Says, I suspect, someone who has not found their way to Rema Tip Top patch kits. Those being the only patches worth using in my humble opinion.

Rema Tip Top always seem to be well rated amongst people but what I said still rings true.

I have had good luck with the Forte' (Performance house brand) patch kits and other house brand or no name ones. Generally they all look like they are all made by the same company. I have found the patches to last for the life of the tube if properly applied. Rema may be better, but I find the run of the mill patch kit to be good enough. It seems likely to me that if patches are failing regularly there is probably a problem with their application.

The only thing that I find a pain with the patch kits I use is that once open the glue tends to dry up. is the Rema glue any better in that regard?

I've also had good results with other brands of patch kits, and even some that were not branded. I also believe it is how the tube is patched more than what is used to patch it.

I'm recovering from shoulder surgery, going stir crazy, and with nothing better to do I conducted a little experiment, a sample of one.

From the FWIW Department:

I put a REMA patch on one of my skinny 20 mm tubes and inflated it; this is not something I'd recommend in the real world. I then took a patch kit that was a give-away at a bike conference, and applied a patch, and again inflated the tire. I waited 3-5 minutes before putting air in the tire.

Side note: the glue in the first give-away patch kit I tried, where the glue had been opened, was dried out. I guess it is the nature of the beast:)

Conclusion: Both patches are acceptable and securely bonded to the tube, even after just a few minutes.

I would have complete confidence that both patches, even after over-inflating the tube, would last as long as the tube

Free patch.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...92c8530a95.jpg

REMA patch.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...34fa9d0223.jpg

Nothing at all wrong with it. However, when I rode through Texas, starting west of Austin, I seem to get a lot more flats from cactus punctures. Perhaps putting slime in the tubes will make them last longer......

Maybe, but when we tried slime tubes on the TA (they were all the shop had) we found that it mostly added weight, mess, and difficulty in patching. It seemed like we still got about the same amount flats. Some folks say they have had good results though, so maybe it depends on the conditions.

Never have had a problem patching tubes, just make sure the surface is clean and dry. The glue is good. Most ever on a single tube that I can recall was about 12 patches on my city bike. That was before kevlar belted tires. Slime works... until you get a big hole, then you have a helluva mess to clean up and you WON'T want do be doing that on the side of the road. Been there, done that and WILL NOT use it ever it again. Bell tubes are made by Kenda, quality is okay. I usually spring for the Schwalbe tubes, cost several times more, but seem to last longer and hold air longer. YMMV.

Aaron :)

I have used Bell brand tubes a few years ago and they held up fine from WM.
I have since used the slime brand tubes from WM and have had 5 or 6 flats this spring. Bad batch of tubes?? I don't know. 2 times however were because of goatheads. I used to see presta tubes at WM in the Mpls and St. Paul stores all the time. I dont like the patches at WM in the bike dept but noticed in the automotive area they had different patch kit that looked like the round patches of rema brand.

I should add getting a high quality tire that help reduce the amount of flats greatly. I found Continental Touring Tires really resist flats well but didn't discover them until after my long bike tour.

No kidding. I let tubes accumulate so I can do a bunch at the same time and not waste the glue. I've patched quite a few tubes and let them dry overnight. I'll then pump them up and let them sit like giant distended Cheerios and they will hold air. Only one that didn't work was on a raised ridge and the patch wouldn't mould to it. I'm sure there are other unique instances of oddly placed holes.

That can usually be managed by sanding the ridge down a bit before patching.

I find Schwalbe tubes to be the best I have ever used... mostly for their air retention which is an aspect in preventing flats.

Wrap them in a Schwalbe or Continental and flats become a pretty rare thing... I fit a lot of the Continental Touring tyres here at my shop and the reviews have been nothing but positive, my wife runs a set on her mixte and really likes them.

Not really.

Patch a tube correctly and it will never fail in that spot again.

Zefal makes a good patch kit...

http://cdn.bicyclehero.com/catalog/p...ncy_repair.jpg

Velox makes excellent rubber cement...

http://www.moruyabicycles.com.au/con...ber-cement.jpg

And then I still have a stock of the old stuff that will get you high... it really works... for patching tubes.

Bell tubes work fine, from my experience. They're probably from the same factory as a lot of the other branded ones.

I think the only time I ever get new tubes is if there's some catastrophic damage (ran over a razor blade and cut a tire in half once), or the number of patches gets to be kind of excessive.

I put a Bell tube from WM on a cruiser tonight and it was stamped CST.

I checked the WM about 12 miles up the road from my house, they have 700c in presta but NOT in Schrader.... no 27" tubes either! :eek: Funny part is they sell bikes with 700c shrader wheels... go figure.

Aaron :)

You do realize that 27" tubes and 700c tubes are interchangeable, right? Tires and rims are not.

Yup... my point was that WM had zero, zip, nada in the 700c/27" inner tube stock with schrader valves. FWIW I prefer Presta, but my son does not. So I was looking for some tubes for him. No problem just added them on to my next order of stuff from Niagara Cycles. And they wonder why we order off the internet. :rolleyes:

Aaron :)