spelger

you can just use your glove too in a pinch. one less thing to pack and think about.

spelger

what does that do?

VegasJen

As a rule, I start with gloved fingers in case it's a gross puncture. No need to get tetanus if I can avoid it. If I don't snag a gloved finger, I'll try running bare fingers lightly through the tube. But adding a cotton ball to my tool kit isn't in any way impractical.

livedarklions

Got this response by Park Tool to a negative review on their website:

"Thanks for your review! We suggest always replacing damaged tubes/tires as soon as possible to prevent accident or injury while riding. Our patches can last a long time, but there are many variables that can affect the performance of the patch. We recommend not testing the patch by inflating tube while outside of mounted tire. This may stretch tube body and weaken patch bond."

Basically, it says they can a last a long time when they last a long time, but sometimes they don't.

Seems totally unsurprising that some people find it works better for them than others.

prj71

I didn't know what you meant and sounds like user error.

John Valuk

You really need to get the blue cotton balls from Park Tool.

big john

Yes, the concept of peeling the backing off of a patch and sticking it on an inner tube is too deep for me.

spelger

just consider the added weight and how much room that cotton ball takes takes up on your seat bag. it matters to some.

genejockey 

Yeah, but that invites a "No True Scotsman" response if they DO fail.

E.g. I was running a patched tube in the back tire on a bike I was using in a wheel-on trainer. I was riding a race on Zwift, my power numbers got all weird and then went away completely. The tire had gone flat - which I didn't expect INDOORS! When I submerged the inflated tube to find the leak, it turned out to be leaking at the patch. This tube had lasted miles on the real road and hours on the fake one, so I think I can say it was "done right". I can tell you, it made me feel a lot less confident about patching and reusing punctured tubes. So now I have a bunch of tubes I COULD patch, but haven't. And I'm down to my last 2 new ones.

urbanknight

Pretty sure I was involved one of those times. You said something about burnishing it properly. Since I had just switched to tubeless at the time, I never got the chance to test it out until recently (temporarily using a tubed tire while waiting for a warranty replacement tire to arrive) but I will probably remove the tube before it has a chance to prove its longevity.

Camilo

I have full under-saddle bags and mini-pumps on all my and my wife's bikes. Tube, mini patch kit, CO2, $20 bill*, quick link, multi tool. I'm way to impulsive and forgetful to move stuff from one bike to the other. The only thing I have to move is my Garmin (for which I have a mount on each bike... my wife has inexpensive regular computers dedicated to each of her two bikes), and that's not a critical piece of equipment so if I forget it, I don't worry about it and use strava on the phone. I use inexpensive mini pumps so it's not a huge investment. Are they lifetime, fine pieces of equipment? No, but the very, very few times (approaching zero) I ever need to use them because of CO2, they do the job.

People have been impressed by the $20 bill. Why you ask? Well, it's pretty common to carry a bill to use as a tire boot. So why not use a $20 (or $10, whatever). A $20 also serves as emergency snack or drink money!

Camilo

CB-1 your mean?

LarrySellerz

I was shown that trick as a way to dry the glue out quickly so you don't have to wait a few minutes before applying the patch.

vegasjen id throw away the tire you probably have something stuck in it that you can't find. It might give you grief later if you don't.

John Valuk

I was thinking the same thing, but then I checked, and saw that Park had already used some "CB-" part numbers for ChainBrite!

That's one of the downsides of trying to use "significant" part numbers, i.e., part numbers that are not arbitrary, but also try to carry some information about the part.

unterhausen

I got a slow leak on one of my bikes and stopped to fix it when it got too low. I ran my fingers around inside the tire and couldn't find anything. I got tired of looking for it, so I replaced the tube and got to the overnight stop. Then I finished the ride the next day. I have another set of wheels for that bike for gravel, and I rode those for the rest of the season. The next time I used the road wheels, it was really easy to find the piece of wire that caused the slow leak. I think wire will move in and out of a tire so it's hidden.

Camilo

I suspected that too, but was too lazy to do even a web search. It would have to be something like PF-1 (puncture finder)? But that might be confusing with the PFP line (Park Floor Pump). So maybe PPF (Park Puncture Finder).

Troul 

CS-01 [cotton swab]

VegasJen

I have several tubes I've patched and proven good in the garage. I will likely try it one more time with one of those. If it holds, then I'll keep it, still a lot of tread life left. If not, I'll take your advice and toss it. Of course, I need to determine where the leaks are in the two tubes from that ride. Certainly if they're in the same place on the tube, that gives me a good place to start investigating.

big john

I've taken the tire off the rim and turned it inside out to look for wires/thorns. Probably needs to be a folding tire though.
The little wires from steel radial car tires are insidious.

t2p

those wires got me back in the day ... painful !

jaxgtr

I have been there. Back a few years, I was getting flats a lot, so I got fed up with it and changed my tires. I am not a quarter mile down the road and I get a flat through a side wall from a little sliver of a 2x4 that I did not see. I was less than pleased. I had a whole 2 mins on this tire and it was ruined.

jaxgtr

I used to carry a old section of panty hose to wipe the tire and rim with to make sure there was nothing there that I was not seeing. Small little slivers of wire nicked 2 tubes for me once.

big john

Lacerated a finger on a piece of glass while feeling around in a tire once. Today a friend got a flat and I was checking it and there was a huge staple poking through. Didn't stick me, though. I've learned the soft touch.

pdlamb

They make a shot for that. My daughter made me get a DTP before I could go visit my new grandson (although she was worried about pertussis, I have a handy way to remember when I got my latest tetanus booster!).

ClydeClydeson

During the first mutli-day tour I did I had multiple flats over the first few days. First one - towards the end of day one - was a mystery. The second one was on day 4, racing down a dark road to get to our stop for the night when I went through a section of torn up asphalt too fast and got a pinch flat on the rear including some damage to the tire casing, and a bit of damage to the front tire casing but no flat.
I left the front as it was, patched the rear tube and put a Park Tool 'boot' on the damaged tire casing.
Around lunch time the next day I got a second flat on the rear - wrinkles in the tire boot had chafed a new hole in the tube, but the patch stayed intact.

I lost count but I think I got around ten flats over a 3 week tour. I repaired most with patches, and, happily but meaninglessly, none of the patches failed and caused another flat - they were all due to some other debris picked up.

Super fun fact - the last flat I got was about 500 meters after I bought and installed a new rear tire - I ran over a piece of metal down the road from the bike shop.