Gluing glueless patches.......Good/bad/indifferent???
 

So I'm the king of flats lately (actually tumbleweed season has arrived so lots of flats this morning) & I have some glueless patches that came in a Park kit (GP2) and some that came in a kit from the LBS. I'm thinking I'd like to use them since I've got 'em. I just got finished patching a 23mm tube for my road bike & was thinking I'd use the glueless on my larger 28mm hybrid tube.

While the glueless might work fine by itself (I've researched & heard opinions galore about glueless) I'm wondering if it wouldn't hurt to just use some of the vulcanizing glue with the glueless patches for insurance???

(Flame suit's in the closet but I'll grab if it needed) ;)

I've done it, it will work.

I use glueless patches just to get home, where I put on a real patch.
In my experience, they started leaking in about 10 days in warm weather, and about 10 minutes in freezing weather.

I'd assume so too, but not sure as the glueless don't *look* just like the regular patches. (???)





Right but this is about *GLUING* the glueless patches. Rather than just using them as a quick-fix, if you're at home & you've got plenty of glue & (like me) lots of glueless patches........maybe just glue the glueless patches on since they're plentiful. (???)

I don't see the point in trying to glue a glueless patch.
The glued patches are attached by a chemical reaction with the patch and glue that cold-vulcanizes the patch to the tire.
The glueless patch isn't even the correct material to do that.

Once in a while I use a Slime Scabb patch, they work ok- but I tape them down with a piece of electrical tape that is just a little longer than the patch.

That's why I'm asking. Then again, who says the glueless patches *aren't* the correct material???

Isn't the pre-adhered glue on the glueless patches the same vulcanizing compound as in the tubes of glue??

No.
Cold-vulcanizing is not the same as gluing.
The two pieces of rubber (patch & tube) fuse together to become one piece.
That is not the same as gluing.

Cold-vulcanizing patches chemically melt the tube and patch material together. Do it right and they'll never come apart. Quick-patches, OTOH, just stick on like tape. In my experience, if they last 30 miles you're living on borrowed time. They seem to work best on fat tubes and at low pressures.

I've got 2 packs of those Park stick on patches that I've had for awhile and I just don't trust them, can't bring myself to use them, and they gauged me at the LBS for them too,,,

Glueless patches last for over a year for me. They're pretty idiot-proof.

Having used stick-ons for ~12 years or so on mtbs and road bikes, I fall into the camp that finds them unreliable and use them only temporarily until I can replace it with a glue-on.

An interesting academic discussion, but honestly, why would one even attempt to buy vulcanizing glue without the patches that typically come with it?

Patch kits are cheap enough that I wouldn't scrimp to experiment with what might work, and stick with what well. I would just use self-stick in the field... vulcanizing at home.

I've used both, both work fine. When I've used glue less, they held very well.

Same here. I have fixed a flat on the fly with a glueless patch and had it last a very long time. I remember, in one instance, I had gotten a flat on the same tire over a year later, and remembered the glueless patch, thinking that the patch must have come lose. Well, lo and behold, when I took the wheel off, the patch was fine and holding steady. I just had a piece of glass in the tire.

Here is a question on this topic:

What's the best way to find a leak in a tire on a road bike? I ask because on my new bike I (for some reason) mistakenly rode hard up on a curb, missing the driveway "ramp" to get onto the sidewalk bike path. So I took the tire off and set to fixing the flat, but could not find the leak with my pump as the tire wouldn't hold air long enough no matter how much I tried to pump in. I guessed, at the time, that the hole must have been so large that the tire wouldn't hold air, and I was anxious to get on with my ride, so I said, "Screw it!" and just went into my saddle bag, fished out a brand new inner tube (I always have two with me, along with both types of patch kits and some tools) and went with the ne tube.

But I never remember struggling so much at finding a leak before. I'm sure, if I was willing to spend a much longer time, I would have found the damned leak, but the seven bucks it costs me at my LBS for an inner-tube, I just wanted to get out of there. So without water to put the tube in, what's the best way to find a leak if you can't get enough air in to examine the tube while it leaked it out?

That's what I think too.

Since you think of yourself as "the king of flats", treat yourself to 6 or 8 new inner tubes. Since you're buying your tubes in a non-emergency situation don't compromise. Make sure you get the EXACT size and valve length that you want.

Whenever you puncture, bring the old tube home and store it in a box. Wait for a Saturday with weather too crummy for riding. Pull out the box and a brand new patch kit. Patch all of your punctured inner tubes at once. Take the necessary time to do a good job. Wait for the vulcanizing fluid to dry. Sprinkle baby powder on the completed patch so it won't stick in your tire. Make sure all of the air is out of the inner tube, roll it up and secure it with a little rubber band. Throw away what's left of your patch kit since the glue is going to dry out anyway. Just remember to buy a replacement before your tube inventory gets used up again.

I have used the glue less variety with no problems as well.

pump with one hand and with the other, move the tube near your face. You will either feel it or hear it.

I'm betting that, if you had found the leak, it would have been two parallel slits in the inner tube like a snake bite. That's what happens when you hit a curb or pothole too hard with insufficient air pressure.

A better question has to do with determining the cause of a flat tire. A quite common cause of punctures is tiny little wires from steel belted radial tires. If you're not careful they can hide in your tire and re-puncture your brand new inner tube just as soon as you get back on the road.

buy a bulk 100 of bicycle patches, then a small bottle of rubber cement.

I dont have too much luck with glueless patches. So i use regular ones. I am 45 years in the tire business. My expertise is in tire repair. The chemical cement used for patches is not really glue, it interacts with the rubber on the back of a patch to form a seal. It activates the rubber in the patch.

Putting it on glueless patches shouldnt work.

I hear you. I am not an expert on tire changing, not even close, but what I last time, when I got home, was to run my finger over the inside of the wheel, where the tire touches the metal covered by some kind of insulation. Quite honestly, I wasn't looking specifically for wires from a steel belted radial (and in fact didn't even know that was a thing) but anyting sharp, like shards of glass or a small hidden nail or tack something? Then I turned the rubbeer tire inside out and inspected it, as well as running my finger along the inner rubber trying to find anything sharp.

I found nothing...and hopefully just changing he tube will be sufficient because I only have one inner tube left in my bike bag! lol

I am going out to ride today, but I also got a flat yesterday (and did the same thing) this time on the rear wheel. I went through the same visual and palpatory inspection of the wheel and the inner part of the tire before putting the new tube in and inflating it, so again, hopefully the tire will be fine and dandy. Is there anything else I should be doing when changing an inner tube? Note, I have not any success on the new bike with the patch kits, ad so far, I just change the inner tube for good measure. Honestly, for 6 bucks a pop (as long as I can minimize my flat tires..I hope!) I would rather just go with a new tube than chance a patch kit fix. If I start getting more flats or gte them more than once a month, then I will start fixing rather than changing them.

Also, one thing: I inflated my tires to 130 PSI yesterday before the ride, and am wondering if perhaps that is too high even for a road bike? Maybe 120 would be better at my bodyweight of about 200 LBS?

Just for what it's worth, ChiroVette, greater weight requires higher pressure; not lower. I might suggest you go towards the high end of the tire and wheel limits.

The only glueless patches I ever had a problem with were the ones that looked like the glue on kind. I don't know about cold setting them, my step dad taught me as a kid to after laying down the glued patch, to hit it with a lighter, let it burn for about 15 seconds to "weld" the patch on.

Thr glueless patches I use are these clear plasticy rubber patches the have at repair stands at U of L campus- only had a handfull of them fail.

Ah okay, I thought it was the other way around. I called Glen, the guy in Piermont who sold me my awesome new bike, since he has helped me with a bunch of stuff, and he told me that he would set the pressure to 100 PSI. When I told him I liked the higher pressure because I can bike faster, he said, "Ah, okay, then go to 120PSI Max. You will feel the road and all the bumps more, but it will e a faster ride." Then I asked him if my having filled the tires to 130 PSI 20 minutes before starting the ride that I got a rear flat caused the flat, and he said, "No. It was just bad luck."

But he definitely felt that 120 is about max I should go even though technically the tires take 130 PSI.