Best Tube Patches

Hi alfeng and CampagBob, I have been using Park Pre-Glued Super patches but I am finding that over time the glue loses it adhesive qualities.

I have been using them with butyl and Panaracer R-Air Tubes.

Any other suggestions...

thanks KL

 

Self-adhesive patches are good for limp-home fixes when caught out by one flat more than the number of spare tires you've brought. But for permanent fixes, vulcanizing solution and proper patches(many like REMA) is the way to go.

Whether to replace a self-adhesive patch upon return to home as a matter of course, or to wait until it fails is entirely up to personal preferences. On a MTB, or any low-pressure tires they can last for years.

 

Hi dabac, the Rema red edge vulcanizing patches look really good. What are your thoughts on these or which ones would you recommend...

thanks KL

 

To be honest, I've never payed much attention to which brand of vulcanizing patch I'm using. I have tried Rema, which did well. But I've also used several of whatever-it-is that big department stores /sporting goods stores pack into their small flat.fixing boxes. You know, the ones about half the size of a cigarrette pack holding some patches, a square of sand paper, a tube of vulcanizing solution, and in Europe, often a couple of Dunlop valves.
Last, out of sheer necessity, I used some positively vintage patches I found in a tool box I inherited from my grandfather. They seen to work too.

To me the order of priority for a lasting repair is:
- proper timing between applying the vulcanizing solution and the patch
- prepping the surface well
- use of fresh /properly stored vulcanizing compound

Patches, I use what I have. If running low coincides with an order of bike parts, then I buy from "proper" bike parts vendors. If I'm caught out, anything goes.

 

One tip for preserving the solution is to keep solution tube in a very small ziplock bag. They make bags as small as 2-3cm square. In such a small bag, the vapor pressure of the volatiles in the solution equilibrates more quickly and thus adds a bit of time to the usefulness of the solution in the tube. There's little worse than getting a flat and finding that the solution in the tube has dried.

 

I use self-adhesive patches as a backup to my spare tube. On the roadside the ease of use/speed is the benefit. The drawback is that wet-glued/vulcanised patches tend to stick better and stay air tight longer ('if' the patching conditions are dry).

The brand I stick in my tire bag varies according to where I duck into to buy a few kits, but lately I've stashed the ones Performance sells in their stores: http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1035372_-1___000000

I do have a couple Park Super Patch kits in the tool box: http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1035408_-1___000000
I'll have to check them to see if they have dried out.

A buddy likes the Slime Skabs that Performance sells. I'm going to have to give them a try.

When I'm in the basement or garage and have a tube worth saving I'll use the 'set it on fire!' patches. Again, the brand is usually whatever I happen to grab. The only requirement I have is for a thin patch (who doesn't hate feeling a patch go around?). They all stick well as long as the prep job is good.

I bought a bunch of Velox sew-up patch kits years ago...they used to come in a steel tin. The adhesive and patches are still useable after sitting for a long, long time! The cotton thread and plastic thimbles...I couldn't imagine using at the side of the road. In the rain!

Heh...dabac and I have similar advice!

 

Tube in Ziplock and Ziplock in the fridge, and the stuff will hold for years. Got hold of an almost toothpaste-sized tube years ago, and it's still working. It might have come from a Zodiac /inflatabe dinghy repair kit....

 

My gripe with most bicycle tube patch kits are that the patches are much larger and thicker than necessary for road use. 99.9% of my flats are a due to a tiny hole in the tube. I use Rema F0-P patches - they are some of the smallest and thinnest I have found. I bought a pack of 100 for cheap on Ebay.

I purchased a large tube of patch cement from an auto parts store and store it in a zip baggie and a sealed jar. Fresh tube cement works so much better than the mystery cement you will find in a patch kit that has been sitting on the shelf for how long?

My patches have become so reliable that I have put my tubes on rotation. Get a flat, throw it in the pack and put on a patched tube. Get home, patch the tube. I have some tubes with 10 patches.

 

Park Tools have the VP1 Vulcanising Patch, http://www.wiggle.com.au/park-tools-vp1-vulcanising-patch-kit/ ... wonder if they are as good as the Rema?

I have had the Park Pre-Glued Super patches for a few years, so perhaps they are simply old. When I first got them they worked fine but not so good, lately...

 

The small patches in that kit are 25mm. The rema F0p are 16mm - that is a big difference. I have never had a need for the larger, oval patches.

 

I'm not dabac, but I have to say that Rema patches and cement are the shiznit, I've been using them for a little over a year and haven't had a failure yet. I hardly buy new tubes anymore.

 

Do note that I'm not saying anything bad about Rema. I'll happily use them if I have them.
But patches failing after having been applied under good conditions is such a rare thing for me that the only obvious culprits are poor handiwork, poor prep, or aged vulcanizing solution.

 

Thanks Guys, I am used to the old vulcanizing patches, the ones that require a clamp and heat (ie. via a match). I tried the cold vulcanizing patches and they are much better than the preglued patches and the patches are more flexible :smile: Still debating whether that's better than simply buying new tubes, like these seamless tubes ... http://www.wiggle.com.au/lifeline-essential-narrow-road-inner-tubes-60mm-presta-x-6-1/ http://www.wiggle.com.au/lifeline-essential-narrow-road-inner-tubes-48mm-presta-x-4/ I guess, if only 1 or 2 patches are required then vulcanizing patches are a good way to go and they are working nicely on the Panaracer R-Air tubes :smile: thanks KL :smile:

 

All good, I now have 10 extra tubes (ranging from R-AIR, super thin, to welter weights) using the vulcanizing patches, that the preglued patches failed to repair

The nice aspect of the vulcanizing patches is that your can always apply more glue, if the glue hasn't taken or not enough glue was applied or the patch is a little large for the tube...

thanks KL

 

Hi maydog, yes the 16mm round patches for the 18-28 tubes seem to be large enough and fit the tube nicely. I would only see the oval patches necessary for long tube cuts or perhaps using them on the inside of the tyre for long tyre cuts ...

thanks KL

 

FWIW. I think that someone long ago figured out that the self adhesive tire patches are the patch of choice for latex rubber tubes, but that they are not so good (as everyone seems to have figured out) for butyl rubber tubes.

 

Hi alfeng, that's interesting. The R-Air, although not butyl, is still a rubber mix.

The real issue that I have noticed with self adhesive tube patches is that if more glue is necessary, well just that you can't apply more glue and sometimes the glue simply doesn't set (it stays all gooey).

Alfeng, have you used R-Air tubes? If yes, how would you compare them to butyl tubes?

thanks KL

 

FWIW. I have no direct knowledge of the R-Air tubes ...

In what may be considered to be an extravagant moment, I got some "green" latex MTB tubes way-back-when ...

Some of us do believe that the weight near a rear wheel's circumference matters!

I do not know how the "green" latex tubes differ from "red" latex tubes, if at all, other than the color!?!

But, based on the scant amount of what I know, I think the R-Air tubes should be a good choice if one has already increased their budget-for-tubes to use latex tubes.

You may want to contact Panaracer to find out which type of patch kit they recommend

• if the self adhesive patches have not worked well
• then the nod probably goes to standard patches

BTW. After noticing that the patch over a larger-than-1mm gash seemed "weaker" (the patch above the puncture bulged slightly when the tube was tested with a modest amount of air!) than the ho-hum butyl rubber tube which I was patching, I subsequently tried adding a drop of generic SUPER GLUE to the next puncture before patching AND it "worked" ... so I now include a drop of Super Glue in my tube patching prep ...

THAT may be a belt-and-suspender approach, but it provides peace-of-mind ...

N.B. Because a tube of Super Glue doesn't do well after being opened, inclusion in the patching process is possibly best if reserved for when several tubes are being patched during a single session.