H23

Its better to just use basic tubes that fit your tire, the fancier light stuff is just more delicate and more prone to leakage. The talc thing is really just lore, does not really help and adds complexity.

You should practice swapping tubes on your rear wheel until you are comfortable with it. Don't forget to carefully inspect the inside of the tire for more jagged stuff if the flat was from glass.

shimano_cranker

That exact thing happened to me...only on a mountain bike. I did the "I don't know how the hell to do this, so I'm going to put pieces back together." While I was trying to put the tire back on, I was lifting up the bike, and boom a sprocket from the large chain ring tears through the top of my foot. I'm bleeding and mad. So mad however, that I somehow manage to rip off my rear deraileur? I'm in my stiff-soled MTB shoes, and I ended up carrying my bike home 3 miles through the woods.

After that, I took a bike repair course, and practiced fixing flats several times on my mountain and road bike.

Mojo Slim

I've gotten very good at changing tires. I've had 10 flats in 5 months. Too many stickers around here. A couple of days ago, I was thinking< "Gee, this is where I had a flat once before". Of course, I had another one immediately. Gotta stop thinking.

K6-III

I must be lucky. Only 1 flat in my two years of road riding...