cyccommute 

I avoid inflating the tube immediately after patching. Although the bond between the patch and the fluid is rapid, it's not instantaneous. Stressing the patch too soon can result in the patch pulling up from the tube and patch failure.

Good advice but I would add that Rema's patches and vulcanizing fluid are part of a whole. There is an accellerator in the fluid but that is only one part of the process. A chemical to be accelerated is needed as well. Most of the cheap patch kits don't have either and just rely on rubber cement to hold the patch in place. It works but not all the time.

cyccommute 

You have one part of a good patch system now get the other part. The vulcanizing fluid only works as rubber cement on other brands of patches. Get Rema patches like these F1s or these F0. Or get both. The F1s are good for wide tubes while the F0 work much better for narrow road tires.

Retro Grouch 

I'm frequently surprised at the things other posters claim to do when patching inner tubes.

I'm just to the point of using up the last of the generic patch kits that I had left over when I closed my bike shop 18 years ago. All that I ever do is to follow the instructions on the package ("let the 'glue' dry for 5 minutes") except that I do use a wood clamp on the tube for a period of time.

I'm confident enough that I don't even QC my patching jobs. I just toss the patched tube back into my spares box. Never had a failure.

wphamilton

Weird thing is, last time I looked for the MSDS on bulk "vulcanizing fluid", cans of patch glue and patches, I couldn't even find it for most of the product! Very unexpected hard stop on the research ... I decided it's more efficient to just buy the 1 or 2-use patch kits that work.

redlude97

The inflate? I put in enough pressure to slightly stretch the patch to make sure it doesn't pull up. At least with the tapered edge Rema patches this is never an issue on a good patch. It also makes it much easier to peel the clear plastic off the top
Yea usually at least an hour or two passes, since I usually patch in batches of 8-12 and by the time I finish the last one and clean up and throw away all the foil etc they're dry.

3alarmer 

...one of the demonstrations the Rema reps used to do at trade shows is to patch a tube, give it some time to work, then inflate it to burst pressure.
Whenever I was there, the tube failed at some point other than the patch. This video is intended for the wider car tubes, but the same principles apply.

The burst test is done at about 4 minutes into the video.

cyccommute 

Chr0m0ly 

cyccommute 

noglider 

More trouble than it's worth. They invented cold vulcanization as an improvement over hot patches. And that was many decades ago.

rccardr 

SJX426 

I once fixed 14 flat tires in two weeks on our car when we lived in India. Got really good at fixing flats. Often used the hot patches in that time period too.

My experience with both Park and Performance patches is dismal. Rema is the only solution that works for me.

noglider 

It's not a bad idea, though I generally don't. I might have sprinkled some baking soda on a time or two. I have that in the household but not chalk.

pdlamb

No chalk dust, but I do dust the tubes with talc (or is it cornstarch?) before I roll them up for storage after patching. Of course, the glue is usually pretty dry by the time I get around to that step (I do my patching in batches).

noglider 

talc is a (soft) mineral, not a plant product.

SBinNYC

Colnago Mixte

Those were fun! Smelled great, and the patches always stuck EXTREMELY well.

I have never found any brand of cold patches that worked as well. I even suspect that the ingredients of the patching fluid has changed over the years, these days I can't get cold patches to stick for crap. My memory is that they stuck much better 15-20 years ago.

noglider 

@Colnago Mixte, you're doing something wrong. Today's patches work just fine.

Colnago Mixte

Thanks.

Colnago Mixte

I honestly think the chemicals have changed in some patch glues.

Mind you, I live in California, home of the mandatory cancer warning on every product sold. Where most paint sold at stores is now useless and won't stick to anything. Where the entire cleaning aisle at the supermarket is full of useless cleaning products after all of the effective chemicals used in them have been banned in the state.

It would not surprise me in the least to find that effective patch glue chemicals have been banned here too.

AnkleWork

Much of what you say about paints and cleansers is true, for varying reasons. But the dominant cross-linking accelerators are neither on the prop 65 list, nor banned by USOSHA because they are deemed non-toxic. Thus they also don't appear on recent MSDSs which makes it difficult to confirm which cements use them. Any cement that claims, on the container label, to have cross-linking accelerators almost certainly does.

cyccommute 

Generic multipurpose patches almost invariably use rubber cement. The rubber cement sticks to the patch but it isn't really a bond. The way to ensure that cold patches work is to use Rema. As far as I've seen they are the only company using a vulcanizing fluid instead of rubber cement. And that means using their fluid and their patches...they are part of a whole.

As for hot patches, I think people use them because that's what their daddy used. A hot patch isn't "better", it's just that they don't know of a different method.

I doubt that the chemicals used have changed. People have been complaining about how poorly patches work for decades...at least 40 years in my experience...because they don't understand the chemistry nor have any idea what is in the glue they are using. Most people buy just any old patch kit and then are disappointed with the results. There may be other patch systems around but I've not seen them. Rema's patch system consists of the vulcanizing fluid which contains an accelerator and a patch that contains the chemical being accelerated. Without one or the other, the patch is just sticking to the tube.

Another mistake that people make is to be too stingy with the vulcanizing fluid. As far as I can determine, the accelerator isn't a catalyst, it is an active participant in the reaction and, as such, is consumed. If you have too little vulcanizing fluid on the tube, the reaction is starved and doesn't form enough bonds to be permanent.

Still another mistake that I see all the time, is that people aren't careful about handling the patch. Don't touch the orange bit on a Rema patch! Oils from your fingers interfere with the reaction and the bond isn't as strong. When you peel the foil, hold the patch by the plastic covering the patch.

I agree. And would add that most of the generic patch kits I've seen...which is 99.9% of all patch kits...contain tubes of cement that are clearly labeled "rubber cement". If they say that, they aren't using cold vulcanizing to do the job of patching.

I also tell people to not inflate the tire after patching to "check" their work. This pulls at the edges of the patch before it has had time to cure and weakens the bond.

RubeRad

That's a good tip! I always found it annoying to remove the clear layer, that will be helpful next time

RubeRad

What Park kit is giving you trouble? I get good success from Park VP-1 (VP=Vulcanizing Patches) -- I won't touch those glueless patches (aka stickers)

drlogik 

I've used all kinds of patches over the last few years but I always seem to come back to Rema. They seem to last the longest. I used their brand of vulcanizing fluid also. I think it's a good idea to use the same brand fluid as patch. On the road though I carry both Park self-sticky patches and Rema. I have a small Rema patch kit that I throw two Park patches in as well as the Park self-sticky tire boot patch. The later came in handy a few years ago when I blew out a tire.


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