Repairing A Bicycle Puncture

Donaway

When you apply the glue over the puncture do you leave it dry completly or leave it go stickie - tackey before you fit the repair patch ? which gives you the best bond between the tube and the patch

Marco_Panettone

Tacky, but almost dry. Generally I apply the glue, leave it and make a cuppa and then apply the patch. If you're in a hurry you can blow it to dry it quicker.

If out on the road just change the tube for a spare one and fix it at home.

discplayer

Tacky, but I find you don't need much and it goes from wet to tacky quite quickly.

As above, when out just change the tube after a quick check for the foreign object.

Dave_C_2

Dry, as per the expert Sheldon Brown. I recommend reading the rest of the article.

But most important of all is to inspect the inside of the tyre and remove the sharp object that caused the puncture in the first place. If you don't do this all that will happen is you get another puncture!

+1 for carrying a spare tube.

Dave

SteveJW

I let it go completely dry

Never could get patches to stick and I get plenty of punctures.
An old timer told me to get an old hacksaw blade and use that to clean up the inner tube, works every time. Six inch piece of hacksaw blade carried in my saddle bag.

Sheldon Brown, what a fountain of knowledge, pity he is no longer with us


Steve

bloghog

Slightly tacky/ dry here and then hold the patch in place over the puncture until completely dry. If I am feeling really thorough a quick dust with chalk to stop the glue sticking to the inside of the tyre.

stevemcol

I find the modern vulcanised patches are very difficult to get wrong. The old fashioned think rubber ones could be quite tempramental if you didn't get the glue just right.

zaax

You need some Scabs, they don't use a seperate glue, also you should not put more than 3 patches on a tube before you replace it.

Dave_C_2

zaax wrote: »

You need some Scabs, they don't use a seperate glue, also you should not put more than 3 patches on a tube before you replace it.

Why no more than three? As punctures are usually caused by thorns and other sharp objects, this is just a matter of probability rather than the tube getting old and leaking. Inner tubes don't degrade appreciably, replacing the tube when you replace the tyre will be fine.

I imagine the limiting factor is trying to fix a puncture on the edge of an exiting patch* - another good reason for carrying a spare tube rather than a puncture repair kit.

* Has anyone succeeded in doing this - I know I haven't.:(

Dave

Stooby2

also you should not put more than 3 patches on a tube before you replace it.

Laughed at this - when I was kid my inner tubes were more patch than tube. Never heard that advice in 40 years of cycling and had plenty of tubes with half a dozen (or more) repairs.

1886

zaax wrote: »

You need some Scabs, they don't use a seperate glue, also you should not put more than 3 patches on a tube before you replace it.

X2

These are brilliant, no need to mess about with glue. eBay Skabz or Scabs. We always carry a spare inner tube too. Instead of messing about fixing a puncture, find the cause, remove it from the tyre, put new tube in and carry on. Fix new tube in your own time. We usually ride in a big group so we want to get going as quick as possible hence not messing about fixing punctures