Simple Pictorial Guide to Inner Tube Valves





This is a Presta valve (sometimes also called a French valve).

This is a Schraeder valve (also called a “car type” valve).


These are the main two valve types used in cycles in the UK and the ones that we currently stock. There have been many long and acrimonious debates over the relative merits of these two valve types, but on a strictly practical level, the difference is that Presta valves need a smaller hole in the wheel’s rim than Schraeder valves do. So if you normally use Schraeder valves you can use a Presta tube in an emergency, but not vice-versa.