I was driving past a local bike shop and decided to go in for a patch kit as I ran out of patches while repairing my fleet of tubes the night before (I actually have a whole bunch of tubes and save up the flats for a big patching session once a year or so). Anyhoo, I asked for a patch kit and the store owner (who I know fairly well) handed me a park
insta-patch (or whatever). I told him I don't like those and they are only temporary. He assure dme that he has customers who have years-old
quick-patches and they are as permanent as anything... I disagreed, he reassured me... someone came out from the back and said "do they even still make regular patch kits?"
I felt like I was taking crazy pills.
Anyhoo, I eventually agreed and figured I can use the park
rapid-patch in a pinch and pick up a real patch kit next time I am ant Canadian Tire or MEC. I realized I had two more patches to do when I got home - the flat tire on my mountain bike and a spare mtb tube... so I fixed the tubes with my new
hasty-patch kit and re-mounted the tire.
THe next day was our regular Wednesday group trail ride and when I went to take my bike out of the car - Lo! - a flat recently
Fast-Patched tube. I pulled it out while people waited for me (including the shop owner), and I replaced with the other
Speedy-Patched tube... I made it about 200 feet down the trail and can you guess what I heard? Fsssssssssssst...
I gave up and walked back to the parking lot. I took out the tube and the
Swift-Patch was all wrinkled and clearly had room for air to escape.
Permanent my ass!
Anyhoo, the moral of the story is... don't shop at Bikes 'N' Stuff in Cheneaux, Quebec (Just kidding)... regular patches = good,
Hurry-Patch = Bad
Last comment: looking for the link to the Park QuickPatch I noticed that
Park still makes
regular patch kits!