How To Fold That Tub!

…Well, you know what he asked because the title gave it away…

“35 years on tubulars and I’ve never seen one folded the way you did. Share with us the techniques, please?”

Ok, since I’ve been asked so many times – here you go:

1. Stretch the tub out long and thin, but so that rubber is down and glue is up

2. Pinch the non-valve end flat and fold over about the length of your little finger

3. Now just continue rolling – make it really tight, and force the air out as you go

4. When you get to the end of the roll just aim to be as tidy as possible with where the valve goes

5. Finally, to help get the rolled tub as small as possible wrap it with some tape – squeeze as you wrap

All done!

Hope that helps for those who wanted to know. For info, the tyre being used above is a Schwalbe Milano 22c tub. It packs pretty small using this method meaning I can happily carry a ‘normal’ spare, rather than a featherweight 19c tub – although of course the latter will fold even smaller like this making it even easier to carry.

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Unfortunately I have already had one tubular puncture in only a handful of rides on my new Ambrosio wheels, however I’m pretty sure it was down to low tyre pressures – that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!

In case of any doubt, I like running tubs so much already that I’m thinking about selling my Lightweight clinchers…