Cycling UK Forum

I've just been on tour and put in a patched tube but it was leaking from around the repair.I replaced with another patched tube following a puncture and 2 days later it went down with a leak around the patch. I've never had this with a repair before and have always to now used the black patches with an orange halo. These I used this time were from a Raleigh kit with grey patches which don't have a thinned edge unlike the others. I checked them at home and found they peeled away without too much effort. I was shown how to repair a tube on a cycle maintenance course so I don't think it was a poor repair. I shall not trust these sorts of patches again. Why was I using patched tubes? slipped rim tape had exposed the edge of a spoke hole and the tube was being pinched when cornering at an angle, but it took me a while to realise what was going on

I'm glad you had this experience, because I've had trouble with Raleigh-branded repair kits too, and until now thought it was me. I guess the hunt is now back on for the old-style patches.

I bought a plastic bag-full of 100 OZZO patches from Mike Dyason for about half the price of Velox or similar. Excellent sticking properties and small, so very suitable for slimmer inner tubes. Unfortunately I can't see them on his current site so they may be discontinued (but he does sell Velox ones in different sizes).

This is a familiar story to me - I too have used those rubbish patches with the non-feathered edges which don't seem to stick properly.

The solution for me was to order Rema patches (and a large tube of Rema glue) from Parker International. Rema are the ones with the orangle halo. You can get them in 2 sizes and buy them in as large a quantity as you like. Not sure if Parker still do them...CRC also sell them although when I ordered some from CRC recently the person who picked my order seemed to misunderstand me: instead of sending me Rema patches they sent me Rema puncture repair kits instead (each of which has some Rema patches in it). I therefore have a surplus of Rema glue at the moment

Anyway I find the Rema patches work very well indeed.

+1 for Rema patches.

The wife came back from Tescos a few days back with a prezzie' for me. Six little puncture repair kits.35p each!

You only get a couple of patches,glue and sandpaper,but I wasn't complaining. Already had to use one of them and it worked a treat.

I have always used Halford's own which are squares with rounded corners cut from a single sheet, no feathered edges. These have always worked for me even when cut in half to go on a narrow tube, but once some other circular patches (again no feathered edges) found their way into my kit, I think from Lidl? These were useless, peeled off again as you looked at them, so have been binned.

I have also got some feathered edge patches but they seem rather large and thick in the middle, when I tried to use one on a 28mm tube it was not flexible enough to stay wrapped around the curve of the tube. For me its back to Halfords for more cheap and reliable patches, unless someone can convince me that self adhesive ones work......

EDIT: these are the Halfords ones: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_228377

EDIT 2: Halfords also list feather edge patches: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... =IOV4PDPZ1

and several brands of instant patches, their own, Weldtite's, 'Skabs', 'Leeches'..... customer reviews variable