Glueless Superpatch Fails
 

Just a warning about those gluesless superpatch tire patches. I had a flat two days ago, and I replaced the tube on the road. When I got the home and pumped up the leaking tube, I found air was coming out from the edge of a superpatch that I'd applied some months ago.

So I'm going to stick with the old fashioned vulcanizing rubber patches from now on.

I could be mistaken, but I thought glueless patches were intended to be temporary.

Now you tell me!

I tried the Performance brand of gluess patches and all but one failed. I ended up going back to glued patches and haven't had a problem.

I put in a new tube during a road side repair and patch when I get home so I am fine with the glued patches.

Not if they're properly applied. I've been riding over 2k+ over the last tube I used the park GP-2 glueless patches on.

A glueless patch is far more likely to leak when the tube is inflated outside of the tyre.

When the tube is inside the tyre the air pressure pushes the tube against the patch, so overinflating the tube outside of the tyre is likely to provoke a leak that otherwise might not exist.

:)

I tried those patches they call Scabs. They seemed real sticky and they looked like they might stretch. My thought was maybe they would expand with the tire. I still have some but I found they only hold for about two days. So I might use one to get home if my standard patch kit was empty or I was out of glue. Otherwise I put in a fresh tube and patch at home.

Right. That might be the case, but because I couldn't find any other leaks in the tube, I concluded that it was the glueless patch causing the slow leak.

My experience with glueless patches (admittedly cheap ones from x-mart) is that they are not reliable. It does take some technique and patience with the tube-glue/patch method, but I've found that once the job is done (even using a $1 patch-kit) the tube-glued-patch-repair will last the rest of the life of the tube.

I'm not recommending them, just saying they might be ok if used properly.

They are also very dependent on the tube being thoroughly clean and dry.

It's a pity that you concluded it must be the glueless patch instead of actually locating the leak, it's always best to find out where the air is escaping.

:)

FWIW, my failure rate with glueless patches is 50 percent. I bought one box, eight patches, and four of the eight blew off. In 30 years of riding, surely hundreds of flats, I've had only two failures with conventional patches, and one of those was my fault.
If glueless are really meant to be temporary, they're even dumber than I thought. You save, what, one minute per patch, and then have to do the job over when you get home? There's a good idea.

Never had a Park patch leak. You need to make sure you don't have anything like talcum powder on the tube before you apply it.

Now those crappy Performance patches, that's another story. They truly suck.

My failure rate with glueless patches (Park) was 100%. My failure rate with conventional vulcanizing patches is about 15-20% because I'm all thumbs ;-)

An alternative to glueless patches is good ol' fashioned duct tape. If you're fleet of finger, duct tape patches will last for months, if not longer.

I just used a Park GP-2 in the early part of this seasons first century last week.
It worked like a champ, and is still holding.
I just bought another pack to carry on my second bike.

I looked thoroughly and found no other leaks, despite pumping up the tube quite a lot. I've never failed to find a leak following a flat tire, so I think the conclusion is pretty reliable.

It might be.

Then again it might not be.

If you don't know where the air is escaping, you don't know where the air is escaping - regardless of where you choose to point the finger.....

:)

I use those exact patches and they've lasted through an entire winter.

A day or two of hold is my experience with them also.

Did you clean the chalk off the tube ?

In my successful use, I did use the tiny square of sandpaper that came with them, but it occurred to me that taking a pack of alcohol wipes along might be even better, to ensure the rubber is clean.

I think this is the deciding factor as to whether or not they work.

I guess because they are 'instant' repairs, lots of people won't pay any care or attention to using them.