10 Years of Tubolito: A Pretty Lightweight Success Story

In 2016, two Viennese entrepreneurs set out to give one of the most inconspicuous components on a bicycle a thorough overhaul. Ten years later, TPU inner tubes have long since become a product category in their own right – and Tubolito is celebrating a milestone birthday.

Sometimes a good idea does not need to be preceded by a complicated market analysis; a puncture at the right time will do. In the case of Ákos Kertész and Christian Lembacher, the two passionate mountain bikers knew only too well how unsexy a heavy butyl tube is in a saddle bag – while their day jobs involved high-tech plastics.

Thermoplastic polyurethane was not entirely new to bicycles even back then. The Swiss company Eclipse had already offered TPU inner tubes in 2011, although the big breakthrough failed to materialise. From 2016 onwards, Tubolito succeeded in advancing the material technically and, above all, establishing it on the market as a serious alternative to the classic butyl tube. Today, numerous manufacturers offer TPU tubes – a pretty good indication of just how much has happened in ten years.

The road there was decidedly rocky. Because neither suitable machinery nor established manufacturing processes existed, Ákos Kertész and Christian Lembacher developed large parts of the production equipment themselves. Prototypes were ridden, destroyed, analysed and improved. Today, Tubolito is based in Vienna’s 12th district, while production takes place in Sopron, Hungary.

We took an in-depth look at how the idea ultimately became a company during a 2025 visit to Tubolito’s headquarters in Vienna: Light, robust, compact – Tubolito and the bicycle inner tube revolution.

The latest developments show that, after ten years, it is no longer simply about shaving off another two grams. The Tubo-Road SYNCD now has a Bluetooth pressure sensor integrated directly into the tube, transmitting tyre pressure and, if desired, temperature to a smartphone or Garmin Edge. In our first review, the system worked reliably; the tubes weigh 44 to 46 grams and cost 39.95 euros.

With the Tubo-MTB-32 (92 g) and the S-Tubo-MTB in 32" (48 g), Tubolito is also ready for the still-young generation of 32-inch mountain bikes, while the Tubo-Road-Alu 100 mm with its long aluminium valve stem is primarily intended to make life easier for riders with deep-section aero rims. Incidentally, we were also able to convert the aluminium valve stem to Clik Valve without any trouble – more on that in our review, coming soon.

Today, Tubolito’s portfolio ranges from ultralight road bike tubes and gravel and mountain bike tubes to extremely durable and puncture-resistant tubes for city, folding and e-bikes. Over the past few years, thousands of trouble-free review kilometres have convinced us of their durability and puncture resistance. The orange tube is therefore no longer an exotic component reserved for weight weenies, but something of an innovation driver for a long-forgotten component that, ten years ago, you only really noticed when it had just failed.