fixing flats..which brand?

hi guys
just wondering which type/brand of tube patches you are using for pin hole tube flats?
I just wanna carry a reliable type with me just in case.
Ive tried the topeak sticker type but they dont seem to work too well. topeak flypaper is what they are called
thanks!!

I use the normal adhesive rubber patch with a tube of rubber cement. Make sure the cement dries a little tacky and it held tight. No, the peel off and stick are useless w/o rubber cement.

+1, the stickon patches never work for me, oldschool REMA is the way to go.

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tire-tools.html#patchkits

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/patching.html

I avoid all flats completely by spending a bit more on tires in the first place. I run Schwalbe Marathon tires and have not had a single flat in over 3000 miles.....

Rema Tip Top patches are unequivocally best. Almost any of the glue type patches will work, but Rema patches are easiest and most reliable.

You have to scuff all the mold release off the tube first, no matter how good the patch. The rubber becomes whiter when you begin to scuff it, then black again when it’s gone. Apply a full wet coat of glue and let it dry completely. Then apply the patch, leaving the clear plastic on it, and burnish it on with a tire lever or a nickel. Correctly done, that’s a permanent repair.

Don’t mess with the peel and stick kind of patch except as a last resort. If you use one, you should replace the tube immediately.

What patch?
Move into the 21st century.
Use slime in the inner tube. It is made specifically for inner tube use. Works perfect. You won't have a flat ever again.

Wolfeman said:

I avoid all flats completely by spending a bit more on tires in the first place. I run Schwalbe Marathon tires and have not had a single flat in over 3000 miles.....

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I pull enough screws, nails, and construction staples out of customers’ tires to know that punctures will find a way. My own last flat (in a Kevlar belted Thick Slick) was from a jagged piece of tree debris that tore a gash through the sidewall.

That said, I get so few flats that I usually don’t carry a pump with me.

The armored tire I’m trying out right now is Kenda Kwick Drumlin 700x50. Like Marathon Plus, it doesn't ride very well, but it’s very thick and tough. It seems to grip better than Marathon Plus, which gets a little squirmy when leaned over.

Tommm said:

What patch?
Move into the 21st century.
Use slime in the inner tube. It is made specifically for inner tube use. Works perfect. You won't have a flat ever again.

Click to expand...

Not true. Slime gunks up valves, sometimes so badly that they won’t seal air in. When you do get a puncture, it contaminates the area and makes it very difficult to patch. And Slime clumps up into hairballs over time.

Just yesterday, I replaced a tube that had some kind of sealant in it, which had so fouled the valve body that even removing the valve core didn’t clear it out. I had to run a spoke through there to deflate it.

Good, non-problematic technical solutions become the default. Tire sealant isn’t the default, even though it’s been around a very long time, and it has its place.

Rema Tip Top are the best of the best in my experience, but most glue on patches are fine. In a pinch, you can use the cement and a piece of old tube to patch a hole, as long as you aren't using an undersized tube in the tire.
The peel-N-stick patches will often get you home, but rarely seal completely and rarely stay on longer than a few days. I kept those on my race bike because they are faster, but they aren't a permanent fix.

As for slime and puncture proof tires, anything that holds air can get a flat. The problem with puncture proof tires is that the thicker and tougher the tire, the less flexible it will be and the more rotating mass you will have. This leads to poorer performance and a harsher ride. So you may have fewer flats, but the time between flats your bike will perform worse and be less pleasant to ride. With Slime or other sealants, you will have more mess to clean up if and when you do hit something that can flatten your tire. However, there is a very narrow range of puncture sizes that slime can't plug, but are still patchable. Generally, if slime can't patch it, you can't either. In those very rare cases where you do actually have a patchable hole that slime failed to patch, you only need to follow a couple extra steps to patch it. Make sure the tube is fully deflated, make sure that the hole is at a higher level than the rest of the tube, and wipe it off with something. A rag, your shirt, a sock, what ever is available. Then patch as normal.
As for slime fouling your valve stem, it takes less time to unscrew the valve stem core, wipe it off, and screw it back in than it likely took you to read this single sentence.

Not that anyone asked, but my personal way of avoiding flats is to run the largest width quality tire my frame and wheel can mount. wider tire means lower ground pressure per square inch, so sharp things have less force to poke through the tire. I run a tube of the closest size to the tire I can. the more a tube stretches, the faster it will deflate after getting a hole. So if I have a bike with a 26"X2.5" tire, and 2 choices of tube, one being 1.75-2.50" and the other being 2.50-3.0", I'd pick the second, as it will be stretching less inside the tire. And I use Slime. In 2 decades, it's never given me an issue, but I have pulled a tube off a bike and counted 110 non leaking punctures after going off trail into a briar patch.

Other threads with info on this topic:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=fix*+flat*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

Balmorhea said:

Tommm said:

What patch?
Move into the 21st century.
Use slime in the inner tube. It is made specifically for inner tube use. Works perfect. You won't have a flat ever again.

Click to expand...

Not true. Slime gunks up valves, sometimes so badly that they won’t seal air in. When you do get a puncture, it contaminates the area and makes it very difficult to patch. And Slime clumps up into hairballs over time.

Just yesterday, I replaced a tube that had some kind of sealant in it, which had so fouled the valve body that even removing the valve core didn’t clear it out. I had to run a spoke through there to deflate it.

Good, non-problematic technical solutions become the default. Tire sealant isn’t the default, even though it’s been around a very long time, and it has its place.

Click to expand...

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Been using it for years. For reference, the places I ride are thorny forests, 2 out of 2 times I attemped them without sealant I got an ugly flat. I'd be fiddling with patches non stop.

Tommm said:

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Been using it for years. For reference, the places I ride are thorny forests, 2 out of 2 times I attemped them without sealant I got an ugly flat. I'd be fiddling with patches non stop.

Click to expand...

My experiments with Slime many years ago were generally positive, but not enough to continue. It’s my experience with the stuff as a cycle mechanic starting in 1992 that have demonstrated to me that it’s usually more a problem than a solution. I’ve dealt with hot dog sized clumps of matted Slime fuzz encased in tubes, I’ve thrown away dozens of ruined tubes (valves hopelessly fouled with Slime crud), I’ve had the stuff blown all over myself and my workspace. No thanks.

If i lived in some goathead-plagued wasteland, and I failed to get adequate protection from armored tires, thick tubes, or doubled-up tires, I’d try sealant again. But I’d try all that other stuff first.

Balmorhea said:

Tommm said:

Sorry it didn't work out for you. Been using it for years. For reference, the places I ride are thorny forests, 2 out of 2 times I attemped them without sealant I got an ugly flat. I'd be fiddling with patches non stop.

Click to expand...

My experiments with Slime many years ago were generally positive, but not enough to continue. It’s my experience with the stuff as a cycle mechanic starting in 1992 that have demonstrated to me that it’s usually more a problem than a solution. I’ve dealt with hot dog sized clumps of matted Slime fuzz encased in tubes, I’ve thrown away dozens of ruined tubes (valves hopelessly fouled with Slime crud), I’ve had the stuff blown all over myself and my workspace. No thanks.

If i lived in some goathead-plagued wasteland, and I failed to get adequate protection from armored tires, thick tubes, or doubled-up tires, I’d try sealant again. But I’d try all that other stuff first.

Click to expand...

Do you have a time frame and climate for when the clotting happened? I generally refill a bit every 6 months, but I cut open one inner tire after 1 year plus and it was still wet and non clamped. If it was dry as dog poop after 2-3 years it wouldn't suprise me at all.

Another vote for Slime or a similar product. Been running it for several years now - and I've experienced the worst case scenario first hand. I had a blow out (still no idea how/why) but I ended up with Slime all over my Schwalbe Marathons. Had to walk the bike home, but from that point, had the bike cleaned up using a wet rag, the tube replaced (geared rear hub power) and was back on the road within an hour.

The stuff is water based. Clean up, worst case, only takes a minute. For the convenience offered by running something like this, I'll take the risk of having to clean up another mess ANY day.

I generally don't use patches, preferring to replace the tube when/if necessary.

Which just means Balmorea doesn't live where I do. If the two inch long mesquite thorns weren't enough, every construction worker in town lives in the trailer slum just farther out of town from my house. They run flat bed trailers covered with loose nails and screws, or even entire sheets of plywood and sheetrock full of nails gets tossed off the trailer at every pothole.

What the slime does, is it lets you pump the tire six times to get home, where you toss the ruined tire, and the ruined tube. No tube ever lasts long enough to have the slime clump around here, or permanently foul the stem. And btw, there is a tool for that on your core remover. Which you carry, around here.

Even my cars tires get slime from those mesquite thorns eventually. They just can't patch 50 tiny holes.

In local stores, the slime brand patches are about as good as you get. Bike shops just carry the stickies.

In my teeny tiny road bike tires, racing slicks, I run stans. Its good only for the goatheads, which are more common than the mesquite thorns.

Motorcycle/Moped tires and tubes, and if you can or want to mc rims.

Cant beat the tread nubs on a Shinko SR244, but the weight is the downside.

Interesting.

I use the Slime patches, black on top, orange on the bottom, these work very well.

Slime in the tube, however - near total failure. 2 out of 3, no help at all, third one got me home but not much farther. These were all exceptionally small holes, not visible at all, from sandspurs.

Wondering if anyone else in a very hot and humid environment is getting same or different results?

There was a shortcut I used to use which was apparently frequented by construction vehicles. After a woodscrew, large staple, and something which looked like a giant thumbtack, I quit using that shortcut.

Tubeless, slime and Cush Core foam insert.

Nothing that has air is flat proof, but a foam insert and slime in a DH racing tire goes a long way. A mess in the tire? Who cares when the tire goes to garbage anyway. It happened very rarely that I had to remove a tire before it is worn out.

The tube is the problem. Get rid of it.

What's a "flat"? Seriously, since I went to slime in the tubes, that ended those pesky things. I'm in the Southwest desert and it's all about thorns. In other areas of the country where rain washes debris onto the side of the road where we ride, I go to thorn proof tubes, a Tuffy clone and slime.