This morning I had my first puncture with my Marathons (not M+) on the Pro C.

 

The weather was lovely, (25mph headwind and raining) so I donned my overtrousers, and my overshoes, jacket, gloves, neck buff/face mask, helmet with rain cover, flicked the Pro C into High mode and felt ready for anything.

 

Halfway to work I felt the 'wobbly-jelly' back tyre feel and knew what it meant. The time was 7:08am.

 

So I altered the Xbar bits and flipped the bike over. rather than repair the puncture I chose to swap the tube, disconnecting the brake, gear cable, and removing the wheel, removing the swapping one NuTrax 'self-sealing' (ha, yeah right!) inner for another (and checking that there was nothing inside the tyre).

 

Unfortunatly when putting it back together, the combination of lubricant and rain water on the Shimano Nexus sprung gears combined to make it take me approx 15 mins just to get the gears reconnected. Add that to the re-inflation using a mini-pump to 70psi whilst wrapped up like Scott of the Antartic meant I was rather warmed by the whole experience.

 

At 7:42am I got back on my bike and continued my ride into the wind and rain for the remaining 5 miles of my commute.

 

Now at 1:30pm I still feel physically shattered by the ordeal. :o

 

What I want to know is if any others have any tips to repairing punctures faster that I could use, any ideas welcome.

 

John

This morning I had my first puncture with my Marathons (not M+) on the Pro C.

 

The weather was lovely, (25mph headwind and raining) so I donned my overtrousers, and my overshoes, jacket, gloves, neck buff/face mask, helmet with rain cover, flicked the Pro C into High mode and felt ready for anything.

 

Halfway to work I felt the 'wobbly-jelly' back tyre feel and knew what it meant. The time was 7:08am.

 

So I altered the Xbar bits and flipped the bike over. rather than repair the puncture I chose to swap the tube, disconnecting the brake, gear cable, and removing the wheel, removing the swapping one NuTrax 'self-sealing' (ha, yeah right!) inner for another (and checking that there was nothing inside the tyre).

 

Unfortunatly when putting it back together, the combination of lubricant and rain water on the Shimano Nexus sprung gears combined to make it take me approx 15 mins just to get the gears reconnected. Add that to the re-inflation using a mini-pump to 70psi whilst wrapped up like Scott of the Antartic meant I was rather warmed by the whole experience.

 

At 7:42am I got back on my bike and continued my ride into the wind and rain for the remaining 5 miles of my commute.

 

Now at 1:30pm I still feel physically shattered by the ordeal. :o

 

What I want to know is if any others have any tips to repairing punctures faster that I could use, any ideas welcome.

 

John

 

For a back wheel, if you can, fix the puncture instead of replacing the tube. If you are lucky with this method you can get away without removing the wheel.

 

For front wheels, there is less faff involved in removing & replacing the wheel so replacing could be faster than fixing.

You mean pull the tube out from the tyre with the wheel still attached?

 

Do you turn the bike over, or lay on its side?

You mean pull the tube out from the tyre with the wheel still attached?

 

Do you turn the bike over, or lay on its side?

 

You flip the bike over so that it's easy turn the wheel round in search of the source of the puncture.

 

First check the outside of the tyre for thorns, pins, glass etc or holes.

 

Then make a note of where the tire is relative to the valve (I normaly check what writting on the tyre is next to the valve), take the tyre off the rim and carefully feel around the inside for anything that might have caused the puncture.

 

If you're lucky and you find the source of the puncture in the tyre then you'll know where to look on the inner tube to find it. If you're not so lucky then you'll have to play hunt the hole on the tube.

 

If you can't find the puncture, or the tube is too badly damaged to fix easily then you take the wheel off and change the inner tube instead.

 

Patrick

What I want to know is if any others have any tips to repairing punctures faster that I could use, any ideas welcome.

 

John

Practice, practice, practice.

I get about 1 puncture a week and it now takes me about 5 minutes from flat to off again. Unless it's a wrecked tube then don't take the wheel off, most of the time you can tell where it is from the outside. Even if you can't tell you still don't need to take the wheel off.

Deflate the tyre and lever the tyre off (if you know where the hole is then you only need to lift a 1/4 of the tyre), inflate a bit so the hole is obvious. Slap on glue thinly and then patch, shove it all back in and inflate.

With large tyres you will benefit greatly from the Topeak Morph style pumps, much faster and easier than a mini pump but takes up more room in your bag.

Has anyone tried the peel-and-stick patches like these:

 

Park Super Patch kit : Welcome to Stonehenge Cycles : Specialized, Cervelo, Assos, Marin, Giant and more

 

They're more expensive than the trusty ole puncture repair kit, do they work as well?

 

Patrick

Has anyone tried the peel-and-stick patches like these:

 

Park Super Patch kit : Welcome to Stonehenge Cycles : Specialized, Cervelo, Assos, Marin, Giant and more

 

They're more expensive than the trusty ole puncture repair kit, do they work as well?

 

Patrick

I've never seen a good review of self adhesive patches and as glue takes about 2 seconds to dry I don't see the point of trying them.

Mussels - how come you pick up a puncture a week - sounds like you have a route to be avoided!

 

John

Mussels - how come you pick up a puncture a week - sounds like you have a route to be avoided!

 

John

I ride about 200 miles a week through some of the less desirable parts of London, there's plenty of glass around and other assorted debris. Tyre choice plays a part as well as I don't want to run Marathon Plus, all normal kevlar lined tyres seem to be just as vulnerable as each other.

park tool super patches are worth their weight in gold. They are far more flexibl than the glue on patches, far more compact to carry and take far less time to 'stick' on.

park tool super patches are worth their weight in gold. They are far more flexibl than the glue on patches, far more compact to carry and take far less time to 'stick' on.

That's what I use too, and I have found them to be fine - no problems. I find them much easier to use to fix a puncture in bad light by the side of the road than fiddling around with glue etc...