After reading, more details have come to light about the Foss Tubes. Instead of editing the heck out of my previous FOSS post, thought I’d simply post an addendum.
It would appear the earlier generation Foss tubes were indeed 120~160gr, but these proved too thin and were easily damaged catastrophically. More recent versions are now coming with an annodized blue valve-stem and are reported to be made of stouter stuff, though this came with a weight penalty and are now in the 185+gr range apparently. This has caused much bitching among the weight weenie crowd, but solicited praises from what is left of the rest of the FOSS supporters – the gross of which abandoned ship when they were disappointed by the first few batches of these that were so easily damaged.
Combining the FOSS tube with Slime to get both puncture protection and puncture repair in the same kit is an interesting idea. But Slime sucks; It’s messy and often doesn’t work and is generally little more than a necessary evil suffered in bramble territory. I wonder if a sealant like Stans would work better, but I have nothing to base that on. At the end of the day, I think the FOSS is a decent tube for weight weenies with some interesting characteristics to deal with punctures, but nothing industry shattering.
That said – I still haven’t played with them myself. Hey Foss – send me some tubes and I’ll write up a review.
On the topic of Stans – I’m going to try going tubeless on the Bad Monkey. That bike needs a diet and going tubeless is a great way to lose some weight and get puncture protection all in one fell swoop – but that’s a different blog post.
Anyhow – onward
Would you like to try out some Blue Seal tire sealant? I can send you a couple bottles if you would like to give it a shot.
Sure, I’ll give it a shot. Send me an email at scott@sweetbike.org and I’ll provide a mailing address.
Thanks for reading