Truth In Labeling: Bike Tube Division

The lumpy surface of the Michelin Pro-Tek Max tubes now in the back tire of our bikes can’t be patched, which means (being that type of guy) I must carry along a spare tube in addition to a handful of CO2 cartridges. So, having cleaned out my tube stash, I ordered a pair from an Amazon supplier, not my usual bottom-dollar eBay suppliers, clearly described as fitting the Schwalbe Marathon Plus 700x35C tires.

The Amazon listing and the box label agreed, but (being that type of guy) I just had to extract the tube to see what I got:

Meetlocks tube size mismatch
Meetlocks tube size mismatch

Huh.

According to the seller, who speaks and writes English far better than I can handle Mandarin (or whatever):

Yes, you are right, you also didn’t bought wrong items for your tire. we marked the 700×28-32, just for our manufacture to difference from another big size from 700/35-45C, because if we marked the size 700×28-35C, sometimes , the worker will packing 700×35-45c into the packing, and let the tube can not used for the 700x35c customer..

Huh.

It turns out the tube has 35-38 embossed into the rubber, so it’s not obvious the tube would fit into the smaller  28-32 size tires as labeled. It all depends on what you trust: the mold, the tube’s stamp, the box label, or the advertising.

Next time around, an event I hope (but do not expect) lies far in the future, I’ll spend a bit more for what will undoubtedly be the same tube from the same factory, but from a vendor buying enough QC to ensure the workers know what they’re packing. Having all the labels match would be a definite bonus.

2 thoughts on “Truth In Labeling: Bike Tube Division

  1. It’s one of those “clock strikes 13” situations: you know the last strike is wrong, and it makes you wonder whether the rest are reliable.

    1. I’m absolutely certain each of those markings made perfect sense at the time; whether the tube (mold?) changed under the markings or the markings / labels moved from tube to tube, we’ll never know.

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