires than I could with the cheap tubes that she was using before. Schwalbe tubes hold air pressure better than any other tube that I have tried. I have tried a lot of different tube brands and I have tried almost every brand of tube that fits a 700x37 tire because that is what I run on both my tandem, touring, and commuter bikes, and I used to get a lot of flats because of where I rode and the tires I was using. I also went through a lot of tubes simply because I always replace the tubes instead of patching just for safety because I love high speed descents. I decided to try Schwalbe tubes after reading reviews that they hold air better than other brands and I have been very pleased with their performance in that category. I can easily go several weeks without pumping up the tires on my commuter bike but I do give the tires a test squeeze before each ride. I love the tubes instruction sheet where it shows that you should pump your tires once every 30 days. I have actually gone 30 days without pumping my commuter bike's tires (I call it the 30 day challenge and I did it just to earn the badge of honor) and the tires were noticeably softer but still rideable after an entire month during which I rode about 24 days of pump free riding. Wow!I can not comment on their flat resistance because I had just switched most of my bikes tires to Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires before I switched to Schwalbe tubes and have not had a single flat since switching to the Schwalbe tires about 3 years ago. I admit that I am very lazy when it comes to tire repair. While my friends ride lighter tires and tubes so that they can ride faster, ironically they never leave me behind, they mostly just stay in practice and constantly improve their flat repairing speed and skills. I would rather ride on slightly heavier tubes and tires in order to avoid repairing flats.Do you really want to pump your tires before every ride? Do you really want to repair a flat in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, or blazing summer sun? Then put Schwalbe tubes in a pair of Schwalbe Marathon Supreme tires and you will no longer pump your tires before every ride nor will you have to stop to repair flats anymore.