Let me guess...you used the Michelin green tubes, right? ;-) Those are notorious for drying out/cracking, unlike most every other latex tube (i.e. Vittoria, Silca, Challenge, etc.)
No, that goes across all brands I have used over the last 20 years. Michelin, Silca, Challenge and Vittoria. I have lived in a hot, dry desert climate but when I stored them it was often indoors in my closet or under my bed.
cdw wrote:
Latex is just fragile.
Fine, then pick a different word that describes how they will "fail for no apparent reason.' There have been a couple of user errors situations that were my fault, but 9 times out of 10 I have to throw latex tubes away after they spontaneously lost air somewhere in such a way they could not be patched. Most often it is where the tube is jointed near the stem.
In 30 odd years of cycling, I've tossed several butyl tubes that had 8, 10 patches but I've never done that with latex. Eventually every one of them failed in a way that no butyl tube ever has.
It is good some of you have a different experience, but like I said above, latex has always been a balance of hassle and reward and after a number of failures over the last few months, I'm on a latex thumbs-down cycle.
I would run everything tubeless, but the same heat that dries out latex tubes also turns my sealant to sludge in two or three weeks. If I could keep all my bikes in the bedroom, that might be less of a problem...
