Loose valve cores on Continental inner tubes

laurence_cooley · Post by **laurence_cooley** » 14 Jun 2012 21:17

After getting a **flat** on Sunday's club run, I thought it was time to stock up on inner tubes. I bought a bunch of Continental Race 28s as they were on offer and because I've been pleased with my new Continental tyres. I decided to fit a couple straight away because my old inner tubes were getting on a bit, but every time I pumped them up fully and tried to remove the pump hose, the value core came out with it. After several frustrated attempts, I tightened the valve cores with a pair of pliers and managed to inflate the tyre and get the pump off.

Does anyone know if this is a common problem? I seem to have fixed it, but I worry that the cores will come loose again and will come off when I next attach the pump (bad enough at home, worse when replacing an inner tube).

martin mc · Post by **martin mc** » 14 Jun 2012 21:58

hi laurence. this is sometimes a problem with inner tubes that have a removable core. i remeber matt regan having exact same problem near end of a club run when he tried to re-inflate his tyre & no matter what he did every time pump valve was unscrewed core came out - he ended up changing tube in pouring rain when all he wanted to do was put a bit of air in because of a slow **flat**.
i believe there are advantages for deep rims interchangeability & for ham fisted clots such as myself who are forever bending valve stems. some tubes don't have a removable valve core at all, for some a plus & others a pain.

laurence_cooley · Post by **laurence_cooley** » 14 Jun 2012 23:38

I'd never realised that it was possible to buy inner tubes with removable valve cores, but perhaps I'd been using them all along and just not had one come out, so hadn't realised. Anyway, a bit of searching online suggests that this might be a common problem with Lezyne pumps: http://bit.ly/LIuT4p. Hopefully it's been solved by my tightening the valve cores, as they did all seem a bit loose.

Johnnyc · Post by **Johnnyc** » 16 Jun 2012 11:50

I've had this happen a few times with Lezyne pumps, both a track pump and a Road drive. Not great to have the valve core come loose and instantly deflate the tyre you've just pumped up.
Lezyne now ship their pumps with a pressure release valve, which solves the problem. I've just found out that their chain breaker tool also has an added valve tightener integrated.

laurence_cooley · Post by **laurence_cooley** » 18 Jun 2012 09:08

Thanks, Richard. Martin showed me the air bleed feature on the Lezyne pump he has, which is otherwise identical to mine. I think the main problem was just that the cores were very loose when the tubes arrived, but I might look into getting a new hose for my pump. Lezyne also suggest the use of Loctite threadlocker to solve the problem.