General: ANYONE HAVE ANY WAYS TO FIX A SLOW LEAKY TUBE.

use soapy water to find the leak and then clean and dry the area you need to patch. cut a decent sized patch from an old tube and slap some shoe goo or something like that on it and put it over the hole and let it dry. it helps if you scuff up the tube a little with sandpaper first. or you could just go to your lbs and get a patch kit for like 4 bucks. you can patch like 10 tubes with one kit

uhh, a tube costs under 5 dollars , just replace it ...

the trouble your spending buying a patch kit, rubbing soap on it to find the leak , your going to be spending more time and money trying to find a leak than buying a new tube. Come on , where is your logic...

well i found the leak,
without soup or water.
im with alexisfaster.
fuck you rubber wasters.

If I get a flat and I can make it home, I will come back and change the tube because it's only about 2-3 bucks. However, I always carry a patch kit with me when out riding because even if you don't need it, someone you are riding with might get a flat, or you might run into another rider with a flat...and I'm sure you don't have tubes on you to fix their tire, but a patch kit is universal.

I had a rear tire I could not keep air in. Patches, new tubes, over and over. No nipples peaking. No burrs on the rim. I finally found a tiny sliver of rusted metal--I mean, like an eyelash, TINY--that had planted itself in the tire rubber (not the walls/casing) and had been flatting all my tubes slowly. I only found it when it drew blood from one of my fingers while changing another flat tube. And I always get a new tube now. 'Cause there's a million cool/useful things you can do with an old tube that doesn't hold air anymore. Consider the planet saved!

Patching tubes is the greener way to go.
I think the inconvenience of it doesn't way out the pros.
Use the tube over and over and when its day comes...
donate those excessively patched tubes to Alchemy Goods or Bike Kitchens and stuff.

If you are willing to drop some more money, go with the specialized aramadillo tires.
I got some 23s and haven't had a flat since I got them in october as oppose to the tires that came stock on my langster that were getting flats two or three times a week.
I have also thrown in some plastic tire liners recently to make them a even safer.

It is a more expensive route, but I feel it is worth it. No more frustrated stops on the sidewalk and uncomfortable conversations with my teachers and boss about why i'm late again.

Two models of the armadillo are in existance. The regular one, and the elite. The elite has a nicer ride quality, but poorer flat protection while the regular ones are tanks with slightly poorer ride quality.

Wow, The only flat I've gotten in years was when my tube blew out from over inflation. It must suck living in the city....

I save my flat tubes for later, not just because it's more convenient to use a new tube on the side of the road, but because I'm apperantly awful at fixing flats, and I hate taking the time to patch a flat, let the glue dry, pump it back up until my arm is numb, ride 10 feet, and feel my tire going flat again. I like to fix tubes at home when i'm gonna be there for a couple hours, so if I mess up and the tire goes flat, I can just try again. There's nothing more obnoxious that quickly fixing a flat before you go to bed, and coming down to leave in the morning and finding your tire flat too.

How slowly are your tubes leaking? By slowly do you mean it's flat after riding a couple blocks, or a couple days? If it's really slow, it might just be your valve stems going bad, in which case you might have to be more gently with them.

Are they always slow leaks? I find that leaks are one of two kinds.

1: All of a sudden, it's like I'm riding uphill under water. That's because there's a piece of glass stuck through my tire and tube. I take out the glass, then replace the tube and use the flattened one for any of a million projects that need such a thing.

2: A slow leak. This is usually because I mounted the tire badly and pinched a teeny tiny hole in it at some point. Recently, I had a valve that was shot, too. As I've gotten better at replacing tubes, this kind has diminished to almost none for me.

I have a tube that has sooo many patches..... that there are some patches on patches! its heavy and off balance - but I wont let er go till the whole thing is one big ugly patch.

Posted By: LyKqiD

Posted By: stinky peteI would be interested in this zap-a-gap thing; could you elaborate on it please?

It is just a kind of super-glue that can temporarily mend a punctured tube, and I even use it to fix punctures or tears in my tire as well (the cobblestones around here are unforgiving).

So, do you fill the hole with it, overlap the hole with a tube fold & use the glue to hold it in place there by sealing the hole, or use the glue as a substitute for the tire patch glue when using a normal patch over the hole?

I ask because I don’t know and would like to try this trick. I want to do it right. How long should this fix last?