puntured inner tubes

jimycooper

what do you do with a used inner tubes?

buy more
or
repair them with a kit

i cant find any good repair kits so am starting to resort to buying lots on ebay.
any one?

DaveyL

In this current economic climate I've started repairing them!

jimycooper

can you rely on the repair patches you use?

DaveyL

They seem OK, but I can't tell you what they are as I "borrowed" the ones I'm using just now from a mate!

pbracing

Repair them and use them in the wife's hybrid. I keep the new tubes for myself. ha ha.
Patches always stay on from any kit. Ripped the valve out of the last tube on the rim tape, so that one went in the garage for elastic bands.

mcflyss

Repair, although i do like to have anew one as dont truyst my repairs 100%

mcflyss

pbracing wrote:

Repair them and use them in the wife's hybrid. I keep the new tubes for myself. ha ha.

Thats funny!

on the road

Don't use the self stick patches, they don't work. They'll get you home but your tyre will be flat the next morning.

Crapaud

on the road wrote:

Don't use the self stick patches, they don't work. They'll get you home but your tyre will be flat the next morning.

Yeah, I used them once and they were utter crap.

I don't understand why anyone would throw away perfectly servicable tubes. The only times I've had a repair come off is when patches have been overlapping.

From watching others doing repairs the main error appears to be not using enough adhesive, whether it's quantity or area covered. Occassionally I've seen the dried out 'snot' from the nozzle used. :?

STEFANOS4784

I used to repair but after coming on this forum i replace, i think i need a girlfriend, been asking myself whether latex ineertubes will be worth it :roll:

never had a problem with a repaired iner though, don't know why i stopped. I t was the only thing on a bike i can do myself and not worry about dying :? :arrow: 8) :arrow:

Mettan

I throw inner tubes away (Michelin Aircomp Butl £2.99) - however, I do repair tyres by putting a "preventative" patch behind any larger cuts. With the cost of Pro Race 3's, Ultremos etc, seems sensible.

Lagavulin

I bin 'em but buy in bulk in the first place.

redddraggon

I repair, got loads of puncture kits. When Woolworths were closing down they chucked loads away.

redvee

Lagavulin wrote:

I bin 'em but buy in bulk in the first place.

+1. Last time I bought std mtb tubes, 26x1.75, I paid 65p each but that was 6+ years ago and still have some left.

on the road

I just repair them and re-use them.

neeb

I'm staggered that anyone would throw away a tube just because it's got one puncture! Why?? Apart from the cost, what about the waste of material, chemicals used in manufacturing, etc??

It's only within the past year or two that I've started taking a spare tube with me at all, I used to always repair my punctures on the road. It's far more hassle getting the tyre on and off than it is actually repairing the puncture, and you can use that 5mins when you are waiting for the glue to dry to appreciate your surroundings.

I do worry about the weight of excessive numbers of patches on my 50g tubes though...

softlad

repair them - chucking them away is quite literally a waste of money - not to mention a waste of an otherwise perfectly good tube.

Having said that, two repairs max and then they're in the bin...

mcflyss

on the road wrote:

Don't use the self stick patches, they don't work. They'll get you home but your tyre will be flat the next morning.

rEALLY?? i JUST BOUGHT A LOAD OF PARK TOOLS SELF STICKY ONES!!!

oops sorry didnt meant to shout

morxy

on the road wrote:

Don't use the self stick patches, they don't work. They'll get you home but your tyre will be flat the next morning.

I've used Park Tool Self Adhesive (Glueless) Patches a couple times and they seem fine. Even months after patching they've sustained pressues of 120psi. I made sure the surface was coarse (rubbed with sandpaper), level and clean, then applied the patch, lots of thumb pressure for a minute or 2, stretching the patch outwards at its corners while pressing down firmly. That's my technique anyway. Maybe I was lucky.

Crapaud wrote:

I don't understand why anyone would throw away perfectly servicable tubes.

Exactly. It's wasteful. When a tube's patched it's even more air tight than before. I won't patch a tube more than 2 or 3 times though. It just seems wrong. Illogical, I know. Plus, excessive patches tend to make a tube less supple and malleable which may, in an infinitesimally small way, increase rolling resistance :oops:

Apparently latex tubes save 2.8 to 7 watts of rolling resistance per wheel because of their increased suppleness... I think because a latex tube distributes more pressure, more evenly, at the tyre's sidewalls, generally filling the cavity between the rim and the tyre more evenly than a butyl tube (?). But... I don't know. I'm just recycling other people's comments on why studies show a slightly lower rolling friction in latex tubes.

I use Park Tool glueless patches when I have to, if I'm out with no spare tube. But my preferred patches, when I'm home and have time, are Rema Tip Top F0 because they're small (16mm), feathered edges, less likely to make a bump or bulge when the tube's inflated... Basically you want your patch as small as possible when you're patching a narrow road tube.

synchronicity

Mettan wrote:

I throw inner tubes away (Michelin Aircomp Butl £2.99) - however, I do repair tyres by putting a "preventative" patch behind any larger cuts. With the cost of Pro Race 3's, Ultremos etc, seems sensible.

That's probably more dangerous to do that with the tyres than the tubes! I don't want to sound condescending or anything, but tyres have a carcass which takes for all intents and purposes all the forces/pressure. Once that's cut, they're usually gone. Sticking patches on them (inside, outside or both) only lulls you into a false sense of security... I've had a 1 or 2 tyres fail that way and I think it is not such a good idea... I don't do it anymore.

On the other hand, if anything, repaired innertubes are stronger than when new (provided you are familiar with the right method) because the rubber around the hole is now twice as thick as it was originally. Yes I repair all my inner tubes and only replace them when the valve fails. I always supply a new innertube as a spare.

1 because it's cheaper
2 because it's better for the environment
3 because once I finally learned how to do it right I've never had one fail.

Mettan

synchronicity wrote:

Mettan wrote:

I throw inner tubes away (Michelin Aircomp Butl £2.99) - however, I do repair tyres by putting a "preventative" patch behind any larger cuts. With the cost of Pro Race 3's, Ultremos etc, seems sensible.

but tyres have a carcass which takes for all intents and purposes all the forces/pressure. Once that's cut, they're usually gone. Sticking patches on them (inside, outside or both) only lulls you into a false sense of security... I've had a 1 or 2 tyres fail that way and I think it is not such a good idea... I don't do it anymore.

That's a good point - however, I only patch larger cuts that haven't penetrated through the tyre (ie 3-5mm with no penetraton)- sounds odd, however, there's a chance that the next bit of glass that lodges in that cut could be enough to nip through and actually puncture the inner tube - with a patch/tire boot there, its much less likely (imho)..... Obviously, that kind of situation doesn't go on indefinately (tyres get replaced).

Underscore

morxy wrote:

I use Park Tool glueless patches when I have to, if I'm out with no spare tube. But my preferred patches, when I'm home and have time, are Rema Tip Top F0 because they're small (16mm), feathered edges, less likely to make a bump or bulge when the tube's inflated... Basically you want your patch as small as possible when you're patching a narrow road tube.

+1

I use F0s for road tyres and F1s for MTB tyres. Yet to have one fail on me... which is really tempting fate...

_

ride_whenever

I usually swap tubes at the roadside then patch when i'm going home.

MrChuck

I don't chuck them, but I don't often get round to repairing them either so end up with a box full! By far most of my punctures are on my MTB, and then I just swap the tube. Thing is I don't want to fix the tube and carry it as a spare because I'm not sure I could count on it when I need it, and when I get home I can't be bothered to fix it and swap it back over unless I happen to be messing about with the wheels/tires anyway.

morxy

Mettan wrote:

...I only patch larger cuts that haven't penetrated through the tyre (ie 3-5mm with no penetraton)...

When I get cuts like that in my tyres, towards the end of their life, I sometimes fill them with a drop or 2 of superglue, let them harden overnight, then file the hardened superglue with sandpaper if it protrudes above the tyre's surface.

That's probably a bad habit, I know :oops: but I replace the tyre after I've done this a couple of times!

ChrisLS

...repair 'em...

...be sure to get all the moulding silicone off the tube with a bit of emery...apply the the rubber cement and make sure it's dry to the touch and then apply the patch...works everytime.

...I once rode on a tour with a bloke who had an inner tube he had patched about 25 times... 8)

Anonymous

I repair them, I did not intend on ever repairing them but as usual I never chuck anything away and they where all hanging from the back of my door, so I though I might aswell repair them as I cant afford to keep splashing out on new ones, so now I take 3 inner tubes with me, 1 new, 2 repaired, I will only use the new ones IF the repaired ones failed and so far so good, the front wheel has a repaired one in for a couple weeks and it has not failed yet

Wont 25 patches on an inner tube increase the weight by a large margin and increase rolling resistance??

on the road

How much do 25 patches weigh?

morxy

on the road wrote:

How much do 25 patches weigh?

25+ grams is enough to give a weight weenie nightmares Think of the added rolling resistance too... 25 miniscule irregular bulges and voids in the tube/tyre cavity making the tyre deform slightly more on each revolution?! Someone in a lab should do some tests!

Crapaud

morxy wrote:

... 25+ grams is enough to give a weight weenie nightmares ...

They could drill the patches out, or cut out really small patches. After all, puncture holes are generally very small.

wastelander

I always swap a punctured tube out for an un-repaired one but repair the punctured one and pop it back in tyre on my return home, refolding the un-punctured tube to put back into my seatpack. Can't see the point of chucking a tube away when 5 mins effort later will make it as good as new. I don't race on them so I'm not bothered about the absolute roundess, voids/cavities, or perceived increased rolling resistance!