Blip tubes are a clever design by Urbane Innovations, “that saves waste, saves packaging, and saves the time of explaining tube choices to consumers.” Lofty goals for a fundamental piece of cycling equipment. But tires and tubes are certainly often replaced items on a bike. So any efficiency gained has a large impact overall. Bicycle tubes come in a mind boggling array of sizes. Blip tubes seek to remove some of that confusion and help the environment at the same time.
By making the stem removable from the tube, spare tubes are purchased without a stem. With the stem removed the tube cost is less, the weight is lower, less packaging is needed, and less space is used for storage ( in shipping, bike shops and on the bike). Since 2003 there have been more than 100 million bicycles produced EACH YEAR worldwide (source: Worldometers.info). That figure is over twice the number of cars built each year. Clearly the number of replacement tubes needed for bicycles each year is very large. Continue reading Bicycle Tubes – More Than a Blip on the Map