Repair or replace

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screenman

Squire
I use slime in my tubes, so maybe a get less punctures than some. I own my own business and charge my time out at £60+ per hour, so £18 would be a considerable drop.
 

BrumJim

Forum Stalwart (won't take the hint and leave...)
I never repair a puncture on the road, but always repair it later at home, using a couple of spring clips to hold the patch on while the vulcanising solution is setting.

What I have noticed is that if I've done the job badly, the patch won't leak much until the pressures get lower. Then they go very quickly. Suggesting that it is not the vulcanising solution that is holding the patch on at 100psi, but mainly the force of the tube against the tyre. So puncture repairs on high-pressure tyres are just as good if not better than low-pressure equivalents.
 

Cyclopathic

Veteran
Location
Leicester.
No, never will be. As others have said the high pressure on road tyres (110PSI+) can make getting them to stick permanently a problem. If they doo take, as the rubber sealant gets agitated by road pressure it can cause a slow leakage. I always replace now. Best thing you an do is get yourself some nice puncture resistant tyres, such as the GP4000S I run. Nothing is 100%, but they do cut down on the punctures significantly.

That being said I do carry patches and rubber too, incase I have multiples. Patches are good enough to get you home.

I simply cannot agree. I think that a correctly applied patch works perfectly well. I don't know the exact pressure that I put in my tyres but it's usually about as much as I can get in there and run them as hard as possible and like I said no failiures as yet.

If we're talking about fixing to get you home I'd have thought this was the one time when I would justify using a new tube to save the hassle of fixing a puncture in the field as it were. I'd still fix the punctured one and carry that one as the spare then.
 

Cyclopathic

Veteran
Location
Leicester.
I use slime in my tubes, so maybe a get less punctures than some. I own my own business and charge my time out at £60+ per hour, so £18 would be a considerable drop.


For some reason this does not make me any more sympathetic to your argument. How much would you have to be earning an hour before you decided that even changing the tube was too much to bother with and just keep a stock of bikes in your shed so that you can just throw the punctured one away. I didn't mean that to sound as provocative as it does but I was trying to say that it shouldn't just be a matter of scale and numbers when deciding to throw something away like that. That it is wasteful and profligate should imo come into it as well. At 2 or 3 quid even a poor church mouse like myself could afford to replace my tubes when they are punctured but I just baulk at the idea.
 

HovR

Über Member
Location
Plymouth
For me, it depends on the size of the puncture. Small pin-hole size punctures are definite repairs, as they are dead easy to fix, and 99% of the time the patch will hold.

When the puncture is larger, I get wary of putting the repaired tube on my bike, as I have had too many large puncture repairs fail on me - In these instances I'll replace the tube. (Although the punctured inner tubes will normally go into a punctured inner tube box... Not quite sure what I plan on doing with these.
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guitarpete247

Just about surviving
Location
Leicestershire
+1 for replace on road then repair at home.

My only problem is that I have had so few deflation events my glue goes off and I have to buy a new kit for the glue so I've got dozens of patches and tubes of glue that won't stick
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I take Slime Skabs (glueless) with me incase I get a 2nd flat.
 

anweledig

Well-Known Member
Location
Shropshire
I replace on the road and put the damaged tubes in a bag in my shed. Then one winter evening when it 's cold and wet and I 'm not going to ride, I have a repair session and have my spare tubes ready for the next season.

So far I've had no problems with patches failing but I do retire tubes if they have been patched more then 4-5 times (then they get used in the garden as tree ties etc)
 
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