Yeah, it's frustraing reading all the time about these Specialized tyres, such as Armadillos (or whatever) that are supposed to be fantastic, yet I've never seen them in Australia.
Do you want a super heavy duty, thorn proof tube? I was riding up in Mildura a while ago, and I can't imagine any tube keeping out those "bindy" things.
Besides, a super thick tube could weigh as much as a tyre!!
The good old, cheap IRC tubes weigh about 125g, so anything thicker would obviously be a "brick".
I've recently tried a few light tubes, such as the Continental Race 28 Supersonic, Continetal Race 700, the $10 Michelin one (forget the model), the Tioga Super Light, and a light Scwable. The best thing about light tubes is that it makes tyre mounting much easier.
The Continental Supersonics are WAY too thin, and very light (53g). I found I was getting these very small tears on the tube, within which would be a tiny pin-hole puncture. This was very frustrating, and it took a while for me to figure out what was going on. The rubber seems to be so thin that if there was movement inside the tyre, the tube would scuff and tear a very small hole. It's a total pain to have punctures that aren't caused by glass.
The Continental Race 700 seem reasonable, and they weigh about 100g.
I can't remember which, but either the Michelin or the Scwable had stuff-all thread on the valve stem which makes keeping the pump on almost impossible, so I ditched them.
I'm using mostly the Tiogas at the moment, and in the last few weeks I haven't had any disasters with them. The are about 70g.
Hmmm....dunno if I've really answered your question.
