Originally Posted by
prj71
If your financial status is such that you can't afford a $5-$10 tube...I don't know what to say.
While you may not have paid what you call a "ridiculous sum" for your bike, the majority of us here are spending that much on a bike.
There are several problems with your statement. All kinds of people ride all kinds of bikes. Some pay lots of money for their bikes and some don’t have two nickels to rub together. It’s not your place to judge.
Even for those of us who have lots of money, using a tube once and throwing it away is wasteful. It’s bad for the environment. Whether or not it is economical also depends on the number of flats you get per year. I’e gone through a box of 100 patches in a year. One hundred flats at $5 to $10 each is $500 to $1000 per year which is a lot of money even if you spend lots on your bike. One hundred patches and the glue for them costs around $40. That leaves $460 to $960 that I have to spend on other stuff. I have had tubes with 30 patches on them in the past. That’s $150 to $300 I saved as well as
not contributing 30 tubes to landfills.
I’m not a fan of patching over patches but it can be done if necessary.