I've moved to self healing tubes and puncture resistant tires. That eliminates having to deal with trying to futilely patch a tube in cold or rainy weather - when even the best techniques are useless. Some things just don't make any sense to me. The concept of accepting that more than 80 flats in an 18 mile distance should be considered 'normal', completely escapes me. That's easy backpacking distance and going in on foot would be a lot faster than by bike, since clearly you'd be spending more time fixing flats than riding anyway.