Originally Posted by
VegasJen
Probably because of my own inability, I've never had much luck with those roadside patch kits. I haven't figured out why.
I do have very good luck patching tubes at home using old tube patches and rubber cement. Probably better than 90% success with that. But that doesn't do me much good when my verified spare tubes are in the garage and I'm stuck on the side of the road, does it?
It is indeed tougher to patch a tube on the side of the road, for me because of (lack of) patience, I think. You might try doing some at-home patches with the little kit just to get familiar with it. For years I did my home patches that way with Rema or Park kits. Only recently, for at home, I've been buying the same glue in larger tubes and patches in larger/bulk quantities. I also buy quantities of the little patch glue tubes to replace the ones in the roadside kits because it's hard to count on them being viable once opened. I'll leave the opened ones at home for at-home patches in case they still have life in them.
But I agree, it's a royal pain to patch a tube on the side of the road. If it's raining, worse yet. If it weren't for the fact that it's been many, many years since I had two flats on the same ride, i'd probably carry two spare tubes and put the roadside patch even further down the list of interventions.