There's your main problem. If you use crap patch kits, you'll get crap results. The patch kits that Fleabay sellers give you for free as well as the cheap patch kits you get from Performance, REI and other retailers are inferior products. They use rubber cement for the adhesive which is the wrong adhesive.

Spend just a little bit more and get Rema Tip Top patch kits. The vulcanizing fluid isn't just rubber cement. It's one part of a two part system that contains a chemical that promotes the formation of new rubber when it comes in with the patch, which contains the other part of the two part system. Rather than just depend on the rubber in the in the cement adhering to the patch, the Tip Top's makes new rubber bonds and are more permanent.

I'd say that if you are sanding the tube more than about 30 seconds, you are sanding it too much. With any of the patches but with the Rema in particular, the key to success is the amount of time you let the vulcanizing fluid dry. It usually takes more than a couple of minutes...it depends on how much vulcanizing fluid you use...but the longer you wait to apply the patch, the greater the chance of success. Overnight isn't too long to wait and I've gone as long as 2 weeks...I forgot about a patch job I was working on:roll eyes:


Granted this is overnight is too long for out in the field but that's why I carry extra tubes. I don't patch in the field unless I happen to have one of those bad days.

My patch success rate is in the very high 90s using the above method and Tip Top patches. I can't recall the last time I had a patch fail to stick on the tube and I'm running tubes that have as many as 30 patches on them.

Yes, I do get a lot of flats but not because of the patch job...it's the goatheads.