A bike mechanic in Portland told me I was patching tubes wrong

I stopped into River City Bicycles last month after a blowout on the Springwater Corridor, and the mechanic there, a guy named Dave, watched me patch my tube. He said I wasn't roughing up the rubber enough around the hole before applying the glue, just a quick scrape with the cap. After he showed me his method of really sanding it down with a piece of sandpaper, I got 40 miles out of that repair without any leak. Has anyone else gotten a tip from a shop that changed how they fix a flat on the trail?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew29d agoMost Upvoted

...and I mean, it's a tube patch, not brain surgery, right? Like yeah, roughing it up more helps, but I've slapped patches on with just spit and a prayer and they held for weeks. Honestly, the whole "you're doing it wrong" thing from bike shop guys can get a little gatekeep-y, you know? It's not like the tube explodes if you don't sand it to perfection. I've gotten 20 miles out of a patch I half-assed on the side of the road before.

nancyg1429d ago

Yeah @the_drew just proves that half the time a bad patch job still outlasts your motivation to fix it right.

ross.lily29d ago

Oh man, so true! I once got a patch to hold for a month with just some duct tape and a tube I'd already run over twice.