Originally Posted by
cyccommute
I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. I check for what was making the puncture before I put the replacement tube back in. Not doing so is a rookie mistake. I even mark my tubes beforehand with an arrow to indicate rotation direction so that whatever caused the puncture is easier to find.
As I stated a while ago, I have yet to find these mythic $2 tubes.
For some reason I always did things backwards, like flats on the road. Most people swap out the tube on the first flat, not me, ever since I got on to clinchers back when Specialized came out with the folding clincher as much as possible I've always fixed the flatted tube on the road. My reasoning was I can find the hole in the tube faster when it happens, then patch the tube and reinstall. Some people say it's faster to replace the tube and then repair at home, I don't know because I can have the tube patched by the time you roll up the old tube and put into the seat bag, so it's about a draw in the time. Also I don't like doing things twice, meaning I don't want to have to go home, remove the tube from the seat bag, unroll it, fill with air again so I can find the leak, repair it, roll the darn thing back up and put it away.
The other weird thing I do that some old guy taught me when I was a KID! it's been maybe 55 years ago this guy showed me this trick and I use it a lot. I hardly ever have to remove the wheel from the bike to fix a flat, I simply find the leak on the tire, then remove half of one side of the tire with the hole in the center of the half, then pull out about a fourth of the tube with the hole in the center of that fourth, patch reinstall and go. If the hole is real small and you can't find it after you pulled out the section of tube, or locating it from the tire isn't possible then I have to remove the wheel and do the normal way. This can work with steel beaded tires but the tire needs to be pretty sloppy, if it's a tight fitting wire beaded tire you can't do this method.