Would you use a repaired tube?

[Tom B]

By catastrophic I mean an encounter with a Stanley knife blade or ripping out a sidewall on a jagged rock (both are things that have happened to me). The tyre holds the pressure and the inner tube only has to be airtight. Inner tubes don't have catastrophic failures unless the tyre does. I am more fussy about tyre condition!
Poorly executed puncture repairs are another matter all together! You and I both know that there are some people who shouldn't be trying to patch inner tubes.

I know some patches that shouldn't be allowed to patch tubes too. Starting with that shoot that you cut out yourself with no feathered edges. I was disappointed with my most recent set of red/black Tip patches as they went hard and cracked.

Over the years being responsible for a bike "fleet" and the subsequent pool of tubes I've repaired more tubes than I care to remember. Failures of repairs have been down to my crap workmanship or crap materials. Failures have without exception been early failures within minutes or hours.

My favoured use for old tubes is as tree ties, they allow some movement and growth and dont chaffe. The local nature reserve took a bunch from me last summer for the same use.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I've used a tube with the hole tied off before now. It got me home, so that's fine.

 

[Blue Hills]

I know some patches that shouldn't be allowed to patch tubes too. Starting with that shoot that you cut out yourself with no feathered edges. I was disappointed with my most recent set of red/black Tip patches as they went hard and cracked.

Over the years being responsible for a bike "fleet" and the subsequent pool of tubes I've repaired more tubes than I care to remember. Failures of repairs have been down to my crap workmanship or crap materials. Failures have without exception been early failures within minutes or hours.
e.

I have some of those old school (american) non feathered patches. Great heavy rubber things but not totally convinced because of the inevitably flappy edges. In view of your massive experience in allnthings rubber, can I ask which patches you recommend. Tip Top?

 

[hopless500]

Yes, if it's done properly a patch is a permanent repair so no qualms here about carrying on riding on patched tubes.

^^^^^

 

[Tom B]

I have some of those old school (american) non feathered patches. Great heavy rubber things but not totally convinced because of the inevitably flappy edges. In view of your massive experience in allnthings rubber, can I ask which patches you recommend. Tip Top?

The best I have found are some unbranded plain black patches that come on a long strip of white backing for 50p from the LBS. The next time I go in I will ask what make they are. The almost just become part of the tube and at first glance you could miss them.

A close second are the red and black TIP patches.


YMMV

 

[youngoldbloke]

Tip Top for me too, but not had problems with any of the Wilko/Tesco type kit patches anyway. Why are there never enough small patches? Got through many of those over the years but I can't remember when I last needed the larger rectangular ones.

 

[rrarider]

I have some of those old school (american) non feathered patches. Great heavy rubber things but not totally convinced because of the inevitably flappy edges. In view of your massive experience in allnthings rubber, can I ask which patches you recommend. Tip Top?

I've always found the Rema TipTop patches 100% reliable. I also recommend the Wilko patches in their £1 repair kit. That kit is good value, just for the little tube of vulcanising solution alone. The rubber solution tubes are very prone to drying out, so carrying a new mini tube is essential in my kit. I also pop a tiny piece of the Poundland snap off knife blade in the kit, so that I could remove the patch's backing if necessary.

Having said all that, it's been years since I've had to repair a tube at the roadside and it would only happen if I had two punctures on one trip. The first repair would use the spare tube that I carry. For me the tube repair is the easy part of the job, as I have MA40 wheels which have the fearsome and well-deserved reputation of being difficult to get the tyre on and off, particularly with Kevlar beaded tyres. When I get home after swapping the tube, I fix the puncture carefully, then put the repaired tube back on the wheel and fold the hardly used spare tube and put it back in the seatpost bag

 

[Alan O]

When I used to do a lot of Sunday runs with clubs the riders who got the most punctures invariably had loads of patches on already.

That might just mean that the riders who get the most punctures are the ones who need to patch the most

 

[Alan O]

In my old student days I used to repatch until something drastic happened to stop me, simply because I couldn't afford the waste of throwing away old tubes that still had life in them. Tubes usually only got thrown away after valve failures, or until I got to having to patch on top of an old patch.

And I've really seen no need to change from that approach. So even through my working life, I've carried on patching until tubes are too far gone. I just don't like waste, and I see no real benefit in throwing away a perfectly good patched tube and replacing it with a new one.

Alan

 

[tyred]

In my time I have repaired inner tubes not only in bikes but in tube type car/tractor/lorry wheels all of which carry considerably more weight (no jokes about my aero-belly) and generally travel faster than my bike. If it is patched properly the tube will be as good as new. The vulcanising solution and rubber patch method has been around for over a century and is tried and tested technology. It is also a very simple operation to carry out, the most difficult part is usually removing the tyre which you need to do to replace the tube in the first place. I just don't understand why people are afraid of it or don't trust it but in some ways I am grateful for all the 700c tubes I collect at the side of the road and take home and patch to be used later. I haven't had to buy one in years

Another thing for anyone who rides with hub gears is that getting the wheel out can be time consuming with some bikes - lay the bike on it's side, pop off one side of the tyre bead only, pull the tube out, patch it and put it back together again without messing about with gear cable adjustments or chain cases or any of that nonsense. It's how I generally patch tubes on any bike which doesn't have quick release wheels anyway and if you can see what caused the puncture to begin with such as a thorn sticking out of the tyre, you only need to remove a little bit of the tyre bead and just work on the punctured part of the tube.

 

[I like Skol]

In my time I have repaired inner tubes not only in bikes but in tube type car/tractor/lorry wheels all of which carry considerably more weight (no jokes about my aero-belly) and generally travel faster than my bike. If it is patched properly the tube will be as good as new. The vulcanising solution and rubber patch method has been around for over a century and is tried and tested technology. It is also a very simple operation to carry out, the most difficult part is usually removing the tyre which you need to do to replace the tube in the first place. I just don't understand why people are afraid of it or don't trust it but in some ways I am grateful for all the 700c tubes I collect at the side of the road and take home and patch to be used later. I haven't had to buy one in years

Another thing for anyone who rides with hub gears is that getting the wheel out can be time consuming with some bikes - lay the bike on it's side, pop off one side of the tyre bead only, pull the tube out, patch it and put it back together again without messing about with gear cable adjustments or chain cases or any of that nonsense. It's how I generally patch tubes on any bike which doesn't have quick release wheels anyway and if you can see what caused the puncture to begin with such as a thorn sticking out of the tyre, you only need to remove a little bit of the tyre bead and just work on the punctured part of the tube.

A kindred spirit! www.cyclechat.net/threads/bank-holiday-monday.198114/page-3#post-4214419

 

[ChrisEyles]

Crazy question, of course! I've lost count of the number of patches on the rear wheel of my MTB, must be at least five.

If they hold air fine until the next morning they're very unlikely to fail later down the line. It's an important skill to practice every once in a while so you've got it handy when you flat in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Globalti]

There isn't actually much stress on a tube patch when you think about it - air pressure pushes it hard against the inside of the tyre so you've got to have made a really ham-fisted repair for that to fail. I have about half a dozen tubes hanging up in the garage and every few months I patch them, hang them up partly-inflated for a few days to check them, then roll them up tight, suck out the air and re-roll them around the valve then tape them tight with vinyl tape ready to be slipped into a jersey pocket. For my best bike, which can't be sullied with a saddle bag *spits* I carry a rolled inner tube taped together with two spare plastic tyre levers in one pocket and a CO2 inflator in the other pocket. That's all. The bike is in excellent repair and I'm confident it won't fail to proceed for any reason so I don't carry a multi-tool.