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Yesterday the Tour de France resumed action after its rest day. I've been trying ride my bike every day that the Tour has a stage, so I went out in the morning to try to ride from East Windsor to Allentown, NJ and back. You may remember that this was my intended route on Saturday as well, when I had such difficulty dealing with a rear wheel puncture.
I left my house at about 6:30am. After riding for less than 10 minutes, I had another rear wheel puncture. The air leaked very rapidly this time, and I heard the air rushing out. I got off the bike quickly, and started looking at the rear wheel to see if I could see a problem. I found a nail hole in the tire, in the middle of the tread, with air leaking through it. I realized that I needed to patch that hole somehow, or replace the tire.
This was not something I wanted to do on the road. Since I was only two miles from the house, I decided to walk back. I got back to my place about 45 minutes after I left.
The tires I ride, Michelin Wildgripper Sprints, aren't made anymore. The closest thing Michelin makes now is the Michelin Jet S, which is a tubeless tire. These things aren't cheap, $40 to $50 each, and I've gotten a bit less than a season out of the Wildgripper Sprints, so I want to patch the tire if I can.
I've come up with three ways to patch a nail hole in a mountain bike tire that seem reasonable:
Patch from the inside using a patch from a patch kit. This is the method I'm currently trying. After I put the patch on, put in a new tube, replaced the tire on the rim, and inflated the tire, I could see the patch through the hole in the tread. So, I'm not sure how well this solution will work.
Cut a piece of rubber from an old tube and glue it on the inside of the tire. This is known as making a "boot". Most bicycle repair books consider this a temporary method, but I did it once to my father-in-law's bike on a club ride we did together, and I think it lasted for quite a while after we got home.
Use Slime Tire Sealant. I've never used this stuff before, but it's an inexpensive way to patch a hole up to 1/8 of an inch in size. This is potentially a longer-term solution, as the manufacturer says that the compound can fill a hole for up to two years. I've heard that if you pump a lot of it into a tire, it can add weight. This is not a major consideration for me.
I'm going to try ride later today with the repaired tire. I probably won't comment on the usefulness of the repair until it fails or I get a few successful rides out of it. But, I will let you know how my choice works out.
Posted by Dave Aiello in Fitness Gadgets on July 14, 2004 10:02 AMI rode cross country and up the east coast and have like 7000 miles logged on my current bike. Course, that was before I transformed into a programmer and started using my bicycle solely as a show and tell device.
Anyhow, I had my share of flats from all sorts of issues. My best advice is to get yourself Mr. Tuffy tire liners (or some other tire liner). It's an "anti-puncture" plastic insert that goes between the tread and the tube and helps prevent a bunch of issues. Not only that, but it would help the problem you have where the hole in the tread is big enough that the tube wants to come out.
The other thing I did to reduce flats from road issues was to get a set of tubes that have kevlar belts inside. I had 13 flats when I rode cross country from Seattle to around Missoula, Montana. I bought the treads with kevlar belts inside and then had only one more flat between Missoula, Montana and Londonderry, New Hampshire.
Hope that helps--
/will
patching a tire like that should be something you do only to get back home. Anything can be used really, even a dollar bill. When you can though, i would replace the tube asap - you're risking a blowout if you keep doing this though. Then again, perhaps that's only that big of a deal on the road bike skinny tires i ride at higher speeds the MTB's get. I sure wouldn't want to be on some rocky singletrack on a patched tire though!!
Posted by: josh at July 14, 2004 12:05 PMI rode 1,400 miles last summer. Mostly within 25 miles of East Windsor, NJ. I rode my previous set of tires until I could see through the casings in some places. I noticed this problem when I gave my bike the once-over before entering a duathlon.
Since this is the first nail hole I've gotten on these tires, and since I primarily ride my mountain bike on the road, I am going to try to ride with a patch on the nail hole. We'll see if that proves to be a foolhardy approach.
Posted by: Dave Aiello at July 14, 2004 12:28 PM