Is there any reason to leave these damn things on my bike?

[Mike Bryant]

I too use the plastic cap on the spare tube in my saddle bag to keep the presta valve screw from wearing a hole in the tube. Also when I have to use a spare tube, I typically blow it up by mouth to give it form and help prevent kinking when inserting it into the tire. Probably nothing sanitary about it, but the thought of putting my mouth on a previously capped stem versus one that’s been stuffed in a seat bag for who-knows-how-long seems better.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[oldpotatoe]

Wow..46 posts...
So..as a corollary, you 'should' powder your tubes..keeps the tube from sticking to the inside of the tire, which CAN fail the tube. With powder, however, the tube does move around a little inside the tire. IF you have the tube secured tightly via this little nut, and the tube moves some, you 'can' rip the valve at the base of it=puncture that is NOT repairable..

[danman]

I’ve used them to balance a wheel.

[GonaSovereign]

A quick and dirty calculation:
If 10% of Earth’s population cycles, and averages one flat requiring a new tube every other year, those valve caps account for 35 million extra pieces of plastic chucked every year.

Seems like we can do without those. The dozen i have kicking around should last me several decades. The marginal gains of not producing, shipping and paying for those must add up to something worth not doing any longer.

[11.4]

Clearly a massive problem discussed only in the depths of winter.

It's critical to keep these lockrings on your valve stems. A little known fact is that power trainers such as a Kickr use valve stem lockrings to verify their estimates of miles covered when using Zwift. Failure to use them can cause up to a 1.27% undercounting of miles on Zwift, at which point the world begins to end faster than with a healthy covid-19 infection on your heels. Always use your lockrings.

And wasn't Chris King going to come out with finely machined anodized valve stem lockrings in mango and turquoise to match his hubs, headsets, and bottom brackets? About time.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by GonaSovereign

A quick and dirty calculation:
If 10% of Earth’s population cycles, and averages one flat requiring a new tube every other year, those valve caps account for 35 million extra pieces of plastic chucked every year.

Seems like we can do without those. The dozen i have kicking around should last me several decades. The marginal gains of not producing, shipping and paying for those must add up to something worth not doing any longer.

In addition to preventing the valve tip from puncturing the tube when the tube is in a saddle bag, the cap prevents the valve tip from puncturing the tube in shipping and storage as well. We can't completely due without the cap, although for shipping it could probably be replaced with a (recyclable) cardboard protector.