2_i 

To add to the experiences brought up, I quit carrying spare tubes. When I carried some, I never used them, as patching a tube on the spot added minimally to the whole recovery operation. You anyway spend time examining what happened to the tire. Moreover, I ride bikes with tires in the range 16-29", rotating at times even during a day and remembering what tube to fetch is just too much - the patches are always the same and packed, in my case, together with the pump and ready for grabbing.

rekmeyata

Not only do I have a patched tube in my saddlebag, but I use Park Glueless patches because they hold up for the life of the tube inflated or not.

pdlamb

$4 tube? You must lead a blessed life, at least as it applies to flats. The last generic tubes I bought were $7; brand name tubes are more.

FWIW, I've had a few new, never flatted, tubes, split down a seam. Because of that, I'm more confident in previously patched tubes. Like @andrewclaus, I think, I keep spare tubes in an old sock to prevent rubbing a hole in the stored tube.

And like Racing Dan I don't see much difference between glues. (I'm still working on a box of 100 Rema patches, although I may have to buy another box next year.) IME the difference between stick and don't stick is surface preparation. I've done a couple rush jobs with Rema patches and glue that failed, so there's nothing magic about Rema's chemistry if the mold release isn't sanded or grated off the site patch. Also FWIW, same is true of other glues as well. So sand, change direction, sand some more, and make sure there's nothing shiny where the patch will seal before moving on to gluing.

Iride01 

I don't get to obsessive about it, but I do watch certain items for times when they are offered at a good price. Currently the tubes I use are $3.96 at Walmart. Though they have been as much as $4.98. I wonder though if Bell is getting out of the plain butyl tubes with no sealant. Seems more and more of the offerings are extra thick puncture resistance and sealant filled tubes. Even though I don't use a lot of them, I consider them a consumable and always have a handful on the shelf. Maybe I need to get a half dozen more.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bell-Standard-Presta-Bicycle-Inner-Tube-700c-x-25-32c/34038251

A lot of people think it's below them to buy stuff from Walmart. But the tubes are pretty good... at least the plain jane basic normal tube is. Don't know anything about the extra thick sealant filled tubes and don't currently want to know anything about them. And the tubes are a reasonable weight, 110 grams, compared to lighter tubes I have to pay much more for.

rydabent

No reason a properly patched tube should not be just fine. And BTW I roll the tube just like the new one that comes out the the box. That way there is no "fold" where the patch is.

cyccommute 

Even at $4, that a lot of money over time. I buy boxes of 100 Rema patches that cost me about $0.15 each. A 5g tube of vulcanizing fluid will do about 10 patches and costs me about $4. Total cost per patch is $0.55 per patch. 30 patches on a tube will cost me about $17. Thirty tubes at $4 each would cost $120. I have yet to find these mythical $4 tubes. At a more common price of $7, 30 tubes are going to cost $210.

That might not break the bank but it is money spent that might be used elsewhere. There also the waste to consider.

I’ve not claimed that Rema is magic. Of course it requires proper preparation. If you slap rubber cement onto an unsanded tube, it won’t stick. If you slap Rema vulcanizing fluid onto a tube, it won’t stick. And, again, you won’t be able to “see” any differences between the rubber cement and the vulcanizing fluid. The difference is at the molecular level. People will “see” a difference in the confidence in the patch job. When people complain that “patching doesn’t work”, there are usually two reasons for that...messing up the preparation (not sanding or rushing the drying process) and using the wrong patch kit.

If I had to use a cheap patch kit, I wouldn’t trust the patch job. I don’t trust the patches at my local co-op since they went to rubber cement system. I trust Rema and will only use that for my own personal use.

Geepig

Very true and very good advice.

I think part of the problem is that it is easy to make panic assessments once out of our comfort zones. So, if you do not believe in patched tubes then why carry one except in a lack of alternatives. If you believe in patched tubes then why would you not carry one.

If you get a puncture then you have a higher chance of getting a second, because pointy things like thorns tend to gather in the same localities, and removing the source of a puncture is not a precise science. So why put a new tube at risk if you could have a patched one with you, assuming you believe in patched tubes?

Sy Reene

Not terribly hard to find:
https://www.wiggle.com/lifeline-road-inner-tube

cyccommute 

Sure. $2.99 for the tube and $17.95 shipping to the US. That not a “$4” tube. That’s a $20.94 tube.

cyccommute 

Now that’s just silly. There is no higher chance that a puncture will occur in the same spot on the tire than it will occur on any other point on the tire. Punctures are random events.

Sy Reene

You wanted 30 of them. Then try the math

2_i 

Many of them are not. If the problem is with the rim it will be at the same spot. If you mount the tire with brand name over the vent and there is a problem with the tire than you have not identified and fixed, it will be the same spot again. On another angle, even those cases with embedded shards of glass or thorns are most often progressing events where the puncture could be stopped if the tire were examined soon enough. There was a period when tire wipers were used.

Racing Dan

Still, In the same shop a patch kit that will do 6 tubes is available at $2 and it even has small patches that fit perfectly on road bike tubes. Of course only if you believe in such trickery :-)

Looks exactly like the kits I get from the local auto parts store, albeit under a different name.

https://www.wiggle.com/lifeline-puncture-repair-kit

rekmeyata

Bell tubes are not that good, the tube thickness is inconsistent which leads to some areas being very thin and others being thick, I know this because I use them in my kid's bikes; they also are obviously heavier than quality tubes, and the presta valve does not hold up as long.

Specialized, Vittoria, Michelin, and Continental are the best for lighter weight road bike tubes; but for thorn resistant tubes the only one that I found worth anything is Bontrager, the rest are all poor quality, I use those in my wife's bike. I buy Specialized Turbo Ultralight road tubes exclusively only because I can get them locally, while they cost $8 a tube, the bike shop has a deal that if I buy 3 I get the 4th one free, so the end cost is $6 a tube, not including tax; and since these tubes are Specialized and Specialized has price-fixing on all their stuff I can only assume that if buy those tubes in any store in the US you can get that same deal.

I will say there are a few tubes that are actually worse than the Bell, tubes like Sunlite and off-brand ones you can buy on Amazon.

rekmeyata

I agree with you. I use to live in the Mojave Desert of California where goat head thorns were all over the roads. When I first moved there I averaged a flat a day sometimes 2 flats in a day, they were indeed quite random where they would enter a tire. So if they're getting a flat in the exact same spot then there is something else going on that isn't random like a thorn would create, more than likely there is a tiny bit of a thorn still sticking through the tire that the poster never found.

2_i 

I ran into such a situation on a Senegalese coast. At the top of the crisis, I had 3 flats during one day in kevlar reinforced tires, which gets me wonder where relying on a spare tube would have got me . I did not appreciate, in particular, how small and well hidden the broken off tips of the goathead thorns could be. I recovered by changing my riding habits and avoiding road shoulders that ventured into grasses. I also started examining the tires twice a day and removing any thorns that were starting their progress towards the tubes.

the sci guy 

Wow did this simple question really take off
I put the patched tube back in the bag. I squeezed all the air out and foldrolled it up and the patch isn't bent or creased. It held air without leaking for over 2 days sitting out in the garage.
I've never carried a patch kit before, but I think I'm really coming around on the idea.

cyccommute 

Nope. Didn’t say I wanted 30 tubes. I said that if I replaced tubes instead of patching them, I’d need 30 tubes. But even at $3 each, the math doesn’t work. That $106 worth of tubes ($90 plus $17.95 shipping) versus $18 worth of patches. I’m still ahead but almost $90.

Gresp15C

For me, patch kit plus spare tube is belt and suspenders. I've had flats where I couldn't find the hole, and have also had stem failures. Everybody's got their own experience and what works for them. For instance in Wisconsin, a vital item in the sag bag is bug spray.

cyccommute 

Even in the goat head infested territory I live in, they don’t “tend to collect in certain areas”. I am no more likely to get multiple flats in one general locality than another. Punctures are still random events.

We aren’t talking about that kind of problem.

Joearch

Right into the trash for me. Why take the risk for $10?

Geepig

Thank you.

When I used to live in the UK they would trim the hedges with a tractor-based cutter, and if the hedge had a lot of blackthorn it did happen that I got more than one puncture on the same lane.

cyccommute 

So you’ve never made an mistake? Never misunderstood what someone said or wrote? Are you Mary Poppins...”practically perfect in every way”? Except you leave out the “practically”?

I have as much experience with flats as most and far more than many. When I say that I’ve had 30 patches on a tube, that’s just the most I’ve had on one. I have many tubes with many patches. I live in an area where goatheads are everywhere. I even got a goathead flat in November...after Thanksgiving! But seldom do I get more than a single flat at a time. Even here in the middle of the bullseye of goatheads, I only carry a single tube as I seldom need more than one. I have had instances of getting more than one puncture but those are rare. I also help patch a lot of flats at my co-op...most of which are goathead related...and seldom do I have to patch more than a single puncture. Yes, there can be a lot of things that can cause flats in one place or another. Seldom do you get more than one.

So you aren’t perfect! Do you know the meaning of “peanut gallery”? The short version is that’s where the heckling comes from. In the thread you are referring to there were a bunch of people making jokes that were helping, thus the “don’t listen to the peanut gallery” post. If you look at tires that are directional, they usually have an arrow on the tire showing a direction for rotation. What most...no, all...of them show on tires with chevrons is that the point of the chevron matches the directional arrow.

curbtender

Interesting...

rekmeyata

I got my thorns riding on the road, not on the shoulder because out where I rode there was no shoulder, just the white line and then very soft sand where many a car had gotten off into overcorrected and flipped over. I was riding on kevlar tires initially but when they do any good I added a Mr. Tuffy, and those darn goat heads would even go through that liner! But my flats went down to about 4 a week. I got really fast at flats! I carried a spare tube, and back in those days a spare tire as well, but I always tried to patch the flat before going to my spare tube. I even tried adding a thick thorn resistant tire with Slime, that didn't help at all, still got my average of 4 flats a week. Then about 7 years later a bike shop guy in Bakersfield told me to try a Specialized Armadillo All Condition tire with an ultralight tube and no liner, so I did and no more flats after that. Those tires didn't ride all that well but they stopped the flats so I didn't care.