After years of patching tubes, I finally grabbed a couple of tire strips from the bike coop (cost= <$5 worth of work trade) to put on my new (used) bike for our bike tour. Granted the tires on the bike were in pretty good shape, but I'm yet to have a flat. Riding along the shoulder of highways is usually prime habitat for glass and pokey bits.
I can also say from experience that flatless tubes on the other hand, (the kind that are stemless), are worthless and miserable things to ride on. We tried them once on pedicab wheels - like riding a bike through sand.
I had also been irritated that if I bought patch kits, I was always left with way more cement than patches. I got to the point that I had two or three unopened tubes of cement and no patches, so I tried cutting small patches out of an old tube, scuffing them up real well and using them instead. For some reason, this didn't work. I peeled the plastic back off a commercial patch for inspection. It didn't feel like it had any special coating, just a high surface area pattern. Is there unseen magic there?
Dealing with flats on bikes
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shanermack
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Mon Jun 13, 2011 2:06 am
You can use any type of buna (the type used in tires and tubes) or natural rubber and regular super glue.
A tiny amount of super glue and lots (about 50-100 psi) of pressure for 20 seconds will create a bond on this type of rubber that is far stronger than the parent material and it will do it without having to scrub and scuff anything up.
The old rubber cement method is sorta OK but its not nearly as effective; I'm not sure why super glue never caught on.
You can use tiny patches that are only slightly lager than the hole. Just make sure the surfaces are nice and clean.
Super glue is the only adhesive used when building buna o-rings for use in high pressure hydraulic systems, the bond is so strong that if can hold thousands of pounds per square inch for thousands of hours under extreme heat.
Another great product that works well is the green slime that you can get at Wallyworld.
A tiny amount of super glue and lots (about 50-100 psi) of pressure for 20 seconds will create a bond on this type of rubber that is far stronger than the parent material and it will do it without having to scrub and scuff anything up.
The old rubber cement method is sorta OK but its not nearly as effective; I'm not sure why super glue never caught on.
You can use tiny patches that are only slightly lager than the hole. Just make sure the surfaces are nice and clean.
Super glue is the only adhesive used when building buna o-rings for use in high pressure hydraulic systems, the bond is so strong that if can hold thousands of pounds per square inch for thousands of hours under extreme heat.
Another great product that works well is the green slime that you can get at Wallyworld.
I'm going to try that superglue thing with some old tubes.
After switching to either kevlar belted tires or liners when on the road I've had no puncture flats in almost 6k miles.
Liners are cheaper, but they can eat into the tube until it flats. They also add another step in changing a tube. Flats never happen at a convenient time, so I want a goof-proof system. I also feel like liners change the handling while leaning into turns, but that could just be my imagination.
Rachels might think about a tubeless system, if she can use something like the notubes conversion kit. (Tubeless is mostly for low pressures though.)
A note about Slime - isn't it made with ethylene glycol? This would make it dangerous if you have pets around.
After switching to either kevlar belted tires or liners when on the road I've had no puncture flats in almost 6k miles.
Liners are cheaper, but they can eat into the tube until it flats. They also add another step in changing a tube. Flats never happen at a convenient time, so I want a goof-proof system. I also feel like liners change the handling while leaning into turns, but that could just be my imagination.
Rachels might think about a tubeless system, if she can use something like the notubes conversion kit. (Tubeless is mostly for low pressures though.)
A note about Slime - isn't it made with ethylene glycol? This would make it dangerous if you have pets around.