Riding with a Patched Tube
 

Let’s say you were on ride and had flat, which you patched and put back on to complete your ride home. When you get home do you remove/trash the patched tube and replace with a new tube or do you continue ride with the patched tube until it flats again then replace? Just curious, what others do.

I’d likely not repair the tube roadside, but use a sound replacement. I would repair the flat tube at home and make it the spare. I have no problems with using multiply-repaired tubes

Back in the day, I'd put a new one in on the side of the road and decide whether to patch the old one when I got home. But then I stopped using tubes and getting flats.

ride the patch to failure… that’s why you put it on instead of changing the tube!

Since the glue was changed in patch kits, I haven't had much luck with them. I carry a new spare tube. I still have a patch kit in the bag, as a last resort. To answer the question, yes, I would replace and trash the patched tube with a new tube as soon as possible.

If done properly, the patch is a permanent fix. Just leave it and ride on.

Exactly. If the patch sealed the puncture as it should, then it is just as reliable as a new tube.
I never replace a tube unless it is irreparably damaged. I am mostly riding tubeless these days, but when I was using tubes, most would accumulate multiple patches. There are times when a patch will not work, such as a puncture or tear near the valve stem. But for successfully applied patches, I have never had one fail. Subsequent leaks in the same tube are always from a puncture elsewhere.

I rarely give up on a tube because of patches. It's amusing to see how many can accumulate. The tube may eventually fail near or at the valve and get tossed. I don't normally patch while on a ride but will patch and reinstall the punctured tube at home. That way I know the patch is good and/or there isn't another puncture I've missed.

I myself have done it both ways. I carry one spare tube on my rides with a patch kit. I will change tube on the side of the road and patch the other later. I will discard the popped tube if the "snake bite" can not be covered by a patch, otherwise I patch and reuse.

I keep new tubes at home base and only carry patch kit. If I make it home without losing pressure, I ride it till it leaks again. Patches don't bother me and only chuck tubes if they're not patchable. IE:valve stem damage.

I'm lazy and tubes are cheap. Replace the tube with a spare on the roadside, throw it away when I get home.

Clarification, there are two types of patches:

1. Traditional patches with vulcanizing fluid "glue" these are permanent.
2. Newer "peel/stick" patches which are designed to be temporary and are NOT permanent. I am sure someone will chime in that he got a permanent repair with one of these, but I would advise you NOT consider them permanent.

+1 I carry two spare tubes and a peel/stick patch kit with me. If I end up having to resort to the patch kit, I ride it home and then take it off and replace the sticker with a real patch.

When I first started using those sticker patches, I did in fact think they were permanent. That caused a problem when they started to fail out on the road, including the spare which had a couple of stickers on as well, and putting a fresh sticker over an old sticker was futile.

A couple factors worth considering -- patches do add rotating weight, plus can lead to wheel imbalances. So there is that..

I admit to being a stickler for using good tubes: I put a 6 patch limit on any tube. I've never had a patch failure in the past 25 years. I always ride with 2 tubes, patch kit, boot kit, and a spare tire. I loan that stuff more than I use it, but I've been riding long enough that I've used all of that stuff myself at least once. The great thing about the spare tire is that I never have to hold anyone up looking for the frigging radial wire in my tire. I just put a fresh tube, probably patched, in my spare tire and I'm back on the road in 5 minutes. And I never have a tire failure I can't fix,

:troll:

Ever weigh a patch? Less than a gram.

You actually took that comment seriously? Relax

It’s been a rough week.

No worries.. I have to be better about proper implementation of the emoji icons available to us. :beer:

In 60,000+ miles of road cycling on crappy Massachusetts roads I've had one patch fail, and that was a few weeks ago. The mistake that I made was using on the front wheel. No harm, it went down slowly. Most likely a poor patch job by me.
Other than that, no problems at all.
'll go with three patches before I trash a tube. I tried tubeless, but with Schwalbe One tires, I got a leak almost every ride. I got tired of cleaning sealant off my frame.
I have no problem using patched tubes.

You are right, and it's going to be me. I have been using tape-type patches successfully for years. If you think it's like taping a box you are going to have failures. If you do it right, you will not.

They put in sandpaper for a reason, and you really need to rough up the surface AND removed the oxidized outer layer, so do more than you would every think you need to do. Then after putting the patch on, burnish it in place, thoroughly. If you skip this, it won't stick.

I have had the same experience with both nylon jacket repair tape and adhesive velcro. You MUST burnish adhesives, hard, so that they go into the fabric (or fubber) thoroughly and are defintely pressed in place. I use the edge of a coin for this on all three types, tires, nylon, velcro, and there's never a problem after that. Just laying any of these on with a bit of thumb rubbing won't do it.

If you read reviews of any of these three, you'll see that there are plenty of people who can't get them to stick, but it's not a problem with the adhesive.

This is what I used to do, but I also never got more than one or two flats per month and tubes could be had cheaply in bulk when on sale. Like a few bucks per tube. So I'd toss the old tube in the nearest trash rather than try to bring it home. If the new replacement also flatted (which I recall happening in 2008) I'd patch it.

Going on two years now without a single flat on tubeless. To me it's a solved problem. :)

I have a friend I used to ride with who would insist on taking my old tubes home and patching them. As far as I know he has an entire garage worth of old tubes and 99% threadbare tires. Not that he ever uses or needs any of them.

It wasn’t that long ago that there was a serious thread making the same nonsensical claim.

?? I missed this change. The standard glue in the green boxes seems to be the same stuff its always been.

If it got me home, that's proof I didn't mess up the patch job and it passes my test. I just leave it in.

I've struggled to ride patches to failure. They just keep going and going. Eventually the tube dies of other causes or I retire it "just because" after 5 patches (if I see this at home; on the road another just gets put on. Some tubes have gotten quietly sneaky and weaseled their way to as many as 8 patches.

+1

I do carry 2 tubes (new or patched). I've had long cuts in tires, blowouts, broken valve stems/leaks at the base and some days the Gods aren't smiling. And the single best way to get that Murphy guy to behave is to be prepared.