Geoff Lock wrote:
On 15/02/2011 5:08 PM, Rob wrote:
On 15/02/2011 4:52 PM, Geoff Lock wrote:

Both punctures on the rear tyre. Serves me right for not checking the
inside of the tyre after the first puncture cos I found a piece of glass
embedded on the outside of the tyre the second time round - about 2mm
long sitting flat and barely noticeable/"feelable".

I don't like to feel tyres/tubes knowing the area is full of glass when
I ride on those cycle ways, hate cut fingers.

Know whatcha mean. I have sliced my finger once about two years ago but
there is really no other way I know of to figure out if the inside of
the tyre wall is clean. Nowadays, I tend to feel a bit slower and try to
use the digits on left hand as the sacrificial digits.

I only have a pump and a repair kit so its imperative that I check where
the hole is and what the cause was, there is a limit to the number of
patches in one's kit.

How do you check for holes when you are on the road? I find it easier to
just swap the tube and than do the hole repairs when I have some water
handy to do the bubbling test.

I find I can often find a leak without water by running my hands very
lightly over the inflated tube. The air coming out of the hole makes a
hissing sound when there is a finger almost blocking the hole. Wetting
your hand with a little water from a drink bottle helps.

If I can't find it that way, it's a slow leak, and I just pump it up
again to get me home.

I do carry a spare tube, but I too have had two or more in a day[1].
Last tie I had a puncture though, the spare tube had been folded up in
the seat bag so long that it had perished and split along the fold
lines... sometime you just have to patch.

Moike

[1] a couple of years back I rode through a patch of bindi-eye seeds at
Brimbank Park. Got two punctures at once. Replaced the tube, rode off
through the rest of the patch of bindi-eye..... one more. It was after
that I doubled the capitalisation of my bike by purchasing tyres with
kevlar bands below the tread,