When I started biking I bought a box of tube patches; I think it came with 50 or so round ones that are maybe 5 cm in diameter, and they feel a good 1.5mm thick. I haven't used them all up yet. I carry a few in my toolkit, along with sandpaper and rubber cement.

One day my LBS owner, an old and cranky ex-racer, looked and my toolkit and complained at those ugly patches. Too big, too fat, he said. So he gave me a 10x10 cm square of a thin rubber patch sheet. Cut up a little bit each time you need it, he said.

I love it. I can make patches that are about 1 cm square, and they are thin and pretty. I've been going through the sheet, one little bit at a time, and it's just so nice. I don't have skinny tyres or anything, but these work so well!

Why do patch kits come with huge and fat patches, anyway?