Originally Posted by
MidLife50
I started with reviewing changing a flat, have practiced several times on my bike and yesterday I had a real live flat to fix on my daughter's bike. I've got this down, and did this sitting on my porch in about 10 minutes in 100+ heat index weather. So if it takes me 15 - 20 minutes on tour it's a delay, but not a day-ruiner. My wife and I are both riding 700x35 so we had 4 spare tubes (now 3 because I used 1 yesterday). I'm comfortable starting off the tour with 3 spare tubes between us.
Put a Park GP-2 in each of your repair kits. They're cheap, take up no space, weigh nothing, and work quite well. Once you've burned through your tubes, they'll be there to provide a lot of margin against additional punctures.
Or a Rema patch kit. They also work very well, if you're more into the cold-vulcanizing patch thing.
Now I've progressed to worrying about what if I get a flat that involves a tire hole or cut.
Throw one of those metallic food bar wrappers in there: they've got plenty adequate tensile stiffness and strength. If you don't want to carry food wrappers around, carry the wrappers with the food still inside: then you can use the flat as an excellent excuse to stop and eat the food contained within the wrapper, before fixing your tire.
Or use a dollar bill if you're desperate. They work, most of the time.
If you want super-bonus-extra peace of mind, it's not a huge deal to carry a spare tire, especially if you're the sort of person who carries
three spare tubes around.