Newbie question and patching

If DBF and I replaced the tube after every flat, we wouldn't be able to afford to eat. :eek: These little buggers--goathead, punctureweed, whatever you like to call them--are a plague, here. We use the "traditional" glue kits, and if you take the time to do them right, they work just fine. I think it's a very good thing to know how to do.

I'm also of the "spare tube on the road, then patch at home" mindset, but I do always carry a patch kit just in case (even on my relatively short commute), since I never carry more than one tube on a normal ride. I'll confess that I'm not particularly good about doing it right when I get home, though, and since I often don't have anything to mark the hole with, I forget where it was, and then it sits....... and then I buy another tube. :o

And since you asked specifically about skinny tires, my commuter tires are 700x28, and my road bike has 700x23.

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Originally Posted by badgercat

since I often don't have anything to mark the hole with, I forget where it was

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That's what the pail of water is for! It's so much easier to find the hole at home than it is out on the road. When you're on the road, you have to listen for the hiss, sometimes over traffic noise, and if the puncture is small you may really have a hard time hearing it. At home, you can dunk the partially inflated tube into a pail of water and watch the bubbles come out. That's really the only way to find a slow leak.

But there's another trick worth mentioning here. When you install a tube, line up the label of the tire with the valve stem of the tube. Then when you find the offending object in your tire, you'll have an idea of where to start looking for the hole in your tube.


I run 700x23s on my road bike too. Back in the day, I had 21s on my race bike. But that's actually the same size tube, usually.

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

That's what the pail of water is for! It's so much easier to find the hole at home than it is out on the road. When you're on the road, you have to listen for the hiss, sometimes over traffic noise, and if the puncture is small you may really have a hard time hearing it. At home, you can dunk the partially inflated tube into a pail of water and watch the bubbles come out. That's really the only way to find a slow leak.

But there's another trick worth mentioning here. When you install a tube, line up the label of the tire with the valve stem of the tube. Then when you find the offending object in your tire, you'll have an idea of where to start looking for the hole in your tube.

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I get the water idea... too often I just don't get around to doing it. :o The tire-label trick is a good one, and has come in handy for me before.

This lil'o granny is of old school.

I do carry a spare tube and a patch kit. I throw away the tube when I have about ten or so patches. Those new very thin stick-on-patches are not very good.

The trick to the old fashioned patches is to make sure you scrape and clean the tube with a sandpaper to expose fresh rubber/butyl around the hole. Apply very thin layer of glue and let it DRY!! then apply the patch.

Guys used to mock me for having tubes with so many patches.

You can't tell your when you ride.

Spare tube should be carried in a zip lock bags with talc powder. Talc powder coated tubes are much easier to install and less likely to have a twisted tube inside the tire casing.

It always seems that I am always a tube short- I carry one, and get two flats, if I stuff a second tube in my pack or rear pocket, I get three flats...

So one tube and a patch kit it is. Personally, I think the 'peel 'n stick' ones are a waste of time and will cause grief later on. The glue will dry and the patch will leak. If you patch it and store the tube as a spare, it will leak when you go to use it. If you then try to re-patch it, removing the patch will tear the tube and now you have nothing. Yea all this happened to me- nothing worse than filling a tube and riding 100 yds only to stop again with a flat caused by a bad patch.

The vulcanized rubber patch kits with the glue work. The patch is basically 'melted' to the tube and it's as strong or stronger than it was before. It will last as long as you care to use the tube. Rough up the tube with the little sandpaper that it comes with, apply the glue and wait for it to dry tacky (don't touch it), then apply the patch and hold it down for a minute. The patch has a piece of paper on the 'top' side, don't remove it- just put the tube back on the rim and use it again, saving the spare for those times the tube is too badly ripped to patch. I also carry a 'tire boot' which is a 2" square of pliable plastic, to place on the inside of the tire over a gash, to keep the tube from protruding through a rip in the tire so I can ride home.