pinch flat; how hard are they to patch on a road tube ??

keef66
keef66 Posts: 13,123
edited January 2011 in Workshop
Tues night I hit a pothole I didn't see in time. Managed to take the weight off the front wheel but the back got clattered and deflated immediately. The team car came and got me cos I couldn't be arsed trying to swap tubes in the dark / freezing cold. When I went to repair it last night I found the snakebite puncture I'd expected. I've fixed them loads of times on mtb tubes without a problem, but on a road tube the two holes are too far apart for one round patch, and impossible to cover with the longer oval patch cos it's wider than the tube itself if you see what I mean. In the end I used 2 separate patches in two steps, but it was pretty tricky.

I've now resolved to keep a lot more air in my back tyre especially, but is a pinch flat always this fiddly to repair on a road tube?

Comments

  • ADIHEAD
    ADIHEAD Posts: 575
    Er you repair tubes? Just buy a few from Mr Ribble or Parkers and they work out about £2 each. Not worth messing with when you inflate to over 100psi IMHO. An sure some people will say they repair them all the time but my policy is chuck any tire that's done over 1000kmand has noticeable cuts, and buy tubes cheap enough to chuck em once punctured. Not worth the risk of ruining a ride, or worse having an accident :wink:
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    I use two patches if the holes are too far apart. Usually I can cover them with one patch though.

    ADIHEAD, if your patches fail under high pressure that's cos you're shit at patching, not because the approach is inherently flawed ;-).
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  • ADIHEAD
    ADIHEAD Posts: 575
    I manage to repair tubes on the kids bikes just fine thanks, just don't see the point in messing around with something with 110psi in it and I don't want failing on a 40mph decent :roll: Why would you bother for the sake of £2?
  • desweller
    desweller Posts: 5,175
    If economic considerations are the only ones then sure, ditch your tubes. I prefer not to dispose of something that, with a little work, will be perfectly fit for use.
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  • ADIHEAD
    ADIHEAD Posts: 575
    DesWeller wrote:
    If economic considerations are the only ones then sure, ditch your tubes. I prefer not to dispose of something that, with a little work, will be perfectly fit for use.

    Fair comment :)

    Spend enough time messing around with mine without needing any extra work though :roll:
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    It's certainly not economics; I've only had 2 punctures in 2 1/2 years on the road bike. I just hate chucking stuff out if I can fix it. I had an mtb for 10 years and only ever wrote off one tube. The ones still on the bike have 5 or 6 patches each.

    This was my first attempt at fixing a road tube, and I wasn't quite prepared for just how skinny they are, which made it difficult fixing 2 punctures close together. Maybe I should get some thinner patches too; mine are relatively inflexible ones from a 99p Tesco kit!
  • balthazar
    balthazar Posts: 1,565
    I usually repair snakebite punctures with two small patches. Use Rema-style patches, with feathered edges: the smallest should be fine, without risk of overlap.

    A proper repair, left overnight, is permanent and as good as new. Even if a patch does fail, it won't do so explosively during fast riding downhill. I don't care to throw things to landfill needlessly, either.
  • Yossie
    Yossie Posts: 2,600
    I always patch (some tubes have 3 or 4 patches in them!).

    Its a mixture of a) I'm constant skint; b) I don't like throiwing something away that can be repaired in 3 minutes while drinking a double espresso and eating some cake and c) its psychological - its always more fun burning a club nerd with his Lightweights/Di2 off when you know that you have 4 patches in your tube and he's spending wedge everytime he gets a puncture.

    I run stuff at high pressures - 115psi upwards and have never had any patches fail on me.

    But that's just me.

    As above re pinch flats - just use 2 patches if you have to - slap loads of glue all over to make sure that you cover everything the patch will need to cover, fix patch as normal then cover the whole lot in talc: the talc will soak up any excess glue.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Well I pumped up 2 patched tubes last night and this morning they were both still pleasantly turgid, so I count that as a successful repair.

    I'll be getting some of the Rema sport patches next time I'm online shoppin though
  • fish156
    fish156 Posts: 496
    balthazar wrote:
    A proper repair, left overnight, is permanent and as good as new. Even if a patch does fail, it won't do so explosively during fast riding downhill.
    Repaired tubes may well be fine for general UK riding, but personally I make sure I don't have any repaired ones if heading somewhere like the Alps.

    Descending from La Croix de Fer towards Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne at full pace, hairpin after hairpin, the wheel rims heated up so much from repeated braking that the glue on a front wheel repaired patch failed. Scared the bejeezers out of me. :shock: Never again.
  • El Gordo
    El Gordo Posts: 394
    fish156 wrote:
    balthazar wrote:

    Descending from La Croix de Fer towards Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne at full pace, hairpin after hairpin, the wheel rims heated up so much from repeated braking that the glue on a front wheel repaired patch failed. Scared the bejeezers out of me. :shock: Never again.

    I've had patches fail in the heat too but only Park glueless ones. A tube I had had three or four of them on which was fine for months until I got to the bottom of Spain and it was a bit toasty whereupon then all fell off within a couple of days.

    I can honestly say though that I've never had a traditional type patch fail so for me the 2 minutes effort of repairing is well worth it, even just financially.
  • sturmey
    sturmey Posts: 964
    I had two latex inner tubes explode on me when I fitted them from new to a race wheel, leaving one inch tears in both of them.

    Felt wrong throwing them away, so I patched them both up with the largest patches I had.

    They have held up fine for 1500 miles in mty training wheels. Keep meaning to replace them as I too have concerns about catastrophic failures.

    Then again, they might last like that forever...
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    Never had a patch fail ever...with 7 bikes and numeous pairs of wheels it's simply a question of economics, particularly with decent quality tubes with long vales are a fiver these days. I put all the bust ones in a big box and then spend an hour or so every few months to repair a batch.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..
  • darren H
    darren H Posts: 122
    I must admit I don't repair tubes. I don't get that many flats.
    I just carry two spares tubes with me when I ride. If I change one I just bin the punctured one.
    I just don't get that many flats
  • andy_wrx
    andy_wrx Posts: 3,396
    Monty Dog wrote:
    I put all the bust ones in a big box and then spend an hour or so every few months to repair a batch.

    Ditto.

    I chuck them in a bag and then once i year or so I fix them as a batch - probably half a dozen of them

    If I fixed each one individually, it would be a pain, but fixing them all together you can do it production-line style. And no worries about the glue being dried-up in the tube you opened last time you fixed one - new patch kit, new glue each time.

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