Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
...It's one of the reasons I use glueless patches from Specialized or Park because they hold up forever, and their fast to apply. I know, I've read many complaints about glueless patches, some of those complaints are due to using cheap ones that don't work well, and others are simply because the tube wasn't prepared correctly and or the patch wasn't installed correctly. I've found fixing a flat with glueless patches was just as quick, if not faster, as replacing the tube but it took less time once I got home because I didn't have unpack the tube, find a leak then patch it and repack the tube. I have a friend who hated glueless patches and thought I was nuts for using them, then he had a flat one day while we were out riding, I offered to fix his flat with a glueless patch, showed him how it was done, now he will use nothing but glueless patches. I've had as many as 13 glueless patches on tube and that tube was my permanent tube that I used for 5 years, all of those glueless patches stayed adhered to the tube and never leaked for all those years.
That is good to hear. The one, positive thing I almost said about Slime was about their glueless patches. I held back on that only because I have a mediocre success rate with them. But I still like them because I get flats so rarely anymore, that I have a near 100% failure rate with normal, glue patches unless I remember to check the patch kit before heading out. So on a tour, I will probably be in good shape, but on my commute, I will almost always find the glue has dried up when I go to apply a patch. So if there are other, good, reliable patches out there that are more successful than Slime patches, I will have to add them to my repair kit. I hate doing a roadside repair and realizing that all that stands between me and getting back on the road is one, tiny, dried up tube of rubber cement.