On Jun 8, 5:12 pm, DeF ""d.farrow\"@your finger.murdoch.edu.au"
wrote:
Duncan wrote:
Had a flat this morning (of course.. it's wet. not really a morning
to ride in in Sydney), and one backup tube had an existing leaky
patch.

Anyway..

I had to crack open a new tube of rubber cement to patch the tube, and
its taken me three goes to get the two patches to adhere properly (not
leak). I've never had this problem before.. usually get them fixed
first go.

I suspect my latest tube of el-cheapo rubber cement that came in a no-
name patch kit. It certainly doesn't smell as toxic as the stuff
usually does.

Anyone else had this problem before? Am I just imagining things?

Well, I don't know if this is relevant to you or not but tubes can
be made of different compounds. I've found that "shinier" tubes are
not as easy to fix for the reasons you give - the cement doesn't seem
to stick. Do you roughen the tube before gluing?

yep.. lots of roughin up

I seem to recall that tubes used to have a lot more rubber in them
and you could fix them with a vulcanising kit. I remember having one
as a kid where you clamped the tube to a little disk that had some
flammable material in it. You then set the thing a light (very easy
to do in wet and windy conditions) and it would transfer a patch onto
the tube. Don't think this can be done now.

I often wondered what happened to those kits.. they certainly were
alot more effective for those quick on-the-road patch jobs (which I
try to avoid by carrying a couple of spare tubes).

At least I'm heading ENE tonight.. so should mostly be a tail wind
(unlike this morning).