Patch recommendation...

[mjr]

The tube is always easier than repair on the roadside.

I disagree and usually find it much easier to leave the wheel in place, removing only a quarter arc of tyre and patching the tube there. No need to hang, lie or flip the bike.

[reohn2]

The tube is always easier than repair on the roadside.

I disagree and usually find it much easier to leave the wheel in place, removing only a quarter arc of tyre and patching the tube there. No need to hang, lie or flip the bike.

The most important thing is finding the source of the puncuture which sometimes is obvious and sometimes not so.The last two punctures I've had were very small slivers of glass which were tiny and had obviously been picked up and drive deep into the tread by riding on them.
The wheel needed to be taken out tyre and tube removed and kept in the same orientation,whilst the puncture source was found by folding the tread in the vicinity of the puncture site in the tube,which is also a good example of having the valve at designated position in relation to the tyre such as eg; the V in Vittoria or S in Schwalbe,etc.
Of course if there's a ruddy great thorn,with associated leaves and twig attached,sticking out of the tyre things are leettle more obvious

[Brucey]

the worst rash of visitations I ever had was caused by a tiny sliver of metal that was only just shorter than the tread was thick, if you see what I mean. This poked into the tube (and eventually holed it) as you rode but didn't stick out of the tyre on either side when it was examined.

The entry hole was tiny; a pinprick sized mark, and no cords in the tyre were severed either. Because the pinprick was well off-centre in the tread, further riding didn't really wear the edges of the mark, making it more visible.

I suffered about ten punctures (on a 100 mile day ride) because of that sliver; I ran out of tubes, and I ran out of patches. Fortunately I was able to borrow some to tide me over. Eventually I determined that there must be an object in about 1 cm sq of tyre and I finally found it. It took some digging to extract it and when I pulled it out I could hardly believe that something only a little thicker than a human hair could cause so much trouble.

Gah!

I'm older and wiser now, but my close vision is not as good as it once was either. Swings and roundabouts..... before too long I will probably have to pack a magnifying glass in my puncture repair kit so that I have a fighting chance of finding any similar objects....

cheers

[mjr]

Of course if there's a ruddy great thorn,with associated leaves and twig attached,sticking out of the tyre things are leettle more obvious

Yeah. I think my least-resistant tyres are still Kevlar-lined. It's usually pretty obvious what did the damage! On the other much rarer occasions, finding a quiet place and pumping the flat tyre up a bit usually reveals the tell-tale hiss. Failing that, I estimate that 2% of the time, I have to splash water on the tyre to see where bubbles - often, the world has already splashed water on the tyre for me when I get a puncture

[mjr]

I suffered about ten punctures (on a 100 mile day ride) because of that sliver; I ran out of tubes, and I ran out of patches.

Similar to my worst. A piece of wire had got itself between the rubber and protection layer on a Specialized Armadillo (an awful hard and sticky tyre compared to more recent ones from other better brands) and proceeded to only protrude when the tyre was inflated. I gave up after the fifth puncture because I was "only" 3 miles from home...