Debate: patch the inner tube or just replace it after a flat?

I got a flat last Tuesday on my commute down Market Street in Philly, right near the bridge. It was a slow leak from a tiny piece of glass, and I was already 20 minutes late. I pulled over and had to decide fast: pull out my patch kit and spend 10 minutes finding the hole and patching it, or just swap in a spare tube I had in my bag. I went with the spare tube since I was already running late, but now I'm sitting on a punctured tube at home wondering if I should bother patching it. Some folks swear patching is fine for small holes and saves money, but others say tubes are cheap enough that it's not worth the risk of a bad patch failing later. What do you all do when you're in a hurry and get a flat on your daily ride?

2 comments

2 Comments

kimr338d ago

Honestly, I used to be a hardcore patcher, like I'd patch those tubes over and over until they looked like Frankenstein's monster. But after one time I patched a tiny little pinhole and the patch blew out two miles into my ride home, leaving me stranded in the rain near a busy intersection, I totally switched my tune. Now if I'm in a hurry or even just on a normal ride, I just swap in a new tube and toss the old one in a pile at home. Tubes are what, like five or six bucks each, and having a patch fail when you're already running late or miles from home just isn't worth the headache for me.

saraho488d ago

@kimr33 I get your point about having a patch blow out, but here's my thing. You can patch a tube in like 3 minutes once you've done it a few times, that's way faster than reseating a new tube and getting it perfectly straight. Plus those tiny pieces of glass from Market Street? I've got a pile of tubes at home that each have like 4-5 patches on them, still holding air just fine. The trick is to rough up the rubber good with sandpaper and use the glue properly, not just slap it on. I bet you just had a bad glue job that one time, wouldn't write off patching forever over it.