This is pure bullcrap!!

I've been using glueless patches for 2 years and NEVER had one EVER fail. If they fail it's because you don't know how to use them. There's two ways I've applied them and neither way has ever failed. The first way is the old way you lightly buff the tube then just stick on the patch pressing firmly. The other way which I just found out about in the last 6 months is to use a alcohol pad (found cheap in stores in small sealed pouches) and rub the area with this instead of buffing, then apply the patch.

Faster then the glueing method and no more dry glue tubes plus takes up less space.

^^^^ You see, glueless patches ARE temporary, if you take them off when you get home.

I have some tubes over 10 years old with as much as 10 patches on them and they have no problems. A patch well installed holds. If it leaks, it's not well done. I'll repeat was has been said many times:

1. Sand
2. Clean
3. Glue
4. Let it dry about 5 minutes
5. Install patch
6. Hold a couple of seconds

I agree with the remark that glueless patches are only temporary is a bunch of crap.

I have repeatly posted on this subject many times about this. I have been using Glueless patches for at least 8 years AND NEVER HAD A FAILURE...NOR NEVER HAD TO REPLACE THE PATCH WHEN I GOT HOME WITH A GLUE ON TYPE!!! This is fallacy about glueless patches comes from people either never using them and are tied to the old ways, or people that just don't know how to use them.

I'm old enough to remember that as a kid I use to had to vulcanize patches on tubes by lighting it on fire!! I also remember the old guys saying that glue on patches don't work and not to use them! Those old guys remind me of some of you today!

At one time I had over a dozen glueless patches on one road tube, and continued to ride on that tube for several years and only last year tossed when the valve stem failed. And because of all this debate about 5 years ago on this same subject I took my mtb and put about a 1/16th inch hole in my front tube and then patched it with a glueless patch. (Don't try this unless your willing to sacrifice a rim and possible injury); I remounted the tire with the fixed tube and attached a air chuck with a long hose then attached the air trigger so I could fill the tire while setting behind a car, then placed the rim in a trash can. I then proceeded in putting air into the tire, checking the seating at about 20PSI and again at 45, then proceeded to go to 220psi! The tire and the rim held much to my surprise. What was more surprising is that the patch held. I held that pressure for week, then dropped the pressure back down to 60 and rode the bike steadly for week. 5 years later that tube with that same glueless patch is still at work!

And just as Freako mentioned, the success of making a glueless patch work is to make sure the hole area is clean and alcohol pads work great for that, but so does roughing the patch with emery paper.

And as I have also stated numerious times before, I always patch first before going to my spare tube, and the glueless patch makes that job faster then the old school glue on type. Faster means this, take the above post by FCORMIER and eliminate the glueing part and the 5 minutes for the glue to dry, you save at least 6 minutes.

To Freako, Froze & all other glueless patch aficionados:

I never meant to imply that glueless patches don't work. I've been riding many years (certainly more than TWO) and have experimented with all types... I find the Park glueless variety generally work well. However, I choose to use Rema's because they work well every time with no leakage even after months and months. I just don't think the the TB-2's have the same reliability / longevity..

Don't get offended so easily when someone else's experience doesn't match your own. No BS was implied or intended... If I see you on the road with a flat or mechanical I'd be happy to stop and help you... and I hope you'd do the same. Remember we're all in this together.

DWR

Done many patches nothing never failed except once when I missed the hole. I put a smaller patch over that and I used it for a couple of years. I used always used generic cheap patches and never had a problem. No alcohol either just scratched a little surface away. No road bikes with slim tires and ultra high pressures though.

If you get punctures very often then it's time to rethink your tires or riding style. Although using very crappy worn tires increases the speed and skill fixing patches. Maybe using old tires for this reason is not a good idea otherwise.

Mkael my friend, you obviously don't live in goathead thorn country... I am happy for you.

Out here getting a flat has very little to do with riding style or the tires folks use... Goatheads can defeat kevlar liners, Slime liners, Armadillos and even those thick 'puncture resistant' tubes. They're needle sharp and very robust. I'm sure some of the other folks will agree that they are pretty tough to deal with.

The local bike shops generally recommend treating tubes with slime... You still get a flat, but you just spin the tire and then pump it up. Then you're on your way. I personally don't use it - and I pay the price in inconvenience.

If you live in an urban area like Orange County, CA where the roads are good and generally free of debris, then riding style and tire choice might be the biggest factor in preventing flats... But if you ride in a place like SW Idaho or the California high desert (or lots of other places) then you just gotta pay your dues...

I suppose I could use those super-heavy 'sponge-type tubes...

DWR

When I was in Idaho, I used slime + tire liners very successfully. I did get very good at patching tubes in the process. Miss me some Big Judd's County Diner though...

I had a spate of failures trying to use the free instant patches I got during Bike To Work Day. Back to Rema for me. I gave the rest of the "patch" kits away to unknown cyclists using buses with me.

How long is a piece of string? Sometimes it is - glass, nail, rivet, grit, sticking out of tire, etc. Only not taken wheel off and that was when it wasn't quick release and the cause obvious.

Whichever way you do it, wheel out or not, always check the inside of the tire all the way round. You may have picked up another piece of whatever caused the puncture and the evil puncture fairy is just waiting for you to reinflate the tube

I keep hearing about these goathead things and I finally couldn't stand it any longer and had to do a google search.


What the HELL, MAN!!?!?!?!

https://flickr.com/photos/41938778@N00/2373436684

I had used both glue and no-glue patches and IMO I like the glue patches better because they're about $1.50 at k-mart for 12 patches.

The key here is to yet the glue sit for a while, than apply the patch. A easy way to tell if the glue is ready is when the glue starts to go from glossy, to matte. You can blow on the glue to speed this process up. It usually takes me 3-5 minutes, depending on how hard it is to find the hole.

I've never had a pre-glued one last very long. IMHO they're to get you home if you have more than one flat in a day. I'm probably applying them wrong, other people seem to be able to get them to work. But I like glued patches, so I'm sticking with them.

The REAL patches never fail if properly done. In fact if you wanted to try to get the patch off, you'd destroy the tube in the process. The glue should pretty much weld the patch to the tube. The fact that I can peel a glued patch off of the tire at any time makes me nervous of them.

You need to let the glue get pretty dry,but still a bit tacky, before you apply. I also press them together under some weight after that for a half hour or so (I patch when I get home if at all possible).

Here is what Sheldon Brown's Website says about preglued patches (www.sheldonbrown.com/flats.html):

"Glueless (peel & stick) patches are avaialble[sic], and they are slightly more convenient than conventional patches. Unfortunately, they don't have a very good reliability record, and I can't recommend them--you're much better off with a standard patch kit."

I generally agree with Sheldon...but have never used glueless patches. I have read that they are designed to just get you home and are not permanent. But go with whatever works for you!

Doug

fixed link

That Sheldon Brown article is an old article that was written when glueless patches first came onto the scene and that article was never changed after the glueless patch companies came out with a better adhesive. If you recall, even the glueless patch companies back when they first came out said that they were temp patches only, they themselves no longer say that.

I personally don't like the cheap K-Mart or Wallyworld patches only because they are thicker then Rema's. I don't have anything against glue patches, they work great and have for years; but after I tried the glueless patches and never having a failure I was sold.

Also someone mentioned Slime tubes. I found that slime tubes on road bikes don't work because they won't seal above 60-65psi, but they work pretty good on mtb tires if you don't mind the green goo getting inside your rim.

Also I use to live in Goathead City...I use to live in the Palmdale, Lancaster area as well as Bakersfield all of which are in California and I NEVER had a goathead penetrate a Armadillo road tire not alone a mtb tire! And all I had for a tube was a ultralight racing tube and NO tire liner. Before I went with the Armadillo I had huge problems with those buggers, even going through kevlar tires with Mr Tuffys and Slime tube (that's how I found out Slime tube was useless).

Well, the heat type patches are truly permanent. The heat vulcanizes the patch to the tube. Adhesive patches, whether pre-glued ("glueless") or traditional glue on, rely on the adhesive to hold the patch in place. When they were first introduced, they had a pretty high failure rate. They were improved pretty quickly, though. In a car or truck tire, the tire is heated enough to cause the patch to vulcanize to the tire. That doesn't happen in a bike tire (good thing, or your tube would vulcanize itself to the tire, which does happen in tube type tires on cars sometimes.), so if you attack the patch's glue with the right solvent, you can undo it, much later.

I haven't had much luck with glueless patches, but I've only used them on the side of the road, and i've not had much luck with any patch on the side of the road.

The key is to sand the area with the hole until you cut through the outer skin. When the area to be glued looks "flat black" then it's done right. If you just scuff up the area without cutting through to the underlying rubber it won't work. It really is obvious once you see it happen but it takes a bit of work to get it there.

Apply glue, wait until it's dull and you can't smell any noticable solvent and then patch.

First off Rema uses a chemical vulcanization that once it's on it won't come off and cannot be taken off. The newer glueless patches I'm not sure what they use but today I went to the garage and found an old tube with a glueless patch on it and tried to remove with no success, in fact I damaged the tube trying,

Second off you patching skills are telling if you haven't had success patching on the side of the road.

For the rest of you go ahead and use the the glue on patches and take the extra 5 to 6 minutes more then I, I'll just finish my patch job faster and be that much further down the road...but at my age you all probably catch up with me anyways!!!!

it's not going to break the bank, but it won't hold the 110 pounds of pressure either, especially over a bump. I tried using some of those patches and stopped after half a pack because they just would not hold. I pump up to 110 psi and then bounce the wheel on the ground, and sure enough every single time i hear a loud pffshhhhh as all the air is removed from the tube. I went back to the classic orange and black patches with the vulcanizing glue. I tough the patch up, put liberal amounts of glue on an area twice the size of the patch (sometimes have to go all the way around the tube) and then let it dry for upwards to an hour (depending on what i'm doing) then patch, maybe a bit more of the glue around the edges just in case, then they sit overnight. Test them out the following day, Had only one fail, but that was because i failed at putting the patch on since I lost the puncture after I applied the glue.

I gotta say that among a group of commuters I was cavorting with one day, we all agreed that glueless patches have not held up well. But after reading this thread, I am ready to give them one more try...
scuff the tube until its "flat black"? Ok, that is a nuance I haven't heard. I will post my results.

I pump my front tire to 120 and the rear to 110. On my road bike, the glueless patches have NEVER failed. Considering that I went for almost two years without a flat, the patches on my tubes have been there for quite a while. My 50-mile RT commute is not what I think anyone would call "bump free."

The only failures have been on my MTB that I mentioned in an earlier post.

Go figure.

Call me "Mr. Overkill."

I carry two tubes, one adhesive patch kit, a co2 pump and a frame pump, and of course a tire lever (one of those really good yellow ones plus the one on my multi-tool).

The two tubes and the patch kit are in case God decides to smite me with flats on my way to work. The co2 is in case I get a flat and it's real hot or I'm in a hurry. The frame pump is also to challenge God's wrath and because I'm cheap and co2 cartridges are 3 bucks a pop.

I patch tubes, but in the safety and security of my own garage - usually in batches when I have multiple punctured tubes. If I were independently wealthy, didn't give a rat's ass about the environment and lived next to a 24hr bike shop, I would not patch tubes.

I've never had a problem with patches. Some of my tubes with 4 or 5 patches hold air better than some of my tubes with no patches at all.

One thing I always do is fight the temptation to test whether a patched tube holds air by inflating it. Before I inflate a patched tube, I put it in a tire on a rim. Then I inflate it to max psi and check it the next day. If it is still at or near max psi, then the tube is as good as any brand new tube out of the box. I prefer to have my patched tubes on my bike and my new, unpatched tubes in my bag.

Exactly correct; I've been using glueless patches for more then 8 years without a single failure on both road and mtb tubes, and most of those patches were used on road tires with pressures sometimes exceeding 125psi. Also go back to my earlier post about the experiment I did with 220psi.

And for someone to say they won't hold past 110 is ignorance and tells me you never used them!! considering the fact that if they do hold up to 110 then anything beyond that would hold because the pressure of the tube against the tire alone would keep them from coming undone; and hitting a "bump" would cause no additional problems. Heck I ridden my road bike with glueless patches on dirt roads with wind ridges, across rough railroad tracks, jumping curbs, potholes, you name it, and never had a problem with a glueless patch not being able to take a "bump"; thats just more ignorance.

How long do the Park glueless patches last in the bike bag? I carry a tube and the Park patches. But I've never had more than one puncture on a ride, so the patches are still untried after two years.

Patching the tube at home with glue patches, I would typically find the little tube of glue dried up. So now I have a jar of Elmer's Rubber Cement, 4 fl oz. It's worked well, so far.