Two minutes flat ... I remember that tube change ...

[2manyoranges]

I went into Decathlon in Cambridge this week (never a great experience, but needs must) and I was shocked at the huge box which triumphantly announced that ‘we recycle all our inner tubes’ - which contained hundreds, yes, hundreds of tubes - most of which could be patched without any problem at all. Perfectly useable. Scary waste.

Before the advent of tubeless, our inner tubes would only go in the recycling when you could no longer stick patches on the patches. TipTop tiny patches...excellent and still use them...and TipTop cement. Great stuff.

South Downs 1993...I remember a friend who was aghast at the tube I pulled out after a flat - more patches than a tube patch shop. But off came the wheel, bish bosh, off came one side of the the nice, loose-fitting Specialized Ground Control, out comes the old tube, rippety rip, fingers quickly around to check nothing in the tyre, replacement patch-ridden tube in, tyre on, pumpetty pump....two minutes dead. His jaw was on the floor. ‘Blimey that was quick...’...and then we were off on the trail once more...

...However, in contrast I do remember long sessions when a sun baked thorn had broken its tip in the tyre, impossible to detect, but blowing the tube each time it was patched and inserted - much frustration...

But back to The Point Of This Thread...does anyone know how to apply a patch these days? Or is it all ‘puncture...new tube...in the bin with the old...’? I actually quite like the craft process of mending a tube - in the sun by the side of the trail when we are idling along, or back at home in the warm after a rapid change out in the wild. Young people seem not to be inducted into the puncture-repair process anymore, and shops have an interest in adding the cost of a new tube to the price of a puncture-fix. All this concern about the environment, yet simple things like repairing tubes seem to be more victims of the ‘disposable economy’....

And the clean, scuff, smear, peel, stick, dust process of a good patch repair is a lot better than wrangling a tube into a tubeless set-up after a unsealable arterial burst and dealing with the gallons of slime over everything....but that’s another story...

 

[novocaine]

Mtb, tubes made of patches. I run 30 psi max, they are effectively flat.

Road, replace the tube, repair at home, maybe. Max 1 patch on a road tube, ive had tyres come of the rim due a to failed inner tube (more than once at speed), 1 less worry if i know they are on good shape. As to recycling them, yep,i do,they become frame protectors, rubber bands, tool grips, boots for tyre slashes, sealing boots in the winter. Etc.

 

[2manyoranges]

Yes, at 120psi it’s a very different story and failure at speed is A Scary Thing.

Like you, MTB...tubes made of patches. All the tubes in Decathlon were fat or mid-fat MTB tubes...no high pressure Continental or Michelin skinnyness...

 

[mattr]

Only got one MTB with tubes in it, studded tyres with wire beads don't like to go tubeless!
All the road bikes are tubed though
But i have a hook on the wall in the work shop with punctured tubes (never repair on the road, just replace and pump up)
Sit down once every three or four years and fix the half dozen punctured tubes. Generally bin them after 2 or 3 patches. Or repurpose the tubes, as per @novocaine
No one needs 120PSI though!

 

[widowmaker]

Whilst I would rather have a puncture free ride when I do get them I quite enjoy the process, if I am on my own otherwise some Strava fraggle in the group gets angry that you've slowed them down

I do though sometimes pop in a new tube and repair the other at my leisure.

 

[2manyoranges]

mattr - indeed not on the 28mm and 30mm the new frames take, but on the now desperately skinny 23c on my old 105 wheel set the recommend pressure is 90-130....eek

 

[mk one]

I think for safety and maybe legal reasons, patching a tube is seen as a bodge or temporary fix, as with any tyre. Im sure the manufacturer would say so. So the shop has to replace with a new one. I think the sign stating we recycle means that they recycle the tubes, which is a good thing no?

Personally i patch all my tubes, its not really rocket science tbf, though tubes are relatively cheap these days, recently bought 4 new tubes for £3, so i do tend to replace the tube at first with a new one, then when i run out of new tubes i re-patch them all. I think there is a thread on here somewhere where people are comparing how many patches they have on a tube

 

[mattr]

mattr - indeed not on the 28mm and 30mm the new frames take, but on the now desperately skinny 23c on my old 105 wheel set the recommend pressure is 90-130....eek

Recommended, but still completely unnecessary, i'm running 85 on my 23s and about 10 less on 25s.

 

[novocaine]

Ah yes,the modern trend for wider tyres and lower tyre pressures on road bikes. As with almost every trend in cycling, give it ten years and youll see a reversal and a move towards skinny tyres again. Theres a cynical view that the bike industry is setup to sell bikes and that means changing trends as these pesky bikes they do tend to last a rather long time (this forums evidence of that).

I run 25c on both road bikes most of the year at 100psi. As one is supposedly a gravel bike (which seems and excuse to make a heavy road bike to me) i occasionally stretch to 28 or 32c in the summer for a bit of fire road bashing. Even at 100 psi a blowout is an arse clenching moment.

Oh, the ss road bike is on 23c and 120psi, becuae sometimes you just have to.

Right back on topic. The fact decathlon have a massive pile of innertubes suggests there are a massive number of people who cant change their own. This point towards a whole heap of people who cant repair one either. Bit worrying really.

 

[mk one]

Right back on topic. The fact decathlon have a massive pile of innertubes suggests there are a massive number of people who cant change their own. This point towards a whole heap of people who cant repair one either. Bit worrying really.

Well yeah, but you could apply that to all bike maintenance, and a lot of other things that once you learn to (and have time to) repair yourself, are easy.

It is for sure a disposable world we live in now though, manufacturers are always looking for ways to make things non serviceable, money is more important than the environment