Thread: What happened to vulcanising patches?

Originally Posted by Bushie

When I had a bike as a kid 'sturmney-archer' 3 speed gears were the 'ants pants', not that I had any gears .



Martyn

And a drum brake

Vulcanizing patches would have gone out of vouge as tubeless tyres became more popular. Imagine the size of G clamp required to repair a 6.40X13 or 6.70X15. Who remembers them, or knows what they are?

vulcanising patches are still available....just not as readily.......

but i dont think there would be much difference in price between new tube and a patch.......

and i also thought that bike tubes were too thin for vulcanising patches.....
i used to always use the glue type........


till i got fed up with the glue always being dried up in the tube whenever you needed it.......
so i just carried a spare tube instead.......


if you do want to purchase some vulcanising patches......ask at a tyre repair place to order you some in with
their next order of supplies.......
but be prepared to pay for them........$$$$$$$

Of course, none of the above was of much use to you if you didnt have a bicycle pump and a box of matches with you.

we always had matches back in them days

what else could we light the fireworks with

Originally Posted by BMKal

You must only be a young fella then Bushie.

When I was riding bikes as a kid, the ONLY way we had of mending punctures was with vulcanised patches. I had never even seen a glued patch until much later on. I remember having a small leather pouch hanging from the back of my bycicle seat which had the basic tools, wheel spanner, tyre levers, vulcanising clamp and a shiny almost oval shaped tin, the bottom of which was a bit like a cheese grater to "rough up" the area of the tube to be patched, and containing a number of vulcanising patches inside.

Of course, none of the above was of much use to you if you didnt have a bicycle pump and a box of matches with you.

Same here - yellow 3 speed Speedwell hub gears. I think there was a striker in the tin, otherwise you'd have to lift a bit of the felty stuff and ignite it.

This was about the same generation which set tins of Kiwi boot polish alight to end up with liquid polish to shine up your cadet boots. (Even got to take 303 rifles home on train from school armory for clean up etc). The 'good old days'.

First bike was a Malvin Star Dragstar single speed,
We used glue on patches with a little orange edge, Hand little clamps from the Volcanised kit. But I have notced as i went to repair my daughters tube that the new kits dont glue as well. You had to get patch years ago in the right spot first time(quick set) these days the glue takes ages to set and the patch slides around a bit.
We had Volcanised patches for the 4WD that dad took to Fraser Island and i was not allowed to use on bike.

Man I must have used a thousand of those small vulcanising patches in my youth!!! Always carried a kit with me...

Then started using tyre keeper (another long gone item) a white gooey substance (keep it clean fellas ) which plugged punctures as they occurred.

Considering the number of 3 corner jacks where I lived this was the best option.. Never had another flat tyre ever...

Now living in "Caltrop" central I run Kevlar liners in the tyres, stronger sidewalled tyres and thicker tubes with Tyre Slime in them...

Still havent had a puncture

Heres our local tyre nemesis:

Originally Posted by 29dinosaur

Same here - yellow 3 speed Speedwell hub gears. I think there was a striker in the tin, otherwise you'd have to lift a bit of the felty stuff and ignite it.

This was about the same generation which set tins of Kiwi boot polish alight to end up with liquid polish to shine up your cadet boots. (Even got to take 303 rifles home on train from school armory for clean up etc). The 'good old days'.

Remember both well. Don't want to imagine what would happen these days if a teenager fronted on public transport with a 303. The "politically correct" nanny brigade would have kittens on the spot.