AcornMan

TWO flats during one ride! What are the chances of that?

10 Wheels

You can have up to eight in one day.

LesMcLuffAlot

It happens enough that I have started carry 2 tubes on my longer road rides when I'm going to be many kilometers from home. Only one fits in my seat bag the other goes in my jersey pocket.

You could carry some of those peel and stick patches just in case.

MMACH 5

^^^ That.

I carry a spare tube and a package of glueless patches. I've only had to use them on the road once.

Cannondaler

Two tubes, patch kit, two co2's, and pump if I am solo. And yes, I have needed all of this on one ride before. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Machka 

I always carry at least two tubes. And patches. If I'm going any distance, I'll carry a folding tire as well. And boots.

DX-MAN

I also carry a patch kit to back up the spare tube.

I'll tell you what I say about almost everything:

Chances are 50/50; either it happens, or it doesn't. Just real talk.

twentysixtwo

1 spare tube, + park superpatches, 3 CO2 cartridges...Anything past that and I have a cell phone

AcornMan

OK, so I have a question about the tire patch kits. How on earth do you find the hole? I've never been able to do that.

Velo Dog

Posts like this are just unbelievable to me--there was one a few months ago from a guy who said he'd had his first flat in four years of riding. Here in the land of big thorns, I average one every 30 to 50 miles, depending on whether I stick to well-traveled roads or go off onto side roads. I've had nine on a recent 50-mile ride and four on my 25-mile round-trip commute. That's with good, Kevlar-belted tires (Pasela TGs, mostly) and some attention to trying to avoid sharp things. I sneer at you whiners.
FWIW, I threw all my glueless patches away and carry conventional glue-ons. My failure rate with glueless was at least 50 percent, and all they save is glue-drying time, a minute or so. In 30+ years of riding, I've had only two conventional patches leak.

MMACH 5

I use a Road-Morph pump instead of CO2, (I would hate to waste one trying to find the hole). I mark the tube so I know where to check inside the tire before installing the new tube. Pumping the tube up after it is out of the tire is usually enough to locate the leak. Just listen for the hissing. There have been times that I've had to submerse the tube in water to find the leak. If you don't have access to a sink, I suppose you could dunk it in a creek.


I have a 48-mile round-trip commute, so that is where most of my miles are accumulated.
I didn't say I never had a flat or had to use a tube while out on the road.
Even when I've had to replace the tube, I put on a glueless patch at work, (just in case I need the tube on the ride home). I consider them to be temporary. When I get home, I replace the glueless patch with a conventional glue-on.

The one time I had two flats in one ride, I was spending the day geocaching on my MTB. The greenbriar ivy here is quite prolific in most off-road areas.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I've yet to have a flat on my Armadillos.

StephenH

How you find the hole in the tube: You put air in it, air it up to about double its unstretched size. Run your hand around slowly, feel for air. Rotate the tube around, listen for air. Get your hand wet if necessary, makes it easier to feel air moving. It may take going around the tube two or three times slowly, listening and feeling. Remember the leak can be on the inside of the tube, not just the tire surface. Also, it can be a leaky valve, which you can check by putting a drop of spit on the valve. At home, you can run water in the sink and stick a part of the tube at a time under the water to look for bubbles.

stapfam

One tube and a patch kit on every ride. But one "Memorable" ride and in our group of 4- we had 8 punctures in a couple of miles. One persistent bike had 5 of those. A thorn had gone in and could not be found. We turned the tyre inside out and it appeared through the carcase.

I normally patch the tube- doesn't take long and only change the tube if it is raining or it is toast.

PaulRivers

I have to many nightmares of getting a flat, opening up the patch kit, and finding out the patch glue I last used last year has now dried out to use patches with glue. That's why I use the glueless kind.

To be fair, I usually replace the entire tube, the patch kit is there either for backup, or a quick fix if I happen to be able to peel the tire back and put the patch on without removing the wheel.

To the OP, I honestly kind of have to laugh at you a little. *2* flats and you say what are the odds? 3, usually 4 to 5 is the lower limit to be surprised about.

corkscrew

Mark another notch down for my kit then!

1 extra tube, and a kit full of conventional patches w/ the vulcanizing fluid.

I patch the existing tube on the side of the road if I have time and the weathers nice. Other wise throw in the new tube. If I ever start touring I'll probably carry two tubes with me, just in case my luck demands that two valve stems give up the ghost.

jdon

Bingo!

Keith99

My method has always been to only patch on the road if I have to, new tube otherwise and patch when I have 3 or 4 back home (and verify it works before putting it back into the rotation). My patch kit always includes one unopened tube of glue. Also some boots for the tire as a large nail can cause significant damage which can be repaired.

I've never needed 2 tubes on a ride that I can remember. But on my first Grand Tour (Highland Double) I passed a rider who was on his 3rd flat in the first 25 miles. Having 2 tubes meant I could give him one.

caloso

I've had 3 flats on a single ride several times. I usually carry a tube and a patch kit, a CO2 and a pump. First flat gets a new tube and CO2, and a chance to catch back up. Second and subsequent flats get a patch and the pump, and I'm probably riding home by myself at that point anyway.

PaulRivers

Hmm. Well, I feel silly saying this, but that's true - you could just carry one unopened tube of glue and you wouldn't have to worry about it. The odds of opening the 2nd tube and forgetting to replace it are probably the same as the odds of using your last patch and forgetting to replace it. Interesting.

I've actually started carrying 2 tubes not so I could give someone else one (though it's a nice idea), but out of fear that I'll actually need that backup tube, pull it out, and find my replacement tube is defective and be SOL! :-)

I've run across a couple of defective tubes lately... :-(

Keith99

I carry a second to cover myself, not just to be kind.

One additional advantage of traditional patches is that if you do line up the tubes with the tires and you get unlucky and get a very small piece of glass or bit of steelbelt from a car tire and do not find it that kind of patch may give enough thickness that it will not go through (or when it finally does you can find it). Turned out that on the same ride where I gave away a tube I did pick up a bit of steel belt (I've done it 3 times, never on a ride of less than 60 miles). This was the only time I found it on the first try. One other I replaced and flatted again, took 5-10 minutes to find on that occurance. The third case I did not find on the ride, replaced the tube and rode 30 more miles without incident, only to find a flat tire the next morning. Steel belt is nasty stuff. Worst case it to be able to find it, but not get it out of the tide while on the road.

iamnotamerican

It's easier to just change the tube while you're on the road, then patch it up when you get home. As someone else has suggested, to do that you just fill a sink with water, put your inflated tube into the water then watch for the bubbles.

One day though when I was in a pinch and I needed to find a puncture, I used my extra water bottle. Fold the tube, squeeze it into the water bottle, look for bubbles. No bubbles? Pull it out, take another section of the tube, squeeze it into the water bottle, look for bubbles. No bubbles? Repeat until you've gone all the way around the tube.

So basically, if you have water into which you can immerse some or all of the inflated tube? Great. If not, as has been previously written, even running wet hands over the tube itself will do in a pinch.

PaulRivers

That's effective, but even that much work isn't usually necessary - usually if you pull out the tube and put some air in it you can hear the leak. I've only had to use the tire in the water thing for really, really small leaks where I've realized my tire would last all ride, but always be flat after 24 hours.

Jude

The only flats I've had are...let's see, once I lent my old mountain bike to my slightly shady neighbor for half an hour and the next morning I found he'd run over a nail...then on my road bike, I had a series of flats as the original tires were getting very worn. Got some new (cheapo) tires and haven't had a flat yet on them. Although they're about halfway through their alleged lifetime by now.

chephy

At the start of a ride, chances of getting two flats are not high. However, once you have the first flat, the chances that you get another one on are much higher. (Just as any random person is extremely unlikely to get two Nobel prizes, but if you already have one, you have a much higher chance of winning another one than a randomly chosen human.) Because if the first flat was just a fluke, your chances of getting a second one remain exactly the same (since they're independent events). But if the first flat is an indication that you're under some high-flat-risk circumstances, then of course another flat is also likely. For example, you might be travelling on a road with lots of debris or goatheads. Or you rode over a large patch of broken glass and failed to remove all the little embedded pieces. Or your tire sidewall has worn and you haven't booted it properly. Or you have a tear in your rim tape and a bit of spoke is poking out and piercing the tube...

cyccommute 

There are a number of ways to find the hole. In many parts of the west, the thing that causes flats is a nasty little weed called Tribulus terrestris or, more commonly, goatheads. The plant looks like this



But the seeds look like this



In a tire the seeds look like this



If you can see 'em, you can usually find the puncture. You can just take apart the wheel where the goathead is, find the hole, patch it and put the wheel back together. Of course, you'll have to repatch the hole if you forget to remove the goathead after pumping the tire back up...but that would never happen

If you can't find the object, remove the tube and pump it up to a large size as suggested by StephenH. But instead of your hands, kiss the tube! Run the tube around in front of mouth and feel for the leak. Human lips are super sensitive...that's why kissing is so much fun...and it doesn't take much of an air flow for you to feel it.

If you have water around...creek, ditch, puddle, etc...you can dip the tube to find the leaks also.