So, last night i got a pinch flat…
I realised i was out of the rubber cement stuff to carry out a repair so i am off shopping soon to get another repair kit.
Is there different quality ones? Would one from a bike shop be better than one from a Department Store?
Please advise.
Thanks people.
Sorry if there is a thread on this, i’m at work and dont have time to search.
Peace.
why dont you just get another tube? (sorry, this probably isnt solving anything)
Coz 19in trials are not available in Tasmania, so i’d have to order off UDC which would cost nearly $30 AUD (incl postage) which is quite a lot, i’d also not be able to ride on the weekend as i’d be waiting for delivery.
oh, i see, why dont you buy a 20’’ tube? it’d work, i got tubes that are too long that are in smaller tires for mine. Either that or just like buy some small patches or something
Sheldon Brown explains the patching procedure (scroll down to Patching).
The style of patch that uses rubber cement is the best kind. The self adhesive quick patches aren’t reliable and should only be considered a temporary patch till you can get home and replace the tube. The rubber cement patches are a permanent patch when done correctly.
The rubber cement will go bad after a while after being opened. You can buy additional new tubes of rubber cement at your local bike shop or possibly even your local auto supply shop.
You can also use a 20" BMX tube in a 19" trials tire. Just find the fattest 20" tube you can (2.25" or bigger) so it is able to stretch well.
Thanks, i usually (on bike) use the patch that uses rubber cement.
I shall just get myself a whole new kit as what patches i have left are pretty old.
Thanks for the responses:)
You can always tell which people have never had to spend their own money. Replacing a tube just because of a flat is wasteful financially and ecologically.
I don’t know what gets carried in department stores over in Tasmania, but I’d probably go to a bike shop anyway. Patch kits are cheap.
Note with a pinch flat that you may have more than one hole.
(I actually did a bike tour in Tasmania a few years back. Didn’t get any flats.)
Yeah, i didnt see the point of replacing it for a tiny hole!
The bike shop will be my destination in 5 minutes:)
I checked my tube in a tub of water and only the one hole luckily (i rode it home a bit of the way partially flat to get home quicker 
Nice! How long were you down here for? What did you think?
I just fixed a flat on my KH20 two hours ago, and it has a 20x2.125" tube that came stock. So, if you do ever buy a tube, I would think you could get one anywhere that carries BMX stuff.
I am constantly amazed at how willing people are to throw something away that has such a easily fixable problem so they don’t have to deal with it. I had a tube with around 30 patches on it before I replaced it a couple years ago. Not a singe patch leaked after many years and many thousands of km of riding (bike)
The Sheldon Brown tutorial is good but to tell the truth I have not used a proper bike patch in years. I use a chunk of an old inner-tube (the thinner the better) and rubber cement applied to both the tube and patch. As long as you rough up both and let the cement dry before sticking together it works just as good as a proper bike patch. I have not had a patch leak since I was 10ish (still had the little blue bike 
)
If you have an old inner-tube laying around it can be used as LOTS of patches in any shape or size you could possibly need and a 100ml tin of rubber cement will cost you about as much as a patch kit with a 10ml tube.
I use to always get flats. then I got a motorcycle tube and its the best thing ever. look for something close to 15-275/300. you won’t regret it
Beautiful state. I went from Launceston to Hobart via the west coast; it was great to ride in a place that has so little traffic and relatively little human impact. (Although I hear a lot of the old-growth eucalyptus forest is being cut down for wood chips these days).
See my trip report.
There was a Tasmanian unicycle tour around the same time, but I was a novice unicyclist at the time so I did it on bike (not in the same group). Scot Cooper has sometimes talked about going back to Tasmania and doing it again.
Yeah, i like it here, i dont plan on moving away from Tasmania any time soon!
I live in Hobart.
I shall have a read of your diary tomorrow when i get a chance:)
If you ever come back down this way be sure to let me know!
That’s making me feel guilty now. I got a puncture on my Schlumpf on Wednesday. It was the 3rd one in that tube, (which wasn’t actually designed with a high volume tyre like the Big Apple), and the repair failed - probably from the glue being so old. One of the other patches had blistered, and there were wear marks around the valve (presta valve in a srader hole). So decided it’s time to invest in a new one.
Despite all that justification, it doesn’t come close to one being repaired 30 times. I feel bad now 
STM
i got a puncture before but it was prety big and i didnt have any patches to fix it with so i borrowe on of kierons inner tubes and bougt to new ones, one for me and onre to repace kierons. patches ar cheaper but i dont know if it would hold while doing big dops and trials 
If you do a good enough job at the repair it should hold up… i’ll let you know if mine stuffs up again;)
Rema Tip Top patches are best:
One brand of rubber cement seems to work just as well as another, my current tube is Tip Top.
Dunno if you’ll be able to get them on your side of the globe, but it’s worth checking.
I replace tubes, they’re usually cheaper than buying a patch kit.
On a bike especially, at high speeds I can feel the wheel bobbing from patches, it’s annoying.
How thick are the paches your using?
A patch works out at about 30p. A tube is typically about 4 quid (less if you buy in bulk). I guess I typically patch a tube about 8 times (sometimes a lot more, sometimes a lot less) before discarding it. So, that’s £2.40 worth of patches instead of £64 worth of tubes. Given that I’ve had periods where I’ve had that many punctures in 2 or 3 months, I’ve saved a fair bit of money by patching.
That’s on a bike, though, which has been my primary mode of transport for most of the last 16 years. I think I’ve only ever had one puncture in 13 years of unicycling, and that was a few weeks ago from the rubber perishing at the base of the valve stem. Obviously not patchable. If you puncture so infrequently that the tube is starting to perish anyway, then patching doesn’t seem so economical.
One other benefit of patches is that they’re so easy to carry. I always carry two spare inner tubes on my bike (my wheels are different sizes). So, if I have one puncture, I can change the tube. If I had a second puncture in the same tyre on the same journey (which has happened on occasion) then I’d be stuffed without my puncture repair kit.