how hard is it to buy an inner tube???

[Austin]

Pulled my bike out the bike shed at work on Friday and thought oh-oh this feels a bit heavy - yup back tyre flat with a big nerg nail sticking out of it. So I called out the breakdown who was there in an hour - SOS Motorcycle Rescue via Brittania Rescue. They offered to fix but I fancied a bit of tinkering so said, no take me home.

After ripping the valve out the tube this morning taking it out I definitely needed a new one but it took nearly 2 hours on the phone to locate one. I couldn't believe the number of bike shops that either just didn't do tubes, or didn't have 17" tubes in stock, or were shut on Sunday's.

Excuses offered included:
We don't do tyres and tubes (2 x Honda dealerships)
The parts department doesn't open on a Sunday
There's no demand these days
We only stock tubes for small bikes

Got one from Shorrock motorcycles in Preston - who had two and I had them both, but didn't have 21" tubes for the front

Anyway its all fixed now and I got my centre stand fitted today as well - hooray.

[Whealie]

That's more success than I had when I got a puncture on a Saturday evening, just after the shops had shut. I know carry spares of both cable-tied to the frame at the back under the side panels.

[DaveS]

Yep I always had several spares of tyres and tubes in stock for my AT. Deffo recommended.

[iswoolley]

...took nearly 2 hours on the phone to locate one...

Best bet is to try the off-road bike shops rather than the road bike shops. Most road bikes run tubeless tyres, hence no need for tubes. Most off-road bikes run tubed tyres. Get a copy of TBM from the newsagent and look in the adverts section in the back for a range of options.

Iain

[YEN_POWELL]

I usually buy mine form a company called 'In Chains'. They also sell the heavy duty type of inner tube as well as rimlocks (if you need that sort of thing).

[Maverick]

Just did a search for 'In Chains' on google, would not advise typing that in at work though