Crankzone

In the spirit of Earth Day today, a recycling post seems warranted. What to do with your old innertubes?

The guys over at BikeHacks have a post titled “1,000 Uses for the Inner Tube”, which links to an Instructables page with 20 uses. Personally I use a tube as a chainstay protector on my freeride bike, but unlike the Instructables method of slicing open the tube along the seam and attaching it, I cut the stem out of the tube and then wrap it like grip tape for more burly protection. A couple of zip-ties completes the job.

I also cut little strips of tube to be used as an elastic. They work great to contain spare tubes that have been unboxed. I have also used wider strips as external boot seals for my headset cup. Just cut a tube about ½” thick and slide it over the cups (you will need to have your fork off the bike for the bottom cup). Sometimes a road tube will give a tighter seal, but sometimes they are too small to stretch that much. It is especially effective on the bottom cup that is exposed to mud and gunk coming up from the front wheel.

I have used tubes to gently tie back trees in my yard. I use the tube as a rope extension so that the rope doesn’t dig into the tree over time.

What do you use your old tubes for?

Original post by JoelGuelph