Punctured tubes; repair or bin

[goo_mason]

Two in my first three days of riding this year

I suspect it's a combination of the rubber on my Stelvios getting a bit less 'springy' and the carpet of tiny, needle-sharp shards of stone chippings that the council mixed with their grit to eke it out when stocks were low. Certainly the cause of the 2nd one, but couldn't find a cause for the first still embedded in the tyre.

I'm all for patching, though use a spare tube en-route about 90% of the time and patch the holed one in the comfort of my own home. It's quite relaxing, patching tubes. Very zen.

 

[Davidc]

Not unusual, I've had 2 in 5k miles and they were on the same ride and on slickish 23mm tyres. I've had none with the M+ tyres yet, the kids do seem to get more though, no surprise there.

No, I used to get loads when I was small - and rarely admitted to where I'd been riding at the time! The last 2 I've had have been when I've decided to ride along the canal towpath (a Sustrans route!!!).

 

[Watt-O]

Repair. I love the smell of rubber in the morning!

 

[theclaud]

I usually patch on the road, unless it's very wet or cold or I'm in a hurry. I'm running some tubes with about five patches on. I don't like the way you can't fold a used tube up as neatly as a new one, so I prefer to just put it back into service ASAP.

 

[porteous]

Repair or replace

Started to think about this one. Thinking about it not a good idea, as it gets tricky, for the following reasons.

1. When I was a kid daddy showed me how to fix a puncture. Most bikes came with a good repair kit (In a tin!) with pre-vulcanised patches, rubber solution (Which took at least 3 years to go hard), a tyre marking crayon, a roughener and some french chalk (aka talcum powder). It worked. It actually worked. Even when done by a ham fisted 13 year old.

Modern p*ncture repair kits are crap. They don't have all the bits, the plastic cases disintegrate and the self adhesive patches aren't. I end up using glue from one kit, patches from another and the wife's talcum powder and still putting the thing in the wrong place because I don't have a tyre crayon. They are also bloody expensive for what you get IMHO.

2. Tyre quality. I can't figure this out. I biked 10 miles a day (minimum) to and from school for 9 years in the 50s/60s and got about 6 punctures in the whole of that time. Are all modern tyres and tubes rubbish? Are some just some modern tyres and tubes rubbish?? Are the roads littered with glass, tin tacks, flailed hedges, etc to the extent that the p*ncture fairy is now a government agency with performance targets? Or am I tainted with the rosy afterglow that the passage of time puts on the past?

Anyway. Modern tubes are so cheap and modern p*ncture repair kits so junky and overpriced that it's a no brainer. Despite that I would prefer to fix p*nctures if I could, and have them as rarely as I remember.

The first thing you learn about common sense is that it isn't common.

 

[tyred]

Started to think about this one. Thinking about it not a good idea, as it gets tricky, for the following reasons.

1. When I was a kid daddy showed me how to fix a puncture. Most bikes came with a good repair kit (In a tin!) with pre-vulcanised patches, rubber solution (Which took at least 3 years to go hard), a tyre marking crayon, a roughener and some french chalk (aka talcum powder). It worked. It actually worked. Even when done by a ham fisted 13 year old.

Modern p*ncture repair kits are crap. They don't have all the bits, the plastic cases disintegrate and the self adhesive patches aren't. I end up using glue from one kit, patches from another and the wife's talcum powder and still putting the thing in the wrong place because I don't have a tyre crayon. They are also bloody expensive for what you get IMHO.

2. Tyre quality. I can't figure this out. I biked 10 miles a day (minimum) to and from school for 9 years in the 50s/60s and got about 6 punctures in the whole of that time. Are all modern tyres and tubes rubbish? Are some just some modern tyres and tubes rubbish?? Are the roads littered with glass, tin tacks, flailed hedges, etc to the extent that the p*ncture fairy is now a government agency with performance targets? Or am I tainted with the rosy afterglow that the passage of time puts on the past?

Anyway. Modern tubes are so cheap and modern p*ncture repair kits so junky and overpriced that it's a no brainer. Despite that I would prefer to fix p*nctures if I could, and have them as rarely as I remember.

The first thing you learn about common sense is that it isn't common.

I agree about the PRK but I think modern tyres are much better. When I was a kid in the 80s, I seemed to get punctures repeatedly (Raleigh Record tyres as I recall, probably quite worn in fairness) but it happens rarely now and I shop for tyres at the cheaper end of the market. I do believe Rema Tip-Top PRK is worth the extra. I keep cheap patches for use at home but always carry a Rema kit for use at the roadside. The patches seem to stick much better, whatever the weather whereas the pound shop ones will only work in the comfort of the garage.

 

[Davidc]

Agree with the above about the quality of repair kits - especially that the glue didn't go hard and useless as quickly in the 60s to 80s, and the patches seemed to go on and stay on much better than current ones do.

I don't agree about the tyres though. I'm sure the modern ones are better made, last longer, and don't seem to get punctures as often as in the past.

Clearly tyre quality depends on what you buy. I've generally bought the Schwalbe Marathons since I first came across them and have often pulled out sharp objects which would have been straight through any of the old Dunlop or Michelin 27 x 1 1/4" tyres I used to use. The rim tapes are better too, it must be about 15 years since I last had a puncture from a spoke end.

 

[Sam Kennedy]

If it's just a puncture, I will repair it, if it's a valve leak, I will bin it.

Maybe after 3 patches I will bin it, it depends whether I want to spend £5 on another tube :/

 

[swee'pea99]

I am truly mystified by the number of people on this thread who bin after the magic number 3. Why 3? Why not 1, or 7, or 14? If it's worth fixing once, why isn't it worth fixing a fourth time? I really don't get it.

Being a tight git (and congenitally allergic to waste) I'll basically keep fixing till I can't - ie, if I get a new hole too close to a patch to allow enough room for a new patch. I've chucked tubes with seven or eight patches on them. Or more, perhaps - I don't count.

 

[harry dunn]

DEPENDS WHERE THE PUNGY IS ...if you got a cluster of parches ontop of each other then its the BIN .I tend to change any puncture on road for spare tube ... then take old en home an put on top of the pile in the loft .....Ill fix em some day , when I retire perhaps.

 

[porteous]

I agree about the PRK but I think modern tyres are much better. When I was a kid in the 80s, I seemed to get punctures repeatedly (Raleigh Record tyres as I recall, probably quite worn in fairness) but it happens rarely now and I shop for tyres at the cheaper end of the market. I do believe Rema Tip-Top PRK is worth the extra. I keep cheap patches for use at home but always carry a Rema kit for use at the roadside. The patches seem to stick much better, whatever the weather whereas the pound shop ones will only work in the comfort of the garage.

Thanks for the tip, just bought two TT02 touring kits on e-bay for less than £4 including postage!( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rema-Tip-Top-..._Cycling_Tools_RepairKits?hash=item2557e7b5d4 )

 

[lukesdad]

Wilkinsons had some patches that dont need glue just press on across ahard surface like the frame. Anyone tried em?

 

[lazyfatgit]

I bought some scab patches from the people who do slime. Didn't want to get stuck if they didn't work, so made a pinhole in an old tube and used one. Worked OK, though i didn't stick the tube on a wheel and fill to full pressure. I was satisfied enough to carry them and a spare tube. Got fed up of rubber solution always drying out after one use. Marathons on the tourer mean theres usually a long time between fairy visits, and theres kevlar on the brompton too.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Replace tube at the roadside, last one I had it was about minus five and thick with freezing fog, repair tube at home, If the tubes to badly damaged I bin it. like other people I tend to bin a tube with more than three or four patches on it. What I have found is that a tube can split at the site of a puncture after a lot of use, I also have had patches lift after a lot of use. Binning a tube after three or four patches means I don't have to worry about these.