mrfreezesdefy3

Today ,got ready to ride and saw my front tire flat,
Had to go to the lbs but got me a new tube n a new serfas, secca survivor series tire , I guess the half a crushed beer can I didn't see till it was too late yesterday, caught up with me ,but I did learn what a pinch flat looks like on my tube ,but that wasn't it just 1 hole , do you all patch your tubes or just change out the tube??

TrojanHorse

For some reason I can't figure out, my patching skills have left me. I just buy new ones. I have a stack waiting for my patching attention, so maybe I'll be able to regain my lost mojo. Literally, my last 5 patch jobs have been slow leakers after I was done. Worthless.

Carry known good tubes with you while riding, but they can be previously patched if you check them to make sure they're good after you patch them.

IBOHUNT

3 patches and then the tube is done but then I started riding Gatorskins as my everyday tire
Maybe 3 flats in 12K miles.

jsigone

i just change out the tube. I'm with @IBOHUNT I get flats like once every 2-4 months and likely a staple that I would have never seen. Conti tires are pretty good on flats. On some spesh all terrain tires right now for the BWR. Their version of the gatorskin hardshell w/ 120tpi. No issues/flats yet with 600miles on them and 100 of those were on dirt.

I will carry 2 tubes + stick on patch kit in case I have really really bad luck. Only had to use those once in 3 yrs.

Willbird

If you shop around new tubes are like $5.....I cannot bear to throw away punctured ones (yet)....but just use a new one :-). Only had one on road flat so far, and it was because the tube was too big for the tire and got kinda bunched up inside a 700x35 carbide studded tire, fairly slow leak, a co2 fill let me go about 5 miles, a second fill got me home. I had a spare tube but it was 16F :-) outside. The real warning sign was a low tire when I did the "thumb check" which I always do even if I do not hook up pump and top off. You get to "know" your gear, and that was out of the ordinary and I should have never left the house without putting it on the repair stand and breaking that tire down to see what was up.

After that deal I started carrying a mini pump as well as c02. I also started using baby powder when I put a new tire and tube on....plus I pitched those tubes which ran to the big side and got some slimmer ones for that set of tires.

MikeRides

I'm too cheap to just replace tubes so I've always patched them until there's nothing left to patch. I find patching to be just as quick as swapping tubes if you know what you're doing.

Mark Stone

I just swap tubes, but flats are so rare for me because of the Continental Touring Plus tires. Last flat was in about 2006.

indyfabz

I don't need no stinking tubes.

Wilfred Laurier

My family gets ~10 flats per year, and we have bikes that take 5 different tube sizes/configurations.

A patch kit with ~10 patches costs $4. Tubes cost $5 each. I am a very cheap and lazy person. Do the math.