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Do you put patched tubes back in your saddlebag?

Old 01-17-21, 07:31 PM
  #151  
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Originally Posted by rekmeyata
This is just you saying that you don't know how to patch a tube correctly, that's all this is saying.
I'm sure like many people. Sorry it's just not worth the cost of a cup of coffee to be riding around on shoddy old tubes to me. Lets turn this around for a second. Why are all these guys not re-installing the old tube and putting the new one back in the saddle bag? So they can get that extra mileage out of their old tube, and keep the new one new?
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Old 01-17-21, 09:59 PM
  #152  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
I'm sure like many people. Sorry it's just not worth the cost of a cup of coffee to be riding around on shoddy old tubes to me. Lets turn this around for a second. Why are all these guys not re-installing the old tube and putting the new one back in the saddle bag? So they can get that extra mileage out of their old tube, and keep the new one new?
Shoddy old tubes? so if you get a flat on a brand new tube that you bought yesterday and got a flat today, it's now a shoddy old tube? Let's hear some more excuses.
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Old 01-17-21, 11:22 PM
  #153  
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Originally Posted by rekmeyata
Shoddy old tubes? so if you get a flat on a brand new tube that you bought yesterday and got a flat today, it's now a shoddy old tube? Let's hear some more excuses.

If you are getting two flats in two days you are doing something wrong. You are either either installing the tube wrong or your wheel rim has some damage. And yes if it has a hole in the tube and it's junk to me, I'd rather buy a new one. Same with the tire if it's got a big hole in it I would prefer to replace it ASAP. But I'm sure you are one of those guys that thinks a tire should be duct taped and the hole in the side wall of your car tire is OK to be plugged.


If you are getting constant flats maybe you should spring a extra few bucks and get a self sealing tube.
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Old 01-17-21, 11:40 PM
  #154  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
If you are getting two flats in two days you are doing something wrong. You are either either installing the tube wrong or your wheel rim has some damage. And yes if it has a hole in the tube and it's junk to me, I'd rather buy a new one. Same with the tire if it's got a big hole in it I would prefer to replace it ASAP. But I'm sure you are one of those guys that thinks a tire should be duct taped and the hole in the side wall of your car tire is OK to be plugged.
So where did you come up with this “only one flat a week” rule? I’ve had 2 flats in 10 minutes less than 100 yards apart. And, no, the flats weren’t related.
I don’t agree with people who say that flats occur in one location but there is nothing that says you can’t have more than one flat every other day. I’ve had more than 65 flats (I stopped counting at 65) in a single day...in a 16 mile ride. I ran out of tubes, patches and ended up carrying the bike for the last mile. Flats are a completely random event for which you can’t plan. Saying that they fit some kind of schedule is just silly.
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Old 01-17-21, 11:48 PM
  #155  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
Why are all these guys not re-installing the old tube and putting the new one back in the saddle bag? So they can get that extra mileage out of their old tube, and keep the new one new?
That's exactly what I do. The saddle bag always has new tubes in it. The patched tubes get tested on an old wheel with an old tire at max pressure for a couple days to prove the patch is good, then they go on a hook in the garage.

Every time I do wheel maintenance I put a patched and tested tube in the tire. When I get home from a ride with a flat, I take out the spare/replacement tube and put in a tested patched one.

A patched tube has some higher probability of failing than an unpatched tube; most of the bickering in here is about the magnitude of that probability. I'm getting some quantum benefit from having good-as-new unpatched tubes in my bag rather than patched ones.

I have 5 sets of wheels and I'd wager all of them have patched tubes in them right now - except for the sew-ups.
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Old 01-18-21, 12:16 AM
  #156  
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I've gone tubeless now, but I would patch then continue my ride. Later on, I would start carrying an extra tube because some punctures or failures can't be patched.
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Old 01-18-21, 11:21 AM
  #157  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
If you are getting two flats in two days you are doing something wrong. You are either either installing the tube wrong or your wheel rim has some damage. And yes if it has a hole in the tube and it's junk to me, I'd rather buy a new one. Same with the tire if it's got a big hole in it I would prefer to replace it ASAP. But I'm sure you are one of those guys that thinks a tire should be duct taped and the hole in the side wall of your car tire is OK to be plugged.


If you are getting constant flats maybe you should spring a extra few bucks and get a self sealing tube.
Nonsense; anyway, but this going on back and forth with your very stupid comments is getting tiring, crap like duct tape? I never mentioned doing that and it's just stupid that you would even bring that up, if you want to replace a perfectly fine new tube after a pinhole leak that's your thing, your probably one of those guys who bought a $15,000 bike using your pocket change, but I don't waste money like that just because a tube has a small hole, besides it's irresponsible to the environment to throw out perfectly fine tubes that end up in the waste, have a nice day.
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Old 01-18-21, 11:36 AM
  #158  
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Originally Posted by WinterCommuter
i also use park glueless patches. I agree they work better than most. Perhaps you are more meticulous than me. I find that a new tube always works for the life of the tube. ;-)
I used to use Park's glueless patches, but had trouble with them sliding around in hot weather (melting from the heat of the pavement, I'm guessing).

Now, this was almost a decade ago, so maybe they improved their chemistry, but for me, while a bit more hassle, the Rema patch kits have always been the best.
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Old 01-18-21, 12:04 PM
  #159  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
So where did you come up with this “only one flat a week” rule? I’ve had 2 flats in 10 minutes less than 100 yards apart. And, no, the flats weren’t related.
I don’t agree with people who say that flats occur in one location but there is nothing that says you can’t have more than one flat every other day. I’ve had more than 65 flats (I stopped counting at 65) in a single day...in a 16 mile ride. I ran out of tubes, patches and ended up carrying the bike for the last mile. Flats are a completely random event for which you can’t plan. Saying that they fit some kind of schedule is just silly.
Well maybe I don't do as much cycling as you, or maybe I live in a part of the world with better roads. But I think I have had less then 10 flats in 30 years of cycling. The two instances where I got consecutive flats where both wheel related. One was the rim had a slight crack right at the weld. And the other the rim strip was old and had shifted and one of the spokes was rubbing against the tube. Another weird instance was that I still enjoy doing BMX racing. I had bought a brand new set of really hard to get high pressure tires that were $100cdn each but I used the old tube from last years race season. Well as I was filing it up to the 100psi the tube exploded!! it was like a shotgun blast going off by my head. My ears rang for a good 5 minutes, and worst of all the blast was so bad it actually ripped the bead off the tire and the tire was shot. So now when ever I buy new tires I also buy new tubes. Rubber sadly degrades and breaks down over time.
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Old 01-18-21, 01:10 PM
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
Well maybe I don't do as much cycling as you, or maybe I live in a part of the world with better roads. But I think I have had less then 10 flats in 30 years of cycling.
My flats have almost nothing to do with the conditions of the roads. They are all related to what is on the roads or on the places where I ride bikes. We have goat heads throughout the area where I ride most and, if you don’t have them, thank your lucky stars. I occasionally get flats from glass and I occasionally get flats from wires off of steel belted tires. Cactus spines also take their toll.

My main point, however, is that flats aren’t something that is planned nor something that is uncommon.

The two instances where I got consecutive flats where both wheel related. One was the rim had a slight crack right at the weld. And the other the rim strip was old and had shifted and one of the spokes was rubbing against the tube. Another weird instance was that I still enjoy doing BMX racing. I had bought a brand new set of really hard to get high pressure tires that were $100cdn each but I used the old tube from last years race season. Well as I was filing it up to the 100psi the tube exploded!! it was like a shotgun blast going off by my head. My ears rang for a good 5 minutes, and worst of all the blast was so bad it actually ripped the bead off the tire and the tire was shot. So now when ever I buy new tires I also buy new tubes. Rubber sadly degrades and breaks down over time.
I can see some problems I can see with your tale about the blowout. Blowouts aren’t caused by a tube rupturing inside the tire. That never happens. If the tube were old enough that it were to crack in the tire and release air, it wouldn’t blow the tire off the rim. I’ve seen tubes rupture because of a bad rim strip and those are relatively quite “pops”, not loud bangs.

A very loud blowout is related to either the tube being trapped between the rim and the tire where it forces the tire off the rim and ruptures. That’s a very common mistake and is always user error. I’ve done it but I’ve never blamed the tire.

Your statement that you ripped the bead off the tire says to me that it could also be a defective tire. I have had blowouts on (supposedly) high quality tires that were the result of the tire just not staying on the rim. But the tire never experienced damage. I’ve also experienced cases where the fabric was inproperly cured or was improperly wrapped around the bead and slipped off. That did result in tire damage. But, in both cases, the tube was not responsible for the blowout nor has a trapped tube ever resulted in tire damage.

Tubes don’t degrade in tires. The tire makes a really good barrier to most everything that would damage the rubber of a tube. I’ve pulled perfectly good tubes out of severely decayed tires from 1980s bikes. The tube, in some cases, was probably OEM. The tire was mostly just cord but the tube was fine.
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Old 01-19-21, 12:23 AM
  #161  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
I had bought a brand new set of really hard to get high pressure tires that were $100cdn each but I used the old tube from last years race season. Well as I was filing it up to the 100psi the tube exploded!! it was like a shotgun blast going off by my head. My ears rang for a good 5 minutes, and worst of all the blast was so bad it actually ripped the bead off the tire and the tire was shot. So now when ever I buy new tires I also buy new tubes. Rubber sadly degrades and breaks down over time.
Originally Posted by cyccommute
I can see some problems I can see with your tale about the blowout. Blowouts aren’t caused by a tube rupturing inside the tire. That never happens. If the tube were old enough that it were to crack in the tire and release air, it wouldn’t blow the tire off the rim. I’ve seen tubes rupture because of a bad rim strip and those are relatively quite “pops”, not loud bangs.

A very loud blowout is related to either the tube being trapped between the rim and the tire where it forces the tire off the rim and ruptures. That’s a very common mistake and is always user error. I’ve done it but I’ve never blamed the tire.
Exactly! Above is the statement that does not pertain to the tube quality but to the operator and their two layers of error. One error was in failing to check enough the seating of the beads and the second in failing to watch the rise of the tire. Failures provide chance to learn, but this one was missed as the problem did not not inspected to resolution, just blame put on the tube.
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Old 01-19-21, 02:09 AM
  #162  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
My flats have almost nothing to do with the conditions of the roads. They are all related to what is on the roads or on the places where I ride bikes. We have goat heads throughout the area where I ride most and, if you don’t have them, thank your lucky stars. I occasionally get flats from glass and I occasionally get flats from wires off of steel belted tires. Cactus spines also take their toll.

My main point, however, is that flats aren’t something that is planned nor something that is uncommon.



I can see some problems I can see with your tale about the blowout. Blowouts aren’t caused by a tube rupturing inside the tire. That never happens. If the tube were old enough that it were to crack in the tire and release air, it wouldn’t blow the tire off the rim. I’ve seen tubes rupture because of a bad rim strip and those are relatively quite “pops”, not loud bangs.

A very loud blowout is related to either the tube being trapped between the rim and the tire where it forces the tire off the rim and ruptures. That’s a very common mistake and is always user error. I’ve done it but I’ve never blamed the tire.

Your statement that you ripped the bead off the tire says to me that it could also be a defective tire. I have had blowouts on (supposedly) high quality tires that were the result of the tire just not staying on the rim. But the tire never experienced damage. I’ve also experienced cases where the fabric was inproperly cured or was improperly wrapped around the bead and slipped off. That did result in tire damage. But, in both cases, the tube was not responsible for the blowout nor has a trapped tube ever resulted in tire damage.

Tubes don’t degrade in tires. The tire makes a really good barrier to most everything that would damage the rubber of a tube. I’ve pulled perfectly good tubes out of severely decayed tires from 1980s bikes. The tube, in some cases, was probably OEM. The tire was mostly just cord but the tube was fine.
Well fast forward to about 1min and you can see simular situation
of what happened to me.
Many of the new bmx tires dont have the metal wire in the bead anymore. Maybe if it had the damage wouldn't been as bad?
If the tire wasn't seated right then it would have come off the rim much sooner. And I agree that a tube is sealed in the tire making it last longer. But again I think its where you live. Being in Canada we get extreme temperatures from super cold to super hot. And I really believe it's all in how it's stored over the winter.
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Old 01-19-21, 08:30 AM
  #163  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
Well fast forward to about 1min and you can see simular situation of what happened to me.
Many of the new bmx tires dont have the metal wire in the bead anymore. Maybe if it had the damage wouldn't been as bad?
If the tire wasn't seated right then it would have come off the rim much sooner. And I agree that a tube is sealed in the tire making it last longer. But again I think its where you live. Being in Canada we get extreme temperatures from super cold to super hot. And I really believe it's all in how it's stored over the winter.
Are you kidding?! Again a similar situation to yours of carelessness. I live next to close to Canadian border and most Canadian live close to their southern border. I ride all winter long when ridership drops down by a factor 100-300. My bikes are stored in an unheated garage. My riding temperatures span so far -30C to 43C. The latter have been typical daily temperatures at my base in Asia and in Africa close to that. No blowouts for me or anybody else tied to those temperatures. For tires that you use in touring, it is common to have kevlar beads rather than wire, so that you can fold them easier for your luggage.
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Old 01-19-21, 09:56 AM
  #164  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
Well fast forward to about 1min and you can see simular situation of what happened to me.
Many of the new bmx tires dont have the metal wire in the bead anymore. Maybe if it had the damage wouldn't been as bad?
If you look closely while he is pumping up the tire, you can see the tube has herniated out of the tire. It looks to me like a section about 6” long at the bottom of the wheel. It’s very obvious that the tire hadn’t been seated on the rim properly. Perhaps if he had been paying attention to what he was doing rather than fiddling with a phone, he would have spotted the tube coming out.

Folding tires are very common and they use a Kevlar bead. I have never seen a folding tire have bead damage because of the nature of the flexible bead. Tires that are rigid and hold their round shape are wire bead. The bike in the video has a wire bead.

I will say that a folding tire...or any tire...can be damaged around the bead if you use the wrong tools to install or remove the tire. If you use a knife or screwdriver to do tire removal or installation, you can damage the sidewall. The tire casing is just a fabric that has been impregnated with rubber and, if damaged, it will act like fabric. In other words, it can tear.

The bottom line however, is that the video above is user error and not the fault of the tire or tube. A patched tube would respond just like an unpatched tube. If the tire were installed correctly, there would have been no blow out.

[/QUOTE]If the tire wasn't seated right then it would have come off the rim much sooner. And I agree that a tube is sealed in the tire making it last longer. But again I think its where you live. Being in Canada we get extreme temperatures from super cold to super hot. And I really believe it's all in how it's stored over the winter.[/QUOTE]

How long it takes for a tire to slip off if it is installed incorrectly depends on a number of factors. I’ve had tires blow off when after 15 minutes...scared all of my co-workers... as well as others than have blown out in seconds. I’ve had some tires that don’t seat well...mostly 20 inch wheels from HelMart...where I can see the tube sneaking out and I’ve been able to deflate the tire before a blowout. The rubber of a tire is a fairly high friction material so it can take a while for enough of the bead to unseat prior to the blowout.

As to temperatures, my tubes are stored in my garage. The temperature fluctuates widely as well. That really has little effect on the rubber. You’d have to get to much higher temperatures than even the warmest summer day to have much effect on the rubber. Cold temperatures have zero effect on the rubber and would even prolong the life of the tube. You can damage a tube by taking it out of the box and leaving it sitting around or leaving it in direct sunlight for a very long time (years). Store them in a closed container and in a dark area and they will last for a very long time.
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Old 01-19-21, 12:51 PM
  #165  
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Originally Posted by 2_i
Are you kidding?! Again a similar situation to yours of carelessness. I live next to close to Canadian border and most Canadian live close to their southern border. I ride all winter long when ridership drops down by a factor 100-300. My bikes are stored in an unheated garage. My riding temperatures span so far -30C to 43C. The latter have been typical daily temperatures at my base in Asia and in Africa close to that. No blowouts for me or anybody else tied to those temperatures. For tires that you use in touring, it is common to have kevlar beads rather than wire, so that you can fold them easier for your luggage.
I think that's the thing. If you are riding them in winter you are keeping them inflated and I think it's when they are cold and uninflated that it's possible to get cracks. But maybe I'm wrong? I know I used to take them for granted over the winter but I don't anymore. I'm not using my bike everyday for transportation like I think a lot of the people in this thread are. For me it's when I get a weekend off work and I want to take a short couple hundred km trip somewhere. Or I am traveling to the next city for a BMX race or cruise around town with some buddies. The possible down time will cost me way more then it's worth.

It might be a surprise but I also do collect and restore vintage bikes. I've noticed that sometimes a pull a tube out of a old wheel and it still smells good, but sometimes they smell awful and I believe it's the rubber breaking down.
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Old 01-19-21, 02:39 PM
  #166  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
I think that's the thing. If you are riding them in winter you are keeping them inflated and I think it's when they are cold and uninflated that it's possible to get cracks. But maybe I'm wrong? I know I used to take them for granted over the winter but I don't anymore. I'm not using my bike everyday for transportation like I think a lot of the people in this thread are. For me it's when I get a weekend off work and I want to take a short couple hundred km trip somewhere. Or I am traveling to the next city for a BMX race or cruise around town with some buddies. The possible down time will cost me way more then it's worth.

It might be a surprise but I also do collect and restore vintage bikes. I've noticed that sometimes a pull a tube out of a old wheel and it still smells good, but sometimes they smell awful and I believe it's the rubber breaking down.
Rubber really isn’t going to fracture because of the cold at most any temperature you’ll encounter on this planet. Rubber doesn’t become hard enough to crack until you get to around -220°F (-150°C). That’s near liquid nitrogen temperatures (-320°F,-196°C)
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Old 01-19-21, 05:45 PM
  #167  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
I think that's the thing. If you are riding them in winter you are keeping them inflated and I think it's when they are cold and uninflated that it's possible to get cracks. But maybe I'm wrong? I know I used to take them for granted over the winter but I don't anymore. I'm not using my bike everyday for transportation like I think a lot of the people in this thread are. For me it's when I get a weekend off work and I want to take a short couple hundred km trip somewhere. Or I am traveling to the next city for a BMX race or cruise around town with some buddies. The possible down time will cost me way more then it's worth.

It might be a surprise but I also do collect and restore vintage bikes. I've noticed that sometimes a pull a tube out of a old wheel and it still smells good, but sometimes they smell awful and I believe it's the rubber breaking down.
I have different bikes that I ride on different occasions. Sometimes I do not use a bike for 2 years, sometimes locally and sometimes because it is away from my central base. When I pump the tires again after 2 years, nothing blows up and then nothing after another 2 years. I have racks of tires and boxes of tubes of different age. Yes, the rubber ages, but not on the scale of a year, but a decade and that depends on details, as was discussed. Various devices in everyday life have rubber rollers inside and belts and you do not run all the time changing them. Yes, eventually they will die but the time scale tends to be such that at the everyday level you can forget that they are there. For vintage bikes, aging rubber and plastic can become of a concern.
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Old 01-19-21, 09:37 PM
  #168  
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Originally Posted by notmyke
I used to use Park's glueless patches, but had trouble with them sliding around in hot weather (melting from the heat of the pavement, I'm guessing).

Now, this was almost a decade ago, so maybe they improved their chemistry, but for me, while a bit more hassle, the Rema patch kits have always been the best.
I never had that issue in the heat and I use to live in the Mojave Desert area of California where it wasn't uncommon for me to be out riding in 100 degree plus weather, and that was from 1987 to 2003, but I didn't start using glueless patches till sometime around 1995ish.
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Old 01-20-21, 01:28 AM
  #169  
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Happened once when my bike was just sitting in the car, too. Maybe I wasn't cleaning the rubber well enough (?).

But yeah - in both cases, I'd check out the old tube and it wouldn't be leaking anywhere, except from around that patch (which had been holding fine for a few rides prior). How that happens at 110psi... no idea.
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Old 01-20-21, 04:17 AM
  #170  
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
So where did you come up with this “only one flat a week” rule? I’ve had 2 flats in 10 minutes less than 100 yards apart. And, no, the flats weren’t related.
I don’t agree with people who say that flats occur in one location but there is nothing that says you can’t have more than one flat every other day. I’ve had more than 65 flats (I stopped counting at 65) in a single day...in a 16 mile ride. I ran out of tubes, patches and ended up carrying the bike for the last mile. Flats are a completely random event for which you can’t plan. Saying that they fit some kind of schedule is just silly.
Why do you multi-quote ***** all the time? I don't come around telling you how to build a wheel, so take your nose out of my area.

When I rode the open Downs the chances of getting a puncture were minimal, other than the random rusty nail type event. When I descended into a valley it would generally be between hedges, often blackthorn. In autumn and winter this was not much of a problem, but once they started to cut the hedges many of the thorns ended up scattered on the tarmac, so the chances of a puncture rose. While one cannot predict exactly where a puncture will occur, one can calculate the risk - higher for post-cut hedged roads, lower for unhedged plateau roads. So you can map out the areas of high and low risk, which is nothing different to what businesses do every day, nothing different to the algorithms that place the adverts down the right hand side of this page - which for me this week are all scantily clad ladies advertising lingerie because of a job I had this week editing lingerie shop content online.

Our not being able to do something is not the same as no one being able to do it.
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Old 01-20-21, 09:09 AM
  #171  
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Originally Posted by Geepig
Why do you multi-quote ***** all the time? I don't come around telling you how to build a wheel, so take your nose out of my area.
Not sure where I have my nose that is in your area.

As for multiple quotes, I use them so that I make it easier for the reader to follow my point.

When I rode the open Downs the chances of getting a puncture were minimal, other than the random rusty nail type event. When I descended into a valley it would generally be between hedges, often blackthorn. In autumn and winter this was not much of a problem, but once they started to cut the hedges many of the thorns ended up scattered on the tarmac, so the chances of a puncture rose. While one cannot predict exactly where a puncture will occur, one can calculate the risk - higher for post-cut hedged roads, lower for unhedged plateau roads. So you can map out the areas of high and low risk, which is nothing different to what businesses do every day, nothing different to the algorithms that place the adverts down the right hand side of this page - which for me this week are all scantily clad ladies advertising lingerie because of a job I had this week editing lingerie shop content online.
I’m not sure what this has to do with lingerie but aren’t you saying flats are random as I said above? While I agree that there are some places where picking up a thorn (for me, it Tribulus terrestris), trying to predict exactly where that might happen is nearly impossible. Can you pinpoint places where you might pick up thorns after they are trimmed or do the thorns get scattered around by lots of human activity? Are thorns picked up and spread by cars? Do they fall off trucks? Are you sure they are all gone shortly after the hedges are trimmed or do you find occasionally find one out of season?

Our not being able to do something is not the same as no one being able to do it.
I suppose you could collect data and product a model to predict where objects that cause flats would be more probable from one place to another. The problem is the amount of data needed to do a even marginally useful model would be massive. Data collection take money and the more data needed, the more money that is needed. The kind of money that would be needed for a flat probability model would be astronomical and, in the end, the model would probably be mostly useless anyway. There are lots of other projects that are far more deserving.
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Old 01-20-21, 12:13 PM
  #172  
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Originally Posted by 2_i
I have different bikes that I ride on different occasions. Sometimes I do not use a bike for 2 years, sometimes locally and sometimes because it is away from my central base. When I pump the tires again after 2 years, nothing blows up and then nothing after another 2 years. I have racks of tires and boxes of tubes of different age. Yes, the rubber ages, but not on the scale of a year, but a decade and that depends on details, as was discussed. Various devices in everyday life have rubber rollers inside and belts and you do not run all the time changing them. Yes, eventually they will die but the time scale tends to be such that at the everyday level you can forget that they are there. For vintage bikes, aging rubber and plastic can become of a concern.
Maybe I am wrong? Reading up I was kind of surprised to read cold air preserves tires because it slows dry rot. And I was also surprised to read that rubber actually expands in cold temperatures. I'm just going off my own observations where I have stored tires and bikes in my shed only to find hairline cracks in the sidewalls of the tire next spring. Where as the ones I've kept in my house are still in great shape. The other thing I have encountered is my GF put some tires in the furnace room, and a year or two later when I wanted to use them for a classic build they were ROCK hard!! I attributed it to heat from the furnace but there must be a different explanation.
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Old 01-20-21, 01:05 PM
  #173  
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Originally Posted by rekmeyata
When a patch works its way loose at any time that means you prepared the tube wrong, I've never had either a glue on or a glueless patch eventually work loose...well, as long as the glueless patch was a Park, I used a few other brands, even the well known Lezyne, those don't stick for more than a few hours, but the Park brand will stick for the life of the tube.
I can confirm the Lezyne patches don't last very long. I've used Park in the past but had developed couple of very slow leaks a month or two ago and had some Lezyne patches I thought I'd try since my tube of glue had dried up. Both leaks were discovered at home so the area was meticulously prepared before applying the patches. Within a week or two I came out one morning to find I had a flat. Pulling the tube and putting it in a sink of water I found the Lezyne patch leaking badly. Luckily I was able to peal the patch off and apply a regular glue patch which worked fine. I pulled the other tube I'd patched with the Lezyne, pealed off that patch and repatched it with a glue patch. I haven't had this issue with Park but very limited experience. Got rid of the Lezyne patches in my road patch kit and will stick with Park for emergency road repairs if I get a second flat after using my spare tube. At home I prefer glue patches.

And when I do have to use my spare tube on the road I always pull it out when I get home, patch the tube that had the puncture, put it back in the wheel and put the unpatched tube back in my road repair kit.
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Old 01-20-21, 01:53 PM
  #174  
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Originally Posted by cbrstar
Maybe I am wrong? Reading up I was kind of surprised to read cold air preserves tires because it slows dry rot. And I was also surprised to read that rubber actually expands in cold temperatures. I'm just going off my own observations where I have stored tires and bikes in my shed only to find hairline cracks in the sidewalls of the tire next spring. Where as the ones I've kept in my house are still in great shape. The other thing I have encountered is my GF put some tires in the furnace room, and a year or two later when I wanted to use them for a classic build they were ROCK hard!! I attributed it to heat from the furnace but there must be a different explanation.
Cold temperatures almost always slow chemical reactions. Any degradation is a chemical reaction that may be the result of UV or ozone. Heat also causes the rubber to further crosslink, which causes the rubber to stiffen. Some crosslinking is good but too much is bad.

I’m not sure what you mean by the rubber expands in cold weather. I think you are referring to the rubber expanding when inflated cold but it will be a little stiffer. It’s not harmed by putting air in it, however.

Cracks in rubber can be caused by a number of different conditions. They shouldn’t crack when stored in the cold outside in single winter. If they happen to be exposed to light or if there is something electrical running in the building, that can cause rubber embrittlement. The tires that hardened in a furnace room is due to the ozone that is created by the electrical motor running. Something as simple as putting the tires and tubes in a plastic bag can go a long ways toward keeping the ozone away from the rubber and they will last longer.
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Old 01-20-21, 08:09 PM
  #175  
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Originally Posted by August West
I can confirm the Lezyne patches don't last very long. I've used Park in the past but had developed couple of very slow leaks a month or two ago and had some Lezyne patches I thought I'd try since my tube of glue had dried up. Both leaks were discovered at home so the area was meticulously prepared before applying the patches. Within a week or two I came out one morning to find I had a flat. Pulling the tube and putting it in a sink of water I found the Lezyne patch leaking badly. Luckily I was able to peal the patch off and apply a regular glue patch which worked fine. I pulled the other tube I'd patched with the Lezyne, pealed off that patch and repatched it with a glue patch. I haven't had this issue with Park but very limited experience. Got rid of the Lezyne patches in my road patch kit and will stick with Park for emergency road repairs if I get a second flat after using my spare tube. At home I prefer glue patches.

And when I do have to use my spare tube on the road I always pull it out when I get home, patch the tube that had the puncture, put it back in the wheel and put the unpatched tube back in my road repair kit.
I don't know why you are not having success with glueless patches, a lot don't so you're not alone, but quite a few do have success. I prepare a tube to accept a glueless patch the same way I prepare a tube for a glue-on patch, nothing is different. What I do is when I squeeze the patch onto the tube I do it with all my strength between my index finger and thumb for 60 seconds, then I do the corners, then I look at the patch, if I see any hazy areas on the patch, which are usually the sides or corners, I repress those till the hazy look is gone, and that's it. I know that the glueless patch instructions say 30 seconds of squeezing is all you need but I do it for 60 seconds that seems to work better I think. I also don't clean the tube with alcohol, I tried that and for some reason, the patches won't stick long, not sure why that is.

Your last paragraph is why I fix on the side of the road because I don't want to go home and do the work all over again as you do, and others! I have more important things to do with my time, and time is money.
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