Cycling UK Forum

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑9 Apr 2025, 2:20pm As others have said, sand very thoroughly, and wait for glue to dry (I give it 3 minutes). Very reliable, I normally go to about 4/tube before binning)

Generally I'll switch tubes at roadside, repair in comfort at home.

it's a contact adhesive, so yes you have to let it dry, at least 3 minutes in a warm dry room. 5 or 10 minutes is probably better - I once forgot and it was left for probably 6 hours, it worked perfectly. (and that did surprise me)

I will only bin the tube when it fails at the valve, could have a dozen patches on - it s a simple and long lasting repair when done properly.

I was with someone once who repaired a tube at the side of the road, he put the patch on when it was still wet with the glue, slithering around it was - he reckoned patches were just temporary repairs to get you home - he was one of these people who knew everything about everything so I said nowt.

As others have said, sand very thoroughly, and wait for glue to dry (I give it 3 minutes). Very reliable, I normally go to about 4/tube before binning)

Generally I'll switch tubes at roadside, repair in comfort at home.

Park Tool themselves state:

NOTE: The GP-2 Super Patch should be considered a temporary fix. Always replace damaged tubes as soon as possible.

As the reviews show, some people have used them as a permanent repair and not had a problem, but others who used them as a permanent repair have reported that the patches failed after a period of months. My own experience is that they will fail without warning sooner or later.

Brianjeff50 wrote: ↑9 Apr 2025, 12:54pm How can an inflexible, lumpy patch suit a modern high pressure tube?

The Rema Tip-Top vulcanising solution and patches with feathered edges are reliable and effective, but there are no shortcuts in using them: the patch area much be sanded and the stated time waited for the vulcanising solution to dry before applying the patch.

Once the patch has had sufficient time for the vulcanising solution to bond it to the butyl tube, I score a cross on the cellophane backing film with a penknife blade, to allow it to be peeled off in four pieces from the centre of the patch (rather than peeling from the edge of the fim, which I find risks lifting the feathered edge of the patch together with the film).

Lastly, if you are using narrow high pressure tyres the patches in many puncture kits will be too large, i.e. more than half the circumference of the uninflated tube. The smallest Rema Tip-Top patch (F0) is 16mm in diameter and ideal for narrow HP tubes (as well as small punctures in larger tubes - smaller patches are less likely to have to be positioned partly on a raised seam of the tube), but is only supplied in the less widely sold TT04 Sport puncture kit - https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m13b105s72p ... -04-Sport .

I carry a spare tube and glueless patches in case I'm visited by the P* fairy more than once. I'll repair the punctured tube at home in the warm and dry using traditional rubber solution and patches. Done well the repair restores the tube to almost new. I agree with the earlier posts detailing roughing, patch application and grated french chalk.
Most importantly inspect the tyre and remove the offending sharp object (and any others) if it's still in there before reseating it on the wheel.

Snakedoc wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 10:47pm The Marin was initially £1450, why is the rrp so much more than the boardman? Is it just the brand itself, with Marin being more well known?

Some brands are just priced that way. Cannondale and Kona were always ~10% more than the equivalent in Specialized and Trek for example.

Brands like Boardman (which predominantly sells in Halfords) can afford to be much more competitively priced than equivalent non-Halfords bikes just because of the buying power and economics of distribution.

Snakedoc wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 10:47pm I'm in the final stretch, waiting to pull the trigger.. Please give me your pick of the 2 and a couple of reasons if you can!

The Marin looks more of an XC bike, Boardman more suited to the slightly more "trail riding" end of the spectrum (much that the definitions are quite fluid and either bike will be fine!)
The Boardman has the better spec though, Recon forks are a bit of a step up from the Judy.

Try both for size if possible- as others have mentioned, one bike company's Medium can be another brand's Large, they don't always tally up perfectly. And on modern geometry, stack and reach are more relevant measures than the traditional sizing by inch of the seat tube.

Brucey wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 1:52pm Even today, there are only a few forks that I'd rate 'very good' or 'excellent', and most of the others are just going through the motions if you are lucky.

That's as maybe but somewhere back in the mists of time on this thread, the OP - who by now has probably left the forum in despair - asked for some basic info on choosing an entry level hardtail to ride around some trails with his kids.

I dunno about you but when I've ridden with my kids I'm not considering chordal losses, spring rates, damping settings, tyre hysteresis, frame compliance, aerodynamics or any other excessively complicated engineering speak. Frankly any £900 MTB-type thing will do the job; it just comes down to looking at a few, picking the one they like the most and getting on with life. Maybe actually having some fun rather than thinking about the (largely irrelevant) minutiae of componentry.

There's such a thing as "talking to your audience". New-ish member, 4 posts on here, entry-level hardtail, basic woodland / parkland trails.
Not exactly someone who's going to be concerned about the tiny fractions of a % performance difference in chainline...

I'm lucky enough to have ridden and raced some pretty top-end kit - but my bike now is a nice midrange road bike, nothing special at all. Because it's perfectly adequate for my needs now. That's all a bike needs to be, you really don't need to complicate anything more than that.

Carlton green wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 1:19pm International trade does go back a very long way and it was used to trade surpluses of goods and enable provision of what was naturally available in some countries but not in others. The high costs and difficulties of transport limited traded goods but all that changed over time.

imho it would be better to have a more diverse economy and society which manufactured and used what it created and used trade to (again) manage surpluses and to supply what wasn’t naturally available here. Keep work and consumption within these shores and if necessary manufacture goods under licence. It’s not complex really and whilst we might be financially poorer our society would be richer in ways measured beyond just money.

I see that (in the post above this one) Nearholmer has again ‘hit the nail on the head’ .

"It's not complex really".

Really?

You want to define what is "naturally available" and then ban trade in anything which is "naturally available"

You think that's simple??

Here's a list of UK tariffs to help you consider how simple that is.

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/a-z-index/a

Your proposal is a fantasy, I'm afraid.

I put it here because I couldn't see anywhere else relevant...

I used to have an M3 Brompton, & I've had various others, Moultons (original, AM, ATB, & the later/cheaper 20"), Airnimals, & other 20" folders.

I've also had regular tourers, MTBs, hybrids - enjoyed riding them all, & they have all done roughstuff quite regularly.

Now in my mid 70s & just returning to bikes, I remembered how nice & low the Brompton bottom brackets were, so that was part of my decision making process, & a shortage of available space for storage, this time around.

Brucey wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 1:52pm perhaps I'm far from average, but, having owned lots of cars and motorcycles, I think I know what good suspension feels like. At one point, I became so frustrated with the forks I could buy that I more or less built my own. Even today, there are only a few forks that I'd rate 'very good' or 'excellent', and most of the others are just going through the motions if you are lucky.

All it really needs to feel like at this level is better than a rigid fork over the terrain it's being used on and not be deal-breakingly heavy where it's not much help like steep climbs.

I have no real doubt that the basic Rockshox forks on my second-hand 8 year old Cannondale are neither "very good" nor "excellent", but I know from experience that it's nicer riding over rock gardens and root forests with the lockout off and I can still get up most steep stuff despite the extra weight. They're good enough for my relatively rudimentary level of off-road. I imagine Nino Schurter or Puck Pieterse would find them frustratingly limiting, but they're out of my league: I am the limitation on what can be done on my MTB, it's not about the bike.

Pete.

perhaps I'm far from average, but, having owned lots of cars and motorcycles, I think I know what good suspension feels like. At one point, I became so frustrated with the forks I could buy that I more or less built my own. Even today, there are only a few forks that I'd rate 'very good' or 'excellent', and most of the others are just going through the motions if you are lucky.

roubaixtuesday wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 12:42pm

Carlton green wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 12:39pm

Nearholmer wrote: ↑8 Apr 2025, 10:15am I read it that what Trump wants is to do what it says on the red caps, by making the cost of imported goods so high that it becomes economic to produce nigh-on everything within the USA, thereby giving the ordinary people back jobs that have disappeared overseas, to reverse globalisation effectively. And, despite loathing the man, I have sympathy with the thought that globalisation has been hugely damaging to working class people in a lot of the western world.

But, and these are huge buts, I don’t think it will work, and I don’t think it is the best, or even a half good, way of seeing to the interests of ordinary people.

It won’t work because the lead-times to relocate production, improve education etc are too long, and because no sudden step-change action can work well. I think it will cause the very people it’s meant to help (assuming it isn’t just a cynical raid on behalf of oligarchs) more pain, not less pain. The rust belt will get rustier.

^^ This is, I think, a rather good evaluation. Trump has used a sledgehammer to crack a walnut and all the USA people will be left with is a mess. I don’t believe in globalisation either, it can be very damaging (though those that know the price of everything and the value of nothing will doubtless disagree), but Trump’s way of curing it is far from the finesse needed.

As someone ignorant of the value of anything, could you inform your preferred method of "curing" globalisation?

Please bear in mind that international trade predates written history.

International trade does go back a very long way and it was used to trade surpluses of goods and enable provision of what was naturally available in some countries but not in others. The high costs and difficulties of transport limited traded goods but all that changed over time.

imho it would be better to have a more diverse economy and society which manufactured and used what it created and used trade to (again) manage surpluses and to supply what wasn’t naturally available here. Keep work and consumption within these shores and if necessary manufacture goods under licence. It’s not complex really and whilst we might be financially poorer our society would be richer in ways measured beyond just money.

I see that (in the post above this one) Nearholmer has again ‘hit the nail on the head’ .

Just dismantled the bike (steel frame) after a wet tour and found the predictable rust and damp in the bottom bracket shell. It's an 90's MTB frame that's recently been resprayed (thoroughly degreased first which removed the previous rust inhibitor).

Ordered a can of Bilt Hamber Dynax S-50 which comes with a really useful lance that can get into drop-outs, stays and other nooks. This is what I've used previously and it seems to work well. Less messy than some others - e.g. Waxoyl. Thursday is predicted to be warm so a good day for such an outdoor task!

I too have been considering where to go for 3rd party when touring (UK/EU only in my case). As with others, my bank account linked travel policy, although good for medical and repatriation etc, specifically excludes 3rd party liability when cycle touring.

Many thanks for all comments above. After reading these I decided to join Cycling UK to avail myself of their 3rd party cover. I emailed CUK initially regarding the actual policy details (provided ultimately by Royal and Sun Alliance via 3rd party broker BIKMO), and they referred me to BIKMO. I rang BIKMO, who referred me back to the "Guidance Notes" on the CUK website (linked in above thread) but they do not link to an actual policy doc....

The devil always being in the detail, I wonder of anyone on here has a .pdf or a link to the actual RSA policy details?

Thanks again for all comments above!
Paul.

Having long experience of dealing with the Chinese their fear of losing face is spot on. And, I believe from what I have observed Trump is made of the same stuff.

That makes a good deal of sense to me - I’m not totally sure about “the same stuff”, because in the Chinese case it’s a culturally determined thing, and they don’t seem to act on ill-considered whim and spite, and in Trump’s case it seems to be driven by some deeply weird personal psychology, but it amounts to two parties for whom visibly backing-down is nigh-on impossible, and Trump particularly seems to be rubbish at giving others “off ramps” that allow them to change position without losing face (although he himself is quite happy to do handbrake turns and deny he was ever going in the initial direction, when it suits him).

As said earlier it does look like a Shimano 2 bolt spd mechanism copy and they do look to be at the weakest spring setting. It's a mystery to me why Shimano and others have set the retention springs so strong in their pedals. I have my spd springs set to the weakest setting and they're still rather hard to unclip and I've never had an unscheduled unclipping. The clickr pedal range has weaker springs and are good pedals. Alternatively you can fit multi-release cleats to your shoes which are a bit easier unclipping too.