This is the only good answer. The punctures are similar despite different wheels. Aging would have nothing to do with a puncture pattern but this explanation below about ramps and beads might be onto something. I am thinking that patching the holes might create enough of a ramp of thicker matieral to help. I will also try the push the valve trick. I usually do that anyway so we will see...
Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Your headline shifts attention to the wrong place.
Your problem isn't the tube or it's age. It's the nature of the rim and tire fit. The cross section of inflated tires on most rims is something of an hourglass with the tire assuming an Omega shape with the beads forming a narrows and the rim having air space below that.
What's happening is that the base of the valve is above the narrows, and as you inflate the tire, the tube balloons down between the beads into the rim. However, the reinforced patch is too stiff to blow down that way, and forms a sort of overhang with a gap below. The tube immediately beyond is unsupported and stretches down past the beads, and with nothing to stop it blows into the gap near the valve, stretching it beyond it's limit. Like any rubber balloon it then pops. You can see the evidence of the problem in the form of the pimple, and also the stretch marks along the entire length of the tube's belly.
The remedy has 2 parts depending on the specific case. Best, once the tire is mounted, and before inflating push (do not pull) the valve all the way down past the beads.
In some cases the gap between the beads is too narrow and you cannot push the base of the valve past them, so need a Plan B. You can fashion some "ramps" on either side of the valve to support the tube there, and feather the transition from above to below the beads. Or, use material from a dead tube to make a longer reinforced area which tapers so the tube will settle lower without a sudden loss of strength so close to the valve.