Why does Blockley Tyre Co. produce its own inner tubes, when inner tubes are readily available from a variety of sources, including well known brands such as Michelin and Continental, as well as a myriad of other brands?

Being involved with tyre design and manufacture, it soon became abundantly clear that there was a real problem sourcing good inner tubes for the Veteran, Vintage and Classic range of tyres we were making.  What was available to buy was invariably either dimensionally incorrect (where one tube covered far too many sizes as was never the case in period) or the quality was lacking either in material type, thickness or the way it was produced such as a doubling thickness at the joint - which causes bands of wear each side of this joint - apart from the extra out of balance weight tat was introduced.  These are some of the reasons why people have the unnecessary problems they experience, not usually appreciating that very often it is the tube at fault, which then gets replaced by purchasing another one of the same! Early on I realised the sad fact that Blockley would need to invest in the tooling to produce a sizeable range of no compromise "Blockley Superior" tubes, made on our own tooling to correct specifications, and using the best material and quality control. This way a customer using a Blockley tyre will not be compromised, and be able to have a proper quality good inner tube to suit their tyre of choice. At present we supply some 50 individual tubes, but this is an ongoing process. But notice how the Classic tyre wholesaler outlets (who we do not deal with) also supply a range of tubes covering the same range as what we supply at Blockley, but they achieve this with a fewer number of actual tubes! One way to keep this from the customer could be by using a code number for their tube, rather than the actual size, and of course not listing what range of tyre sizes their single tube is meant to cover, to give the impression they are supplying what you think you are getting --  while simultaneously cutting down on their overhead costs. Now you can comprehend a little of how these big companies would appear to be interested in profit rather than supplying the best possible product to the end user.

So don't compromise when it comes to your inner tubes - you cannot buy anything better than a Blockley inner tube, the whole range of which we make in the best material (Butyl) yet to original thicknesses of tube, with a metal dust cap as standard ( ie not an "extra"). Butyl is a far more expensive product (all butyl tubes have a blue line on them for identification) which is why so many butyl tubes are so thin, yet even with our correct period thickneses the Blockley Superior tubes cost about the same or less than the alternatives - and this is only because we sell direct to the end user with no added margin in between.

And if you are fitting an inner tube on an original wire wheel make sure you use one of our Blockley rim bands where there is call for a rim band.

Browse our range below, if you have any questions please Contact Us.