How many patches before you trash the tube?
I just threw out a couple of tubes that had a rather embarrassing number of patches on them (about five each). I'm a bit of a hoarder and my mother taught me to never waste anything (she grew up during rationing in WWII England) so I tend not to throw out stuff that still has life remaining. I've always been of the opinion that a tube repaired with a vulcanizing patch is close to as punctureproof as the original tube. That has certainly worked for me over the years...I don't remember ever having a patch later fail as long as the original repair was good. On the other hand I know people who consider a patched tube to be fatally flawed and will immediately remove and trash such a tube upon getting home from a ride. What's your policy? Are you a pristine tube kind of person, or are your tubes more than 50% patches?