Puncture repair survey: time between patching and inflating

[grams]

But yeah, like most kids who spent much of their youth bombing around on a bike of some variety, you knew the mantra of puncture repair, and I don't think anyone actually had an entire puncture repair kit, so you sort of had to make do.

BT Chargecard and hope your da isn't busy?

[Lightning Phil]

But yeah, like most kids who spent much of their youth bombing around on a bike of some variety, you knew the mantra of puncture repair, and I don't think anyone actually had an entire puncture repair kit, so you sort of had to make do.

BT Chargecard and hope your da isn't busy?

BT charge card, how young does that make you! Speaks someone whose childhood was pre BT.

Reverse charges was the option if in dire straits

[ian]

I honestly don't remember having many punctures as a child. Possibly BMX tyres were made out of the same indestructible stuff as my head.* To be honest, I think we just rode home on a flat tyre, none of us carried stuff. It would impede getting rad.

*I once put my foot through the front wheel at speed and flipped right over and landed my face. Lying there, contemplating the tender kiss of tarmac, the rest of the bike tipped over and the seat whacked me as hard as possible on the back of my head.

[nikki]

I decided I wanted to get Lochschnüffler into my thesis somehow, so I made a few!

[Jakob W]

Great stuff!

How slow a leak do they detect?

[Brucey]

Great stuff!

thought that would be "great schnüff"....

I guess it all depends how heavy your balls are....?

cheers

[hellymedic]

I honestly don't remember having many punctures as a child. Possibly BMX tyres were made out of the same indestructible stuff as my head.* To be honest, I think we just rode home on a flat tyre, none of us carried stuff. It would impede getting rad.

*I once put my foot through the front wheel at speed and flipped right over and landed my face. Lying there, contemplating the tender kiss of tarmac, the rest of the bike tipped over and the seat whacked me as hard as possible on the back of my head.

BMX tyres are thick.
Children mostly weigh less than half as much as adults but use may wheels that are nearly as large.

Most kids do few miles and some will outgrow a bike before the tyres get old and porous.

[nikki]

How slow a leak do they detect?

I've been documenting them on a narrow tube (about 20mm across when flat) with a pinhole in it, pumping it up to about what I would use to try and find a hole normally.



The polystyrene schnüffles fair fly around to start off with, but activity noticeably tails off when the pressure gets low. I think this is partly because the schnüffles tend to settle away from the puncture at low speeds though - not holding the Lochschnüffler in one place helps with that.

YMMV for slow leaks, but also you wouldn't be using ones like this, so hard to say!

[ian]

By contributing to this thread, Fate sighed, furrowed her brow, and exploded my back tube in Carshalton yesterday. There's was a nice bang as I sat at a junction. A woman screamed. A dog jumped into the Wandle. I sort of pretended it hadn't happened. Maybe there was a can of fizzy drink in my bag? Evidently not, as I flobbled across the road.

It wasn't clear if it had just exploded or I'd ridden over some kind of IED, but there were significant holes. I tried to fix it* and it seemed OK but that meant I had to cycle most of way home by stopping to pump up the tyre every five minutes (OK, I think by the end, I was just flobbling, riding on a flat tyre was evidently a skill I picked up). I did stop and try to find where the air was leaking out, but the quiltwork of patches seemed secure and I couldn't find another hole. Possibly the valve.

*of course I had a spare tube. For an entirely different bike.

[Brucey]

which raises a point. I have several bikes and (fortunately I suppose) don't puncture too often (*).  This means that whilst I might in theory have some kind of repair outfit/pump/tube etc with me, it is by no means certain that it is the right one, or if the various stuff in the kit(s) hasn't shaken itself to dust, disintegrated, or dried out since I last looked at it. I've had spare tubes chafe through on the folds, they have been carried that far.  Of course I only get to find this out when I need to use them....

I have considered taping a single tyre lever, some booting fabric, and some glueless patches to a mini-pump, this being the bare minimum required to fix most  punctures; it shouldn't 'go off' too quickly, and being taped together I shan't be able to leave part of it at home either.

I suspect I should just be more organised.  That'll be the day....

(*) that's torn it....

[ian]

I did have my bag of stuff that included both a serviceable puncture repair kit and a spare tube (just the wrong one). Owing to the plague, I've hardly ridden that bike, I think it was the second weekend it's been out and about this year. I did pump up the tyres on Saturday morning.

It may have been spontaneous explosion, but then I had just traversed a gravelly, riverside portion of the Wandle Way. It's also evident I need some new tyres.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Giving people the confidence that they can mend a puncture at the roadside is a great thing to do. Could be usefully extended to, say, refitting an unshipped chain. In fact, it would be really good if kids were taught this in the upper years of primary school. Especially chains, as you can always push a puncture home to mum and dad, but a chain you're more likely to try to refit yourself and then do it wrong and cut your finger!

Secondly, you should put those Lochscnufflers into production. 

[nikki]

Giving people the confidence that they can mend a puncture at the roadside is a great thing to do.

It's all mind games, really.

Secondly, you should put those Lochscnufflers into production. 

How many do you reckon I could get out of my beanbag?

I suspect I should just be more organised.  That'll be the day....

I can't be trusted to be organised, so it's a different kit for each bike.

[Kim]

I suspect I should just be more organised.  That'll be the day....

I can't be trusted to be organised, so it's a different kit for each bike.

Also my approach.  Works fine until I play musical luggage, or do something unusual like throw an assortment of spares in the back of a car because I'm going somewhere where they might come in handy.

[nikki]

"I'll just use this multitool to assemble this bookshelf."

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've been "rationalising" my bike luggage, in other words trying out new stuff while mentally labelling old stuff as "probably to be sold, one day", which has a couple of times led to the realisation upon returning home that it could have been interesting...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Secondly, you should put those Lochscnufflers into production. 

How many do you reckon I could get out of my beanbag?

1. How big is was the beanbag?
2. What else do you have to sit on?
3. Are you making a very small casserole?

Sorry, channelling Baldrick there.

[Brucey]

technical question; is there any reason why the schnuffler has a solid top?  Could it not be mesh both sides?

cheers

[nikki]

I didn't do any tests during construction, but my intuition says you'd lose some of the opportunity to move the polystyrene balls around if the air from the inner tube could escape directly. With a solid top, the air has to at least circle across and down before it can escape. From the photos and video I've got, it seems there's quite a lot of horizontal movement of the balls.