Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

This is really good advice. I have used a wooden roller intended for sealing wallpaper seams. And the comment about Rema is right on too, execpt it is a catch-22. Sure you should use Rema, but getting the cellophane off causes me to spoil more patch applications than I can count. Pulling off the cellophane too early or too roughly is a prime cause of a poor seal; it undoes all you hard work.

Having said all that about technique, I am going to go out on a limb and risk some ridicule. It is wasteful I know and not very bike-macho, but if you can afford to toss the tube, just do it. The is no glory in always worrying about your tubes leaking or failing on a ride due to a bad patch. For $4-6 on sale, after riding road bikes for over 30 years, I just don't need the aggravation any more. If you can't afford it, I certainly do understand. Been there too. In that case all this other advice is right on, but you will be happier if you can just blow it off. What I do is carry the glueless patches for an emergency just to get me home in case I really screw up and go through my couple of spare tubes (like not checking for sharp objects in the tire casing). When I get the patched tube home, it goes into the wastebasket. Done and done.

Robert