Re: Tire patch failure

Roger Merriman wrote:

Catrike Ryder <Soloman@old.bikers.org> wrote:

>
I collected two old leaky tire tubes and proceeded to patch them. I've
patched many tire and never had any problems. The patches all leaked
and I discovered I could pull them off.  I patched them again and
pulled them off again. The patches were labeled "Thumbs Up," made in
China, and came in a large quantity. The tubes were Continental.  Has
anyone else used these patched or had this problem. At any rate,
beware what I believe is a faulty product.
>
  >

I’ve certainly had pre glued patch’s that just haven’t worked. But to be
honest my bikes either don’t have tubes (Gravel bike) or the MTB last
puncture was 10 years ago! I’ve gone through a few tires, drive chain parts
and am getting a new rear shock fitted (hopefully) as it’s started to loose
air.

I don't know what Catryke is using, but to me, pre-glued patches are ones for getting home if flatting on a ride, but not permanent repair.
If he's using the pre-glued patches, failed patches may be a matter of the glue.
For where I ride (hot and arid) glues are always an issue.  With a standard patch kit that uses a tube of rubber cement, I find that it's too-common that I get only one repair out of a tube of glue.  No matter how tightly I re-seal the tube of glue, by the time I need to do another repair (unless I've had bad luck to have multiple flats in a comparatively short amount of time) the glue has completely dried out, and is entirely useless. Time for yet another patch kit.
Now that I think of it, I probably should keep a set of pre-glued patches in my gear bag, but as a matter of course, replace at the end of the season, under the assumption that any unused patches will probably have bad glue.
Maybe something I could do with the tubes of rubber cement would be to keep them in the refrigerator, where they're not so vulnerable to heat and arid atmosphere.
Smith