replacing tubes before a race

Nope. Although I have a set of race-dedicated wheels/tires.

mattjf said:

Before a race, do any of you change your inner tubes? I noticed people doing this before my last race and it got me wondering. The tubes I have in my tires now have gone quite a few hundred miles without a flat. They have "proven themselves" thus far. But one could also argue they are "due for a flat."

Is there any valid reason for changing tubes before a race? Is it entirely superstition?

They may have had heavy, thorn-resistant tubes installed for training and they changed out to regular tubes for the race.

mattjf said:

Before a race, do any of you change your inner tubes? I noticed people doing this before my last race and it got me wondering. The tubes I have in my tires now have gone quite a few hundred miles without a flat. They have "proven themselves" thus far. But one could also argue they are "due for a flat."

Is there any valid reason for changing tubes before a race? Is it entirely superstition?

Tubes don't have a shelf life (well not one measured in weeks or months) and don't "go bad". By changing them you are only exposing yourself to potentially puncture it with your tire lever. No matter how skilled at changing tubes and how low the risk of that, I see no upside, so what is the point?

The exception could be people that change to some ultralight tube just for the race and that may be what you saw.

thats all it was, ppl changing there training tubes to race tubes. I do it myself swapping my specialized thorn resistant to my mich ultralite

Nope,

Use clinchers for training and tubulars for racing.....🙂