I'll agree that a patch kit isn't beneficial if you're not planning on riding too far, but once you're breaking 50 miles or so, especially in my area where we have tons of goat heads and you have a return trip, if you're not carrying a patch kit you can easily run out of tubes. I'll admit I've only used my patch kit once and I probably didn't need to, but my fear is that as soon as I leave it at home, I'll need it.