[QUOTE=79pmooney;22482776]I didn't answer the poll because I always carry two tubes and a patch kit. I care little whether the tubes are patched but two is important. I've saved rides from being epic adventures (in the not fun category several times using both tube and patches. A solo century once on high end tires that turned out to be a disaster. Major tire casing cuts. Simple bad days, sometimes commuting.

Edit: well done patches are as good as the rest of the tube. Yes, I've botched a few but I've also tossed many tubes because I draw the line (rather arbitrarily) at 5 or 6 patches. And glue tubes drying up? Not if you roll them up as you go and cap them immediately, squeezing slightly as you do to push out all the air. It's simple evaporation. Don't give the glue air and it lasts near forever.[/QU

my arbitrary line is 200 patches in a tube. I've never actually gotten there, but if I did, I would retire the tube. Almost all my tubes have five or six patches in them, because tubes last longer than tires, and when tires are nearly worn out, they start getting flats.

The litte tubes go dry for two reasons. One is evaporation of the solvent, which putting the top on prevents with modern plastic glue tubes. The other is that the glue vulcanizes in the tube. That's usually bad storage, allowing the tube to get too hot, which kicks off the ultra-accelerator in the cement, but it can be hard to prevent that.