andychrist

Got a tear in the fabric of a Schwalbe Marathon GG (obviously a manufacturing defect), caused a sidewall blow out when I was about thirty miles from home. Cleaned and dried the inner surface as best I could, applied “vulcanizing fluid” and one of those long oblong patches from my repair kit. Don’t recall now whether I was also able to patch the tube or had to install a spare, but made it home and the tire lasted that way until the tread wore down enough to expose the colored stripe underneath.

elcyc

My latest attempt seems to be a MUCH improved method. But only time will tell.
I cut out a section from a toilet paper tube (cardboard core) -- taped in place on the inside of the tire centered on the small tear. The bisected cardboard tube is shaped like a tire, somewhat, so that helped.
basically I have:
Three layers of Gorilla tape.
1/2" x 3" section of core (taped in place on each end) The edges of the section are just short of tire beads.

I tried just the tape, and I had a slight bulge. With the cardboard section, I have no bulge at 70psi.
I'm still gonna keep a small patch of Gorilla on the OUTER part of the tire, covering the tear.

I rode my std. route today (5 miles) with no issues. And no lumpy ride (because there is no bulge).
We'll see how long this holds.


https://www.rd.com/wp-content/upload...aper-roll1.jpg

LV2TNDM

Dental floss. Good for your teeth. Good for sewing up a blown sidewall!

I found a Continental Town & Country by someone's garbage with almost all the rubber life left in it about 15 years ago. The user had cut their sidewall with an improperly positioned brake pad (or bent wheel or both). I decided I'd give dental floss a try. Why not embark on a little experiment and see if I could resurrect this tire and get its intended life out of it?

I don't like the idea of using butyl rubber as a tire boot - it lacks strength to prevent stretching and bulging. After all, that's what your tire's underlying material is there to do: contain the air pressure with help of the bead. And a dollar or PowerBar wrapper is fine as a temporary fix. But you need something with more integrity for a permanent fix. I like the idea of sail cloth. Will add it to my list of repair ideas, thanks!

So I decided a section of Velox rim tape would be ab ideal boot since I always have left-over bits in the shop. But first, I sewed up the tear with floss as well as I could. Then I used Barge contact cement in an area on and around the tear, but in a larger surface area than just the tear itself. I applied same to the Velox. After it dried (per instructions), I applied the glued Velox to the glued tire sidewall. Stuck very well. So I assumed the glued boot PLUS sidewall stitching with dental floss would suffice. I think I coated the exterior with Shoe Goo to prevent deterioration of the dental floss and to keep the elements at bay.

It worked for over five years of daily 10 mile commutes. It never blew out. I think I just finally wore the tire out. I posted my experiment in a bike forum and virtually everybody pounced on me for being stupid, taking a "really big" chance, wasting my time, etc., etc. Well, it proved quite effective. So it was nice proving all the naysayers wrong.

I would never have done this to someone else's bicycle, much less a customer. Nor would I have tried this experiment on either of my tandems. But I felt perfectly fine giving it a go on my daily commuter. Glad I did. Worked great.

And to add to the discussion: a friend who toured Southeast Asia, Asia and Europe for 22 months swore by Shoe Goo as a really great mountain bike tire sidewall protector. They were riding through all manner of dirt roads and mud. Wore through many, many brake pads and a rim sidewall during their trip, so I thought it was a solid suggestion.

Darth Lefty 

Way back in high school science class we were supposed to make a dental floss and popsicle stick bridge with white glue. I know they were imagining railroad trusses and gossamer suspension bridges, but we were a bunch of nerds in the late era of balsa wood and fiberglass model airplanes. The winner was supposed to be the best load to weight ratio. But they didn't give us any weight limit. So I used a whole box of sticks and many rolls of floss to make a solid arch that I wrapped lengthwise over and over so the wood was in compression and the floss in tension, and drenched it with glue. It lifted up the shop press. I wasn't the only one to exploit this loophole so they took the three bridges that lifted the press and gave first prize to the lightest one... mine was 2nd. The winner had a leg up on me in design. His was much like the spar of an airplane with popsicle stick shear web, 3x more floss on top than bottom and hoop wraps to keep it all together... also drenched in glue.