Got a flat tyre and was looking for inner tube and saw that Big W has a sale.
Pretty cheap $4 for 26 inch (https://www.bigw.com.au/product/repco-26-inch-unifit-standar…)
It says puncture resistance, so is it good enough for mountain bikes?
It just means it's made of thicker than normal rubber. From experience, they still puncture but often well after the main body of the thorn (or whatever caused the puncture) has been sheared off and the tiny sliver of point still works its way through and causes a puncture either that trip or the next.
I find the cheap cycling bits from KMart and BigW do the job if you're stuck, but the quality is pretty poor. I tend to buy tubes every few years whenever they go on sale at Wiggle, Chain Reaction, Torpedo 7 or similar. The quality is higher and the prices are similar if not cheaper. Stick a spare one in your bag/pocket and forget about needing to repair a puncture out on the trail, just swap the tube, pump it up and go.
I agree. The cheaper tubes seem to get more (punctures) along the welded seams that never patch well.
Also Big W only sell the tubes with a car type adapter, not the thin long one.
I'd forgotten about the massive seams! I was teaching my son how to patch a puncture on a cheap tube and it was next to a seam. It was next to impossible to patch properly using the normal method so in the end we just replaced the tube and I showed him how to trim off the seam using a razor blade (not something I usually carry when on the bike).
Puncture or Thorn resistant tubes are just a little thicker but are by no means guaranteed protecion against punctures.
It's hard to say if it's good enough because we don't know what type of terrain you will cover.
I commute on paths and roads and I have run with tyres with puncture protection and I also use an inner tyre liner for extra protection.
You can even use the slime that Big W sells to automatically seal up the punctures should you get any, but will not work on slashes, or pinch flats or large holes.
There's also a sale on the Repco Deluxe foot pump with gauge, down to $16 save $9. Makes easy work of fixing those flats. However the valve clip is not the best and can slip off.
Can anyone confirm if these prices are in-store or just online?