Have you ever seen a Park Tire boot? That patch I'm guessing is roughly a mm thick, and it's a waterproof vinyl membrane with fiber weave reinforcement (taken right from the Park site). This patch you can't tear with your hands, though you can cut it with scissors but it takes a more effort than cutting paper or a dollar bill or a candy wrapper, which both the dollar and the candy wrapper I can easily tear with my hands, and I can easily poke a needle through those but can't poke a needle at all with the patch. So sorry, if I had a choice between using a Park boot patch and a dollar bill or a candy wrapper I would use the boot...now of course if I didn't have a boot well then yes I would use one of those others.

I once tore a tire so bad, a Conti tire where the sidewall got torn about an inch which blew the tube of course, I had to stuff the tire with weeds, I actually made it home that way!

A boot only needs to maintain enough structural integrity of the tire to keep its innards in place. Your description of the Park Boot brings the term 'overkill' to mind. I don't think dollar bills ($0.72 in 2019) are in much danger from the Park competition.

Your experience matches mine. I have Conti tires on a C&V Raleigh Road Racer. I didn't want to convert it to 700C and Conti is one of very few still making narrow section tires in the 27" size. Both those tires needed boots in the first riding season! There is so much love online for Conti tires notwithstanding the universal acknowledgement of their ... 'delicacy'. I don't get it. I won't ever buy Conti tires again.

The statement was rhetorical actually. But I'm glad you are happy with your choice of Deity. Myself I am a free agent at the moment. I am shopping for a 'Higher Power' that will deal with my ex-wife. Gruesomely. The tire thing I have already figured out: Bontrager Hardcase series clinchers.

One trick I don't think I've seen mentioned here: after you replace a tube, fill it to about 50 - 75% of the final pressure, then deflate it completely. This stretches it into the tire shape, but if there are any pinches, when you deflate they will often resolve themselves, and smooth out. Then pump the tire up to your desired pressure and you should be good to go (barring any other issues, of course).

I figured you might have disrupted the valve seal when topping off. My dad showed me the spit check after filling for that very reason.

The only draw back to the Park Boot, besides the adhesive not lasting more then a few days is that is thick like you said, and on thin lightweight tires you do get a slight bump as it rolls you back home, but at least you will make it back home vs other stuff I've tried; and since I like to ride 50 or so miles from home I prefer to get back home without any further hassle with a flimsy dollar bill or candy wrapper.


Your experience matches mine. I have Conti tires on a C&V Raleigh Road Racer. I didn't want to convert it to 700C and Conti is one of very few still making narrow section tires in the 27" size. Both those tires needed boots in the first riding season! There is so much love online for Conti tires notwithstanding the universal acknowledgement of their ... 'delicacy'. I don't get it. I won't ever buy Conti tires again. [/QUOTE]

Like an idiot it took me at 3 different times with 3 sets of Conti tires that all failed due to sidewall damage before I finally wised up and said no more, the last time I tried a set of Conti's was about 6 years ago, at least you learned the first time! LOL!! I got caught up with LBS yo yo's telling me that try them now they're great, they won't do that...yes they did. It's funny, but I never in 30 years of riding had other tires fail due to sidewall rips and tears. Granted sometimes I have to ride on gravel roads, but sidewalls should be stout enough to take that, but not the last set of Conti's I tried. The other two sets also all failed due to rips from stones, I'm coming down a mountain pass doing 50 or mph around a curve, I can't just swerve around a small rock (usually a bunch of rocks) that fell off the side of the mountain onto the road, so sometimes I have to hit them, Conti's will rip others will not.

The tire thing I have already figured out: Bontrager Hardcase series clinchers.[/QUOTE]

I've never used the Bontrager tires but I've had friends who have and they like them, so I think, or hope, you will too. Someday I want to try them but right now I'm doing the Specialized Roubaix Pro tire thing, so far I really like them, they seem to roll well, no cuts or flats either, but I only have about 1,000 miles on them so more miles will be needed for a better idea. I have another bike with the Schwalbe Marathon Green Guards (I think that's what they're called) and those things are tough, tad heavy but for touring purposes they're idea, but they roll better then my last set of touring tires and those were about 100 grams lighter!

i dont know if i agree with you. I pride myself on reducing rolling friction on all my bicycles. It sure seems like it takes more effort to pedal my mtb on 26x2.10 at any pressure than my fixie on 700x28 at any pressure.

a little baby powder in the tire before assembly helps

FWIW, I've never bought into the whole wide tire thing either. On a standard road bike 700 x 23-25 mm tires are fastest thing there is, period, that's why the pros use em. They'd all be on 26 x 2.10's if they were faster, but they aren't. More comfortable, maybe, but definitely not faster. I can't believe people even bother arguing about stuff like this.

Past a certain speed and size the ride improvement is countered by aero resistance and weight. Even JH himself puts medium tires on his bikes.

Supposedly according to the science that rolling resistance on a road bike is at its least with a 25mm tire, going one size down or one size up from that and the resistance increases a tad, and the pros are recognizing that and all, except for one, of the pro peloton is riding on 25mm tires, the only exception that I could find was running 26mm. Having said that I'm confused about the following, but I also use still do this with my tires (not with Conti though), why Conti Attack tires still offer 23mm for the front and 25mm for the rear, according to Conti the front needs to be a bit more aero in because it's the first to hit the air stream, but the rear is protected by the seattube and thus a wider tire is better; I'm not sure what to think of all of this, I've done it this way because years ago I was told that's the best way after running 23's all around for many years, now we're being told 25 (maybe 26) all around is the better way, I simply don't know. For years they said eggs were good for you, then for years they said eggs were bad for you, now they're back to saying eggs are good for you, does anybody really know for sure if eggs are good or bad for you? Does anyone really know for sure that running 23 in the front and 25 in the rear instead of 23 or 25 all around is good or bad? I can see at sometime in the future that the science takes us back to 23 all around or a mixture of sizes if eggs is any example. I do like the fact that when the larger rear tire wears out the front is usually also darn near worn out instead of having the front only half worn as you do with using the same size all around, so when my tires are worn I just buy a pair and put them on.

Not the point but..
I ALWAYS have those to avoid a flat(s) potentially making me push my bike 5 miles

If I know my pump is broke before hand, worst case I'll carry my $8 Walmart frame pump and a presta adapter if I had too.
My Cannondale badged frame pump failed and I got it going with water on the seals (spit).

Less flats vs heavier tires & wheels .. its a trade off.. lighter = more vulnerable to flats..

I would never venture out on a ride without a pump unless I'm going around the block with grandkids. I have 2 mini pumps and a frame pump, so if one were to break I would just use one of the others, but I would never ever go out with none. Even though I haven't had a flat in about 6 months I can almost guarantee you the day I decide to ride a long ways without a pump I'll have a flat! Just for the sole purpose of teaching me a lesson! LOL!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole reason I had the flats was to teach me a lesson for not replacing the pump right away.

No I will not remove it, if you don't like you remove it.

Does everyone on this forum have an attitude? Dude, I never mentioned you, I was referring to myself, I even used the word "I" meaning me, myself and I, understand? probably not. Quit taking things so personal, the world doesn't evolve around you and nor did my statement.

The Park boot comes in a three pack for only slightly more than the cost of three dollar bills. And it is better suited to the task. They take up no appreciable amount of space in my saddle wedge bag. I bought a three pack and that gave me one for each of my bikes plus a spare that stays in a zip lock on a shelf in my garage waiting for the day it needs to replace one in one of my saddle bags. I don't think I have ever needed a boot yet but carrying the Park boot is cheap insurance. The one catastrophic tire failure I had was more than a boot could have covered (a wreck that necessitated replacing the wheel too).

I agree with you. The one thing which I'm not sure of is the life expectancy of the self adhesive backing, I just make it a point to throw mine out every season and buy another pack so I don't find out the hard way that the adhesive no longer works when I need it say 5 years after I bought the boot. Not only do these patches not take up much space I actually put mine into a Altoids tin that I built similar to something I saw on the internet, and store all sorts of small stuff so that crap doesn't go flying willy nilly inside the bag.

How to repair flats correctly







.Schwalbe Marathon

this might get you started ...

I understand how frustrating flats can be.

I think tires are the most important part of a bike, so I tend to get good ones. For me, that means light and supple, not the heavy duty flat protection kind. Riding 28-32mm slicks, flats are very very rare for me. I am more likely to get flats riding 26" tires with deeper tread, because the front tire throws debris at the rear tire, and tread is more likely to catch and hold onto debris.

The rare flats I do get may be from pinch flats or sometimes spokes poking through the wheel with old rim tape. Slime tubes and heavy tires do nothing for that.

I have gone to tubeless and its pretty much eliminated any flats. Just need to refill the sealant roughly every 6 months.

I hardly get flats any more either, and I'm not really sure why. I don't like puncture protection because of the effects on a tire's ride. I wonder if I'm able to avoid bits of glass by steering around them. I do try to do that, but one can never know if one is really successful at that, because so much relies on luck.

I hardly get flats much anymore either I run in areas where goatheads tend to live sometimes. As far as avoiding glass typically it's a sliver that punctures the tire that you would have never seen, obviously if you see broken glass you need to avoid it, but you do have consider the possible danger if you swerve around something and get hit by a car-not a good thing at all! I'll risk a flat vs risking being hit by a car! Sometimes you'll find that a thin very short piece wire made it through and you wonder what the heck did that come from, well it came from people who have worn out the edge of their tires reviewing the steel belt and the wire from the steel belt shreds all over the road as they drive. Todays tires are a lot better than the use to be against flats and cuts.