The Puncture Repair Kit Conundrum

[Deleted member 1258]

People walk internationally. You just should leave earlier!

If I'm 30-40 miles from home I'm not going to try and walk home.

 

[Racing roadkill]

Really? Why ever not?

Excess pointless weight, every microgramme counts.

 

[Racing roadkill]

It takes a bit of getting used to not having to carry loads of odds and sods about to fix punctures, when I’m out on the T520. I have gone out for a ride, and force of habit has had me stuffing my pockets with levers and tubes, and carrying a pump. It’s actually a nice feeling to just be able to grab the bike, not having to check / adjust tyre pressures, check tyres for embedded nasties, pack a saddle bag, etc. It takes a ( surprising ) amount of time, to do all of that stuff. You don’t realise until you don’t have to.

 

[mjr]

It’s actually a nice feeling to just be able to grab the bike, not having to check / adjust tyre pressures, check tyres for embedded nasties, pack a saddle bag, etc. It takes a ( surprising ) amount of time, to do all of that stuff. You don’t realise until you don’t have to.

Who does that? The saddlebag stays packed and only needs hanging on the bike, Woods valves keep pressure steady and protected tyres mean you don't fret about every sharp stone almost as much as you don't need to pull junk out of solid tyres before it gashes them.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

the whole kit and caboodle isn't going to amount to more than a few hundred grams. Anyone who would walk home three miles in cycling shoes rather than carry that "superfluous weight" is, to put it bluntly, a bit soft in the head.

Agree completely with that. The weight obsession of some cyclists knows no limit in silliness.
Having said that, I don't carry any repair stuff on my old pub hack MTB, but then I don't wear cycling shoes (or cycling anything else) and I only use it for local jaunts where a walk home isn't the end of the world.
If I'm going further afield than a couple of miles from base then I won't be riding my hack bike and I will be carrying a puncture kit and a pump, although I'm hoping that my Schwalbe "force field" manages to repel most of the flat-inducing fairies. My "good" bikes still weigh 29/30 lbs with rack & mudguards, and I'm close to 200 lbs, so an extra pound of repair kit is less than a 0.5% increase in total running weight.

 

[Moodyman]

I don't understand why folk don't carry the necessary tools to deal with punctures.

A guy at work uses the bike as his main mode of transport. Every other week I'll notice his bike with a flat against the Sheffield stand.

It might be there for a few days until he can sort a lift to Evans to get a new tube fitted.

I've offered to show him how to change a tube and repair ones with a hole, but he's not interested.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

A guy at work uses the bike as his main mode of transport. Every other week I'll notice his bike with a flat against the Sheffield stand.

It might be there for a few days until he can sort a lift to Evans to get a new tube fitted.

I've offered to show him how to change a tube and repair ones with a hole, but he's not interested.

Don't waste you're time trying. He's obviously thick as two short planks if he'd rather hoof it for a few days every time he gets a puncture then pay for a new tube rather than fix it himself. I can't decide if he falls into the "more money than sense" category or the "lower IQ than his shoe size" category. Probably both.

 

[Rowano]

Just read this thread and started off thinking "why wouldn't you carry a repair kit".... And realised that I'm my repair kit I have no way of inflating my repaired tyres

 

[clf]

I stop every half a mile to clean off the dirt from my bike, no way I'm carrying that around all day.

 

[HLaB]

I stopped carry a p'ture repair kit years ago. Not because of weight but the glue would have p'tured and hardened before I could use it. I now carry spare tubes, tyre levers and mini pump. A 100g (or whatever it is) is better than a 50mile (etc)walk and the excess weight doesn't cause me to loose any noticeable speed

 

[ianrauk]

There's also the old classic. Have a dump before you ride.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

Saw this thread and actually weighed my repair kit:

Minimalist tools
A few patches
2 Inner tubes
A lightweight pump

= 750g

I don't know if it's true or not that, at the high end, people spend around £1 to shave off one gram but if so carrying tools is quite expensive

 

[Rowano]

And a litre of water wrighs 1kg...alcohol is less dense

 

[mjr]

Saw this thread and actually weighed my repair kit:

Minimalist tools
A few patches
2 Inner tubes
A lightweight pump

= 750g

I don't know if it's true or not that, at the high end, people spend around £1 to shave off one gram but if so carrying tools is quite expensive

I'm only carrying one inner tube but there's nothing minimalist about my tools - I can adjust pedal bearing tightness with them - and it weighs less than that. Are your hex keys made of lead?

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm only carrying one inner tube but there's nothing minimalist about my tools - I can adjust pedal bearing tightness with them - and it weighs less than that. Are your hex keys made of lead?

Pump - 114g
Tubes - 150g x2
Tools - 276 g Err, maybe not so minimalist. It seems to have grown slightly while I wasn't looking. It isn't like I'm carrying pliers or anything though.
= 690g, add a little extra for the pump bracket I can't be bothered to remove, plus a container to carry it all in and it's probably around 750. Maybe a bit less.