Would you patch a bike tire?

I have one of those 2 nail staple looking electrical wire things in my rear tire that has less than 300 miles on it, would you patch it? It makes a bit nervous so I wanted to ask others their opinion. I have a buddy that had good luck with one but still wanted to ask.

I did one time until I could get a new tube. It worked fine.
Ride safe

I was crossing Canada with my gf, since promoted to wife 1.0, with a new tire and tube with one hole I patched on Sunday before heading out.

Made it as far as French River in Western Ontario. We were both thrown from the bike and spent two days in the hospital while the bike was being repaired. :pinch: Then we took off for the B.C. coast and made it... with a new tube.

Now I come away with extreme suspicion of patched tubes.

Best of success!

Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/08/25 17:30

bill_wilcox100 wrote:

I was crossing Canada with my gf, since promoted to wife 1.0, with a new tire and tube with one hole I patched on Sunday before heading out.

Made it as far as French River in Western Ontario. We were both thrown from the bike and spent two days in the hospital while the bike was being repaired. :pinch: Then we took off for the B.C. coast and made it... with a new tube.

Now I come away with extreme suspicion of patched tubes.

Best of success!<br><br>Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/08/25 17:30

What the heck happened I wonder? The way I always saw the situation was once the tube is filled with air, you have 30lbs of pressure holding that patch. Chances of it moving or coming loose is nil. (apparently not). This being said, I would not patch a tube unless in an emergency, for the simple reason they can have slow leaks, meaning removing and repatching until you get it right. Too much work for the money saved.

Upon examination of the failed tube we discovered that it had split down the centre along the lines of the original hole. This was a fully loaded CB750 with Windjammer fairing and hard saddle boxes, sleeping bags and tent behind the sissy bar with two riders and a continuous 70 mph pace.

Stuff happens. Old saying, "Err in haste, repent in leisure"

I guess we're talking about tube type tires. I've patched many of em but I suppose that today I'd only do it as a temporary measure. The challenge with a tube is to get it properly arranged before it's inflated.

KZCSI

Good point KZCSI on getting the tube in straight to begin with. I learned that back in my bicycling days.
Ride Safe

RonKZ650 wrote:

bill_wilcox100 wrote:

I was crossing Canada with my gf, since promoted to wife 1.0, with a new tire and tube with one hole I patched on Sunday before heading out.

Made it as far as French River in Western Ontario. We were both thrown from the bike and spent two days in the hospital while the bike was being repaired. :pinch: Then we took off for the B.C. coast and made it... with a new tube.

Now I come away with extreme suspicion of patched tubes.

Best of success!<br><br>Post edited by: bill_wilcox100, at: 2007/08/25 17:30

What the heck happened I wonder? The way I always saw the situation was once the tube is filled with air, you have 30lbs of pressure holding that patch. Chances of it moving or coming loose is nil. (apparently not). This being said, I would not patch a tube unless in an emergency, for the simple reason they can have slow leaks, meaning removing and repatching until you get it right. Too much work for the money saved.

That 30 psi in the tire is puny compared to the dynamic forces acting on it once rolling under a bike and rider. The contact patches on tires when rolling are darn close to a square inch. When the bike is not in motion, it is the entire physical carcass of the tire assisted by that 30 psi that holds it up. The 30 psi pushes out in every direction giving the tire strength.

When in motion, more or less half of the weight of the bike and rider (and luggage, passenger...) are on that contact patch and the biggest forces acting on the tire do so during cornering and braking. There are fast and frequent changes in where that contact patch is on the tire and the downward forces acting as the bike corners and leans. There are additional and differently directed forces applied on braking. Then in straight line riding, centripetal forces may actually lessen the impact of contact with the road, lightening the load to some extent - mostly on the front tire. On the back tire, there will be the stresses of friction loss as the tire tries (and always fails a tiny bit) to put the engine's power to the pavement.

With all that going on, I was not really surprised to see how torn up the tube in my road bicycle tire was one day, and it runs 120psi and clearly doesn't experience the size of the forces a motorcycle tire faces. The tube moves around inside the tire, it flexes, it bends and sometimes twists.

(not bad for a lawyer who barely passed his last physics exam, eh?)

I don't cheap out on tires anymore, after one of the tires on our minivan - usually full of our little people - pretty much disintegrated just after a 3000 mile vacation drive. I was also the proud owner many years ago of one of those Ford Explorers with the crappy Firestones.

I was actually talking about a tubeless tire. Gives me a little insight on what you guys think.

I would only patch a tire/tube in a emergency situation, I just dont trust them on a bike

fuzzwardo wrote:

. . .would you patch it? It makes a bit nervous so I wanted to ask others their opinion. . .

fuzzwardo wrote:

I was actually talking about a tubeless tire. Gives me a little insight on what you guys think.

Opinions are like toes, everyone should have ten of them.

That being said . . . it's going to be your wallet sliding on the pavement if a patch lets go.

A patch on a car tire fails, you still have three tires supporting the load, which is inside a steel cage.

Unlike a bike, which loses 50% or more if a tire fails catastophically. Which may result in the ejecting of the load.

The loading on bike tires is entirely different than something that runs on four or more.

Plugs work on car tires, sometimes, but it's suicidal to plug a bike tire. OH, WAIT, your said PATCH. . .

Lemmee think here. . .since you have to remove a tire from the rim to patch it properly, why don't you just pay an extra $10.00 and install a tube. INSTEAD.

bill_wilcox100 wrote:

Stuff happens. Old saying, "Err in haste, repent in leisure"

"err in haste, repent in hospital"