Blown tube on a Giro

(Glenn Hoetker) said:

To my great dismay (it being a gorgeous day for riding in Central Illinois), the front tire on my
Giro was flat, flat, flat this morning. I'm a new Giro rider (and frankly fairly new to having a
decent bike of any kind). Would it be best to patch the tube or to replace it?

Here's a situation in which you were dismayed. I, on the other hand, am elated whenever I walk out
in the morning and have two full tires.
:-)

Prepare to hone or rehone your patching and tire changing skills. I must have tubes with at least a
dozen patches in them. They work just fine. Use the real patches with vulcanizing solution (glue),
not the instant press-on patches. The red rubber German ones sold at virtually all local bike shops
work very well.

Since you are new at this, another piece of advice: examine the tire closely to find what caused the
flat, and remove whatever it is. I alway mount my tubes in the same orientation (with the nipple
right on the "100 lbs" text on the tire). When I locate the hole in the tube, it is usually a
trivial matter for me to locate the source because I know where to look. Be careful: glass, in
particular, is good at shredding fingers as well as rubber.

FWIW, I always carry two spare tubes with me for quick tire changes on the road. I think it's a
Good Idea.

-- Robert

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

To my great dismay (it being a gorgeous day for riding in Central Illinois), the front tire on my
Giro was flat, flat, flat this morning. I'm a new Giro rider (and frankly fairly new to having a
decent bike of any kind). Would it be best to patch the tube or to replace it? Fellow Giro-ites:
with what would you replace the tube, if you were going to replace it.

Depends on the flat. Where is the hole? How big? Can it be patched?

It takes about 15 minutes to replace a flat tube with a new one. Maybe 30 minutes to patch and re
install a tube with a small hole. I like to patch flats in the cool comfort of my home. That means
if I am riding and have a flat, I resolve the cause and remove the source of te flat (glass/wire
etc.) I replace the tube with the hole with one that does not have a hole. And I am back on the road
in 15 min or less. When I get home, I patch the flat and it becomes my spare tube for the next time.

On the Giro, this means that I carry a minimum of two spare tubes and a patch kit. On a long bike
tour, I carry four spare tubes, a kit and two spare tires.

--

Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager clee.orgclee.orgOpen ↗
- Bellaire, TX USA -

So have some of you patchers experimented with different glue/patch brands? What works best? I used
to patch, but somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost the technique. Or I got glue/patches that
don't work very well.

Might be a good place to review. How much glue do you apply? What do they mean by let dry
until tacky?

John Riley

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

So have some of you patchers experimented with different glue/patch brands? What works best? I
used to patch, but somewhere along the way, I seem to have lost the technique. Or I got
glue/patches that don't work very well.

Might be a good place to review. How much glue do you apply? What do they mean by let dry
until tacky?

I follow the directions :-) The best patch material seems to be (in decreasing order): Patches using
two composite layers (black and orange) Black liquid rubber 'scabs' poured onto foil and foisted
onto the innocent public as tube patches. "glueless" patches.

I find no difference in the rubber cement supplied by various vendors. I try to keep at least one
container in my patch kit that is not dried out.

My technique is:
1. Clean any residual talc from the tube in the area to be patched.
2. Thouroughly rough up the tube with the supplied sand paper. If at home a Dremel tool works best.
(Too good if you are not careful). It is especially important to sand down any ridges formed on
the tube by the construction process.
3. I only apply enough glue to 'wet' the area to be covered by the patch.
4. According to the directions, drying time is ~5 minutes. After that time, I apply the patch.
5. Work the patch with the fingers and pressure to anneal it to the tube
6. Wait.
7. Inflate
8. Repeat as needed.

--

Cletus D. Lee Bacchetta Giro Lightning Voyager clee.orgclee.orgOpen ↗
- Bellaire, TX USA -

(Don) said:

BTW, I do very little in the way of sanding the tube.

Me, neither. I just rough it up a little, and don't worry about seams. I've never had a standard
patch fail, and I must've applied at least 100 in the past 2 years alone.

-- Robert

"Don" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I have not done any comparisons because I started with the Rema kits in the aqua/green boxes. They
have never failed me so I saw no reason to stray. They are also very easy to find and cheap.

The aluminum foil is supposed to release from the glue side of a REMA. The clear plastic is the rub
here side, and until you fold the tube/patch to split the plastic it usually stays on the patch
enough to rub to your heart's conent. The glue has to be dry to work (like contact cement, rubber
cement will stick dry to dry better than when wet on one side).

Quoted message said:

In addition to the great technique Cleetus outlined, I also carry a small patch of wax paper (yes,
the stuff from the kitchen). I put that over the patch after it is applied then apply heavy finger
pressure all over the patch. The wax paper keeps any glue off my hands and allows me to drag my
fingers over the patch without friction that might move the patch.

The wax paper trick is also useful for Shoe-Gooing or otherwise patching a tire cut.

BTW, I do very little in the way of sanding the tube. I am always afraid that any sanding that
strays outside the patch area will weaken the tube there. And who the heck knows where the patch
area is until the patch is actually attached. The areas at the edges of the patches are probably
already stress points because of differential expansion. I am also just lazy. I have never had a
patch fail.

Like Cleetus, I prefer to install a spare in the field and do my patching comfortably sitting on
my patio. That has an added benefit because I only have one patch kit glue open at any one
time--the one I use at home. Yes, I carry a patch kit on each of my bikes but my goal is to never
open the glue in the field.

One last secret I will share to reduce flats. When a bike has worn our tires, buy a new bike. It
has worked for me. Don