The daily "I cycled to work" thread

[Vocal Minority]

Well that was 30 miles of drizzly headwind.

Lovely....

[yellowjack]

lauda said:

Thanks for the encouragement. The annoying thing is that the bike is brand new! I've used it five times since I got it and managed three punctures. Cost me £30 in new inner tubes to travel about 40 miles.

But I will persevere and made it home in one piece this evening despite the foul weather.

Patches, lauda, patches!

These are ace...


...pre-glued, so no faffing about with vulcanising solution and powdered chalk, small enough to fit absolutely anywhere. 6 patches, and a 'scuffer' in a wee plastic box - £2.99 in my local bike shop, or £2.69 online with Evans Cycles.

If you are already switching your own tubes (not paying the bike shop to do it) then there's no reason to be binning an innertube with one puncture in it. By all means, fit a new tube at the roadside, but take the holed one home and patch it there. Then let all the air out of it and use it as the spare. You'll only need 3 (maybe 4) tubes to rotate in the event of the dreaded 'hiss'.

I'm still running the two original tubes in my 2008 mountain bike, one has 14 patches on it, the other 10. The spare tube is a Specialized "Thin" tube with a couple of patches. The bike has been through three sets of tyres, and recently, thanks to a hidden piece of flint buried in the tyre carcass, I managed 5 punctures in 12 miles. When you have that kind of ride, one spare tube simply won't cut it.

The maths is simple. £2.99 or £30 to achieve the same result. And with the patch kit you'd have three spare patches still, saving you another £30, potentially. Think of all the shiny bike bits you could buy with that (potential) £60...

...well worth 15 minutes (it probably won't even take that long) sat at the kitchen table patching a tube, and much better for the environment too

[gazza285]

6 patches for three quid!

48 Rema TipTop patches and solution for £7.50, sheet of Emery paper nicked from work.

[yellowjack]

gazza285 said:

6 patches for three quid!

48 Rema TipTop patches and solution for £7.50, sheet of Emery paper nicked from work.

Don't tell anyone, but back in the days when the military had Armstrong motorbikes, the MT store issued lovely heavy duty patch kits for them. Some of the contents of those patch kits may have found their way into my saddle bag. (Nato stock number 6MT6/2640-99-805-7604 ).

I used to swear by the traditional solution/glue type patches, but that was mostly because the pre-glued ones were shyte. I recently had cause to use quite a few of the Park patches, and some of the 'Slime Skabs'. I've got to say that the Park ones seem to be a lot better than the Skabs, and the lack of glue means a lot less faffing about, which is important when you're in the woods in the rain and don't want to get too cold waiting for glue to 'go off'. That's a luxury I'm willing to pay a bit extra for.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

yellowjack said:

gazza285 said:

6 patches for three quid!

48 Rema TipTop patches and solution for £7.50, sheet of Emery paper nicked from work.

Don't tell anyone, but back in the days when the military had Armstrong motorbikes, the MT store issued lovely heavy duty patch kits for them. Some of the contents of those patch kits may have found their way into my saddle bag. (Nato stock number 6MT6/2640-99-805-7604 ).

I used to swear by the traditional solution/glue type patches, but that was mostly because the pre-glued ones were shyte. I recently had cause to use quite a few of the Park patches, and some of the 'Slime Skabs'. I've got to say that the Park ones seem to be a lot better than the Skabs, and the lack of glue means a lot less faffing about, which is important when you're in the woods in the rain and don't want to get too cold waiting for glue to 'go off'. That's a luxury I'm willing to pay a bit extra for.

The Park ones are the only ones worth having for anything more than a "get me home" fix IME.

[TwistingMyMelon]

Never trust patches, used them once recently and they went on the next ride

I always try and buy good quality puncture proof tyres , luckily managed years between punctures

Thats road use though, I guess off road is more puncture prone and you can run the tyres lower psi so patches might not explode like they did with me!

[anonymous-user]

yellowjack said:

gazza285 said:

6 patches for three quid!

48 Rema TipTop patches and solution for £7.50, sheet of Emery paper nicked from work.

Don't tell anyone, but back in the days when the military had Armstrong motorbikes, the MT store issued lovely heavy duty patch kits for them. Some of the contents of those patch kits may have found their way into my saddle bag. (Nato stock number 6MT6/2640-99-805-7604 ).

I used to swear by the traditional solution/glue type patches, but that was mostly because the pre-glued ones were shyte. I recently had cause to use quite a few of the Park patches, and some of the 'Slime Skabs'. I've got to say that the Park ones seem to be a lot better than the Skabs, and the lack of glue means a lot less faffing about, which is important when you're in the woods in the rain and don't want to get too cold waiting for glue to 'go off'. That's a luxury I'm willing to pay a bit extra for.

goes off to check MJDI for stock.....

I use the park patches then have some duct tape wrapped around half a biro in the saddle bag, put the tape over the patch and its never failed, then its a proper repair when i am home and dry...

[Rolls]

Rocksteadyeddie said:

The Park ones are the only ones worth having for anything more than a "get me home" fix IME.

That's the complete opposite of my experience oddly enough! - I found the park ones lacking, and only use leeches patches!

[loudlashadjuster]

TwistingMyMelon said:

Never trust patches, used them once recently and they went on the next ride

I've the opposite experience. I've used instant patches for years and never had one fail on me (MTB). One of my tubes must have 6 or 7 patches on it now.

I've used Weldtite Red Devils and Park ones in the past, but that 48 pack sounds like the way to go!

[MG511]

loudlashadjuster said:

I've the opposite experience. I've used instant patches for years and never had one fail on me (MTB). One of my tubes must have 6 or 7 patches on it now.

I've used Weldtite Red Devils and Park ones in the past, but that 48 pack sounds like the way to go!

TMM was talking about road tyres/tubes, much higher pressures than MTB and in my experience patches don't work or last on road tubes. I fit a fresh tube every time I have a puncture (only had 2 in the last 3 years luckily).

[yellowjack]

pablo said:

goes off to check MJDI for stock.....

I use the park patches then have some duct tape wrapped around half a biro in the saddle bag, put the tape over the patch and its never failed, then its a proper repair when i am home and dry...

Let us know if you find any. The Armstrongs/Harleys are long gone, aren't they?

Is this MJDI any good? Is it fully rolled out yet? In 2011 a Parliamentary hearing was told that full roll-out was due in March 2014, but I know these things often slip quietly down the calendar. I was still on Unicom Q, GLOBAL, and various other 'paper over the cracks' laptop based stand alone one-trick-pony software systems when I left two years ago. MJDI has to be better, surely, than the confusing pile of pooh we used to have?

(Apologies, also, for hijacking the thread with military geek-speak)

[loudlashadjuster]

MG511 said:

loudlashadjuster said:

I've the opposite experience. I've used instant patches for years and never had one fail on me (MTB). One of my tubes must have 6 or 7 patches on it now.

I've used Weldtite Red Devils and Park ones in the past, but that 48 pack sounds like the way to go!

TMM was talking about road tyres/tubes, much higher pressures than MTB and in my experience patches don't work or last on road tubes. I fit a fresh tube every time I have a puncture (only had 2 in the last 3 years luckily).

Ahh, makes sense. With road tubes being physically so much smaller there isn't as much of a burden carrying a spare or two though I guess.

[MG511]

loudlashadjuster said:

Ahh, makes sense. With road tubes being physically so much smaller there isn't as much of a burden carrying a spare or two though I guess.

Yep, always carry a spare (or 2 if I'm going on a longer ride), easily fit in a small saddle bag.

[TwistingMyMelon]

MG511 said:

loudlashadjuster said:

I've the opposite experience. I've used instant patches for years and never had one fail on me (MTB). One of my tubes must have 6 or 7 patches on it now.

I've used Weldtite Red Devils and Park ones in the past, but that 48 pack sounds like the way to go!

TMM was talking about road tyres/tubes, much higher pressures than MTB and in my experience patches don't work or last on road tubes. I fit a fresh tube every time I have a puncture (only had 2 in the last 3 years luckily).

Indeed that is correct, thinking back I used to patch tubes when MTBing, but as soon as pressures go above 65psi on road bike tyress then I found them to be a bit of a lottery

[gazza285]

The Rema ones are proper feather edge patches. If fitted correctly, with vulcanising solution, they are good for road pressure.

I carry a couple of spare tubes, then fix any punctured ones in the comfort of my house.

[jbudgie]

gazza285 said:

I carry a couple of spare tubes, then fix any punctured ones in the comfort of my house.

That's what I always used to do.

[Craikeybaby]

I'm another fan of the Park patches here.

I rode to work for the first time today, only 2.5km, so with the extra faffing at each end it was no quicker than walking, but it did mean that I could have a decent ride home - I just about managed to get back before it started raining too!

[Vocal Minority]

Half term. No cars clogging up the centre of Brum, lovely

[TwistingMyMelon]

Foooking hell that was grim, full fat headwind all the way in, wind seemed far worse than the "hurricane" after effects last week, gotta be worst headwind of the year so far

Spoilt myself last week and commuted on my quickest road bike with no rucksack, was back on the mTB today, with lunch, shirt, trousers , 2 x laptops and shoes in the rucksack

Last Thursday I got a 20mph average on the way home not trying too hard on the ride in today I was grinding up to a 14mph average!!!

[Huntsman]

What a fab morning, not a cloud in the sky.

Still taking me 30 mins, but only done it 4 times, had my work laptop in my rucksack, might as well have been a paving slab.