My tire wall tells me that my tires are 26 x 1.95. I bought a 26 x 1.75-2.15 inner tube. When I change the inner tube, though, the tube is bigger than the wheel by two inches. How do I determine inner tube size? Or am I just doing this wrong?
1 Answer
That tube should be the right size, based on the numbers.
If you inflate the inner tube outside of a tire it will generally balloon up quite a bit, becoming quite a bit bigger than the tire.
When installing a tire and tube you should generally just inflate the tube to the point that it "fills out" -- not really much more pressure than you could blow into it with your mouth. Then the tube should fit comfortably inside the tire.
If a tube is too big in overall diameter there is a danger that it will "telescope" inside the tire (similar to "intussusception" of your intestines), resulting in a lump and, eventually, a split in the tube. Having the tube inflated too much while installing it is one way you can get this situation. (The other is simply having a tube that's too large.)
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If I put the inner tube around the wheel completely uninflated, should it be snug-ish, then? Apr 10, 2013 at 22:33
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1@BernardSoubry - Not necessarily snug, but no significant slack. Different tubes respond differently to being inflated -- some immediately get "longer" while others will at first "shrink" as they "fatten up" a bit. Apr 10, 2013 at 23:45
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The number on your tire is "wheel size" by tire width. The numbers on the tubes should "match". Tube sizes generally indicate wheel size by a range of tire widths they will fit. Oct 1, 2014 at 0:13