There are many ways of spending money on your bike, but heavy duty tubes, foam, balls, and other ways of keeping air in your tires is not very cheap. At Elite, we have a simple and cheap way to keep from most of the flat tire wows.

We don't use heavy duty tubes, as we have found that they will chafe and cause pre-mature wear. We use a good grade of medium duty tube, with an old tube around it as a sheath. No this does not keep out the occasional nail or some other sharp object, but it does ward off the most common cause of a flat tire, the pinch flat, or snake "bite" as we sometimes call it.

Here is how we do the "filet". We first find an old tube, then we cut out the valve core. Next we use a pair of scissors to cut the old tube at the inside center all the way around. Once we have this done, we put the "filet" over the new tube and then install the assembly in the new tire. It does take a little work and care, but the results are worth the effort. I always put the tube in the tire first then put the assembly on the wheel. The use of a little lube such as WD-40 helps. Many folks have asked me how and why this works. The best that I can figure is that the old tube being separate, let's it move and therefore when a rock or ledge is hit the filet slides and keeps the good tube from getting damaged.

At Elite, we have done this from the outset of business Twelve years ago (age old Desert racer trick). We average only about Two flats per year. Terry and I put on as much as Ten thousand miles per year ridding, so you may want to give it a try!