Originally Posted by
chaadster
Hold on now, this is crazy talk! A stitching tool??!! The whole point of vulcanizing glue is to chemically bond the patch and tube, so there’s no mechanical bonding required at all. As
terrymorse said, it takes very little pressure to apply a vulcanized patch; just finger pressure.
If you need a tool to create a successful patch, you are doing it wrongly.
The things one needs to worry about are proper tube prep, applying a sufficient amount of glue, and the exercise of patience. That’s it.
I don’t even use glue anymore, only self adhesive patches, and they work well to the point that I can’t recall having one fail, so I don’t know why people mess around with glue-on patches at all anymore. Hell, I’ve had a Lezyne SA patch on a Schwalbe Aerothan TPU tube for 8 or 9 months now…
the more I research this the more convinced I am that those directions are atypical. It's the only place I've seen tire prep buffing fluid or a formal stitching tool used on a bicycle inner tube. Those are for auto tire repair and I now believe neither are necessary.
I've had patches fail because they appear to have had bubbles underneath. Good pressure from the center out using some sort of tool is my plan to prevent this.
I love glueless patches but discovered that you have to follow the directions closely, and they don't seem to work for pinch flats on the inside of the tube (facing spoke nipples).