Patching Innertubes

We've tried 'thornproof tubes' and 'Mr tuffy' bands - and they do help a lot. But most of the flats we've had showed up as pinholes in or near the small ridge along the outer edge of the innertube. Available tube patches are self-adhesive and will not seal over the small ridge. In my youth, patches came with a tube of rubber cement - today they do not. The solution for us is to buy a tube of rubber cement, smear it over the pinhole, let it dry, then apply the self-adhesive patch and clamp overnight. It works!

The above is for the rear wheel of an ebike with a rear hub motor. These wheels are difficult to remove! Without removing the wheel, we can let the air out of the tube, get just part of the tire off the rim and sneak part of the tube out. This way we can patch the tube without removing the wheel.

You can still buy the traditional patch kits with adhesive, abrasive and proper tapered patches. My LBS has a variety of them. Those self adhesive ones have never worked for me.

That ridge is why patch kits come with sandpaper. Use it to scuff off the mold release and to level out inconsistencies.

The best way to "clamp overnight" is to reinstall the tire and inflate it.

Self-adhesive patches are a temporary get-home type of repair. Glued patches are permanent.

My favorite kit is $2.79 at Ace Hardware. They sell also one with hard patches, but the one with these round bike patches are softer and stick better. I've put the bigger one inside a 1" rip in a fat tire tube and sandwiched a second patch on top. Held great, as long as you let the rubber cement dry.

Next time I'm at Performance Bike, I'll see if they have the Forte kit - very similar.

Never had any luck with self stick patches.

They offer those Victor kits in the can with a whole bunch of patch material in them. Supersize me.

Real bike tube patches like Rema Tip Top have tapered thickness to a feathered edge. This helps prevent chafing or wearing out the tube at the patch edge due to concentrated stress.

Rema Tip Top TT02 Touring kit, $4 at my bike shop:

Ive used the Rema kits with good results, as well as the Park Tool kit (found a 4-pack a few months ago that including shipping cost about $4 per kit, 2 round large 2 round small and two large oblong patches, sandpaper, and tube in a small box, also has feathered edges like the Rema patches).

If you do LOTs of tube patching, it might be worth it to buy a small can of vulcanizing solvent/adhesive and a box of patches of the size you most commonly use. Last time I looked on the web, it was around $20 for the small can of solvent (enough to equate to around a hundred of the tiny tubes of it), and $10-$30 for a box of a hundred small round patches by Rema.


The one thing (other than the valve stem) that I havent successfully patched very often is the inner circumference, where it sometimes gets damaged by the nipples or the nipple holes when the rim tape malfunctions or is improperly installed. (I probably have half a dozen tubes that could be used if it werent for that)