Specialized Road Tube Spool With Tube And Cartridge

Specialized's Road Tube Spool With Tube and Cartridge is a neat way to carry the essentials you need for changing an inner tube following a flat.

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Here's what you get:

• CO2 inflator head
• Presta inner tube 60mm stem
• 16g CO2 threaded cartridge
• Double-ended SWAT tyre lever

The whole lot is held together on a central plastic spool. The cartridge snaps into place on one side, the tyre lever clips to the other, and there's a little housing for the CO2 inflator head on the end.

The Presta inner tube valve slots into a hole in the other end (the hole is large enough to take a Schrader valve if you wanted to swap at a future time) and the tube wraps around the outside. Once secured with a hook-and-loop strap, nothing can move, and the inner tube valve is safely hidden away so there's no chance of it ever damaging the rubber – not that I've ever found that to be an issue.

This isn't Specialized's most high-tech innovation ever but it works as promised, although you might prefer more than one tyre lever and/or the ability to carry a second CO2 cartridge.

The CO2 inflator head pushes into place on the inner tube valve and you control the flow by twisting the cartridge in or out. Although simple, it does the job well.

It's certainly a neat little system and there's a lot to be said for keeping everything in one place; it means you're less likely to forget something important, for a start, and there's no danger of the CO2 inflator head, for example, getting lost.

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Buy the individual parts separately from Specialized and you're looking at £10.50 for the CO2 inflator head, a fiver for the inner tube, and £2.50 for the SWAT tyre lever.

You can get three 16g CO2 threaded cartridges for £10, so £3.33 each. That means the mount is effectively costing you five or six quid.

Of course, go online and you could buy similar parts cheaper from other brands, especially if you bought in bulk, and hold them together with a rubber band out of the back of the kitchen drawer. You might have been doing this for years. Fair enough! But if you do want a compact kit of essentials for getting you back on the road following a flat, here you go – this little lot does a good job.

Personally, I'd be more inclined to buy the Road Tube Spool as a constituent part of Specialized's Road Bandit (also £27, although the inner tube and CO2 cartridge aren't included) to work with a SWAT-compatible saddle, such as the Power Expert (£110) that we reviewed last year (SWAT stands for 'storage, water, air, tools' and it comprises various means of squirrelling away ride essentials until they're needed).

SWAT saddles have threaded mounts moulded into the base. The Road Bandit bolts to the underside of the saddle and holds the Road Tube Spool in place with a tough Velcro strap. Essentially, it does the same job as a little seatpack, as you can see here.

Overall, Specialized's Road Tube Spool With Tube and Cartridge is a handy way to transport the bits you need for changing an inner tube, but I'd be more tempted by the extra utility of Specialized's Road Bandit.

Verdict

Neat way to carry the essentials needed to get back on the road following a flat