If your bike uses tire tubes with Schrader valves, you’re in luck. Besides their other advantages, most Schrader valves are coated with rubber. This makes them less hazardous to the inner tube when it’s folded and stowed inside your saddle bag. Presta valves aren’t as friendly. The exposed screw threads along the valve shaft are sharp, and they can score the folded inner tube. Here’s a folded tube with a presta valve. The valve is nestled deep inside those folds:

As the sides of the tube rub against one another (as happens with the saddle bag is handled, or during a ride), the valve shaft rubs against the rubber. This is how the valve scored the adjacent rubber on each side with this tube:

Look carefully and you can even see parallel grooves where the valve cap pressed against the inner tube. The scouring effect of the valve against rubber could weaken the tube and possibly lead to a puncture. So what to do? Farwell came up with a simple solution. He pressed a rubber grommet down over the valve stem to create a rubber-friendly spacer:

Then he cut a length of old punctured or blown inner tube to serve as a shroud over the valve.

These protective measures shield the inner tube from the scouring effect of the valve when the tube is folded for storage. And it is another way to recycle punctured tubes. Simple, effective and cheap.

 
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