Permanent tire boot?
 

Anyone out here have a permanent tire boot fix. I have some tires with slits cut by glass etc and don't want to throw em away as the rest of the tread is good. The slits are small, like about 3-5mm long. Who has the best permanent fix for them? I've tried cutting out ovals from duct tape but they get wrinkles and aren't permanent. Also tried glueing on tire patches to the inside of the tire but they don't stick. Thanks, Gerry

Permanent temporary fix is a classic oxymoron..

No, a boot by it's nature is a temporary fix for a hole in the tire casing,
to get you to where you get a new replacement tire.

2 sound fixes I have in my kits : a piece of Hypalon , a rubberized canvas
they make rubber boats out of,
or the packaged boot patches Park Manufactures . [un-opened so far]

In the past I have used a section cut from a friend's dead Budget sew-up Tire.

On tour, I just put on Tire #3, when the sidewall gave out.
the old one was left in a farm tractor shed in Scotland.

Any time a tire needs a boot, it's just to get home. It's always a shame to throw away otherwise nice tires but I would rather that than be stranded.

I have used black Shoe Goo successfully to fix little cuts like that.

Poor man's patch.
 

Cut a piece out of a plastic bottle about 1/2 inch larger on all sides than the slice you are patching. Clean it and rough up the top surface with sandpaper, then use superglue to bind the roughed side to the inside of the tire. Make sure you have the slice closed and lined up as best as you can before gluing, so maybe run a few drops of superglue inside the cut and bond the sides together before gluing the patch on. Wait 10 minutes, then reinflate tire and ride. The plastic won't be as flexible as the rubber, but it will give some, and if you sand the edges of the plastic too, then chances of tube puncture are also reduced. Also the pressurized tire tube will help hold the patch in place from the inside. I had to do this when I got a 1 inch sidewall cut in my road tire. Sidewall cuts are much harder to do though, and you have to be VERY carefull riding it when patched. But if you have a sidewall cut, you shouldn't continue riding that tire anyway. :thumb:

For any damage that's not bad enough to toss the tire, but bad enough to desire a bit of reinforcement....

I'll do a full glue repair on the inside of the tire with "Velox" rim tape, complete with light scuffing (very light sanding here to avoid damage to the cloth that's right under the rubber), vulcanizing fluid, and careful application of the tape. The tape is designed for keeping a tube from escaping through small holes, so it seems a fitting use for it as a tire boot. Just be realistic about the damage. Don't expect a compromised tire to be boot-able no matter how careful you are. Also, be sure and use a long section of tape to cover far more than just the hole. I usually use 3 inches or so. Good luck, and I DO NOT guarantee the results of following my advice. :thumb:

-Jeremy

Thanks guys....I know in the past that a boot that's too thick will eventually cause wear lines in the tube and the tube will fail where the wear lines are. Just Shoo Goo may not work with a longer cut. A smooth, strong, flexible and thin patch would be best. It also has to adhear to the inside of the tire which is hard to do from my previous experiences. I will see how thin Hypalon is and think about Velox rim tape(wished it was thinner for this purpose).

I use 1/32" gasket material made for piping flanges. It is reinforced with fiber and as strong as the tires casing. I super glue it to the inside of the tire and cover it with duct tape to prevent the stiff patch from fretting a hole in the tube.
I have neve had one fail even with a 3/8" cut, but I still only use them on the rear.

And, If you are around a computer, asking about a boot for an already damaged tire,
a new tire is available to order..

I've only ever had one tire that needed booting so I just tossed it and got a new one once safely home.

As for patching such tires two options given so far are for a bit of plastic bottle and some gasket material. And both suggested superglue.

First off by it's nature a tire wants and needs to flex. Adding a fabric boot bonded in place with a flexable glue would stiffen the tire in that area to some extent but the patch would at least be somewhat flexible in all directions. This would include the usual bending as well as being at least a little strechable in the two flat directions. Some patches of the carcase or backing tape from an old sew up tire would have these good properties.

Plastic bottle material and gasket material will bend but they are totally rigid when it comes to being deformable in the flat directions. So the tire is not going to flex in a natural manner in those directions. So while you guys managed with these materials for the cuts you've patched so far I'd suggest that they are not the best material for a permanent boot in most cases.

On top of that superglue is quite brittle when cured. So using it on large areas is going to cause it to fail at multiple points as the glue cracks due to flexing of the tire with each revolution. Over time the bond is going to reduce and finally fail. ShooGoo, contact cement or even silicone RTV sealant would be a better option for glueing any sort of boot into place because they all will flex without compromising the bond strength. But really the glue is only there to hold the boot in position. The fibers do the work. So that's likely why superglue is working since it's just a positioning holder. But still, I'd rather use contact cement or some other flexible glue. And such a glue could be smeared on over the edges to feather them and give the tube less of an edge to worry about.

A boot cut from an iron-on patch for clothes and held in place with a thin film of silicone caulk should be pretty flexible.

Just buff the rubber thoroughly before applying a glue on patch. Just wipe off the dust.
once the tube is aired up, the pressure will help fuse the patch to the tire (and tube if you leave excess glue)

Glue-on patch won't work with a big enough hole on high pressure tires. You will get blowouts right through the patch, which is too "expandable" to hold up to high pressure. You need cloth reinforcement. What I've found works perfectly is a piece of an old kevlar-belted road tire that's worn down almost to the belt. File the edges of the rubber on the boot to make a smoother transition so the tire won't "bump" as much, but don't expect it to ride perfect, because the section where the boot is will be stiffer and I suspect it will always "bump". Affix it in place with rubber cement between the boot and the inside of the tire, and then duct tape over the boot, and then shoe goo to seal the hole in the outside of the tire.

I put hundreds of miles on a 100psi 25mm slick booted this way, and then one day it finally flatted. "Oh well, I guess it wasn't meant to last forever," I said as I looked down at it, expecting to see a blowout where the boot was.

Not so -- the boot was still fine, but I had worn right through the tread and through the threads, in a TOTALLY DIFFERENT place from where the boot was!

I'm currently running another 100psi tire set up this way with a hole in the sidewall. The sidewall bulges a little where the boot is, but I've still got hundreds of miles on it since the boot, and hopefully will wear this one down to the threads too, knock on wood!

Seen a guy once.. running some kinda boot in a tire. Came off a hill pretty fast.. tire went.. the red streak on the asphalt was wayyy longer than the 'booooot'.

I mean... wayyyyy longer.

Get the pic....

Site did the double post......

I've used a glue type tube patch to boot a small hole in a tire. As noted above, you need to prepare the inner surface of the tire so that the patch will stick. Also as noted above, the design of a glue patch does not lend itself for service as a boot for a larger hole. In that situation, I would discard the tire. I've used a Park tire boot to get me home after a couple of blow outs. These boots are fairly thick and will work for larger holes, but they are meant to get you home and not as permanent, long-term fixes.

I haven’t tried this yet but I would if I wanted to reinforce a small tread puncture in an otherwise good tire. That is gorilla tape. I am really sold on this stuff compared to duct tape and the like.

I most likely wouldn’t try it as a long term fix on a thin high pressure racing tire and I would avoid any repairs that are in the side walls.

Also mark the location somehow and keep a close eye on the spot for a few rides at least.

I just gorilla glued in a denim patch on the backside.

Yet another alternative might be to stitch in a denim patch if it's a sidewall, but it would need to be fine thread with a lot of stitches.

I thought I had the perfect answer; a piece of old clincher. But as previous posters implied, the tube wore against the edge of the boot until it too flatted. 3M plastic tape over the boot didn't work; it eventually cracked and the new tube flatted in the same spot. And the dollar bill I put over that today ended up being ripped in half (good thing it wasn't my hundred).

I'm currently trying a patch of vinyl fabric; which is fabric reinforced, but soft with a slight stretch. I'll let you know how it goes. Rather than superglue, I'm using Shoo Goo as the cement. Works great with no prep, remains flexible.

I have to say I'd be skeptical of putting a plastic bottle patch in there, knowing now how sensitive these road tubes are to sharp edges.

I use a old inner tube cut into patches then i layer them of top of each other with glue. The thicker it is the harder it is to penetrate. Then glue it into the tyre. It doesn't interfere with the inner tube after x number of miles because it's made from the same material. 1 single inner tube can make alot of patches and they can be cut into whatever size you want.