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Well, I'm out of the "length of time without a flat" race for the year. Embarrassingly enough, it was a patch failure, not a road hazard. I've never had a patch failure before, and there's really no excuse for them, I just didn't do it right.
[EDIT] - weird; I just went out to top off the bike and check out the old tube, and the problem was actually a DEFECTIVE patch. It was firmly adhered, but the thing clearly had cracked. It's probably from a cheap generic Kmart patch kit. In fairness, I've been running that tube for probably 12000 miles now, through a dozen tire changes. I guess I should pick up a package of TipTop patches or something. Unfortunately they come in something like 50 packs, which is about a 50 year supply for me.[/EDIT]
I have always thought that patching is a good idea, and in general I still think it is, but I have so few flats (less than one a year) that by the time I get around to using my patch kit, the patches and the glue tube are all dried up, so I wind up buying a new patch kit for every flat tube. Also, by the time I flat a tube it's been through a season and probably a set of tires, and the one I've been carrying as a spare has been sitting for a year. I've had tubes fall apart after 2 or 3 years in a bag. So maybe after a year it's time to rotate in that spare tube before it falls apart.
There are people on BF that have up to 3 or 4 flats a week; they ride in urban areas where there is smashed glass on the roads all over the place. It seems like most people on there get 4 or 5 a year though. For people getting a few flats a year, I still think patching is a good idea.
[EDIT] - weird; I just went out to top off the bike and check out the old tube, and the problem was actually a DEFECTIVE patch. It was firmly adhered, but the thing clearly had cracked. It's probably from a cheap generic Kmart patch kit. In fairness, I've been running that tube for probably 12000 miles now, through a dozen tire changes. I guess I should pick up a package of TipTop patches or something. Unfortunately they come in something like 50 packs, which is about a 50 year supply for me.[/EDIT]
I have always thought that patching is a good idea, and in general I still think it is, but I have so few flats (less than one a year) that by the time I get around to using my patch kit, the patches and the glue tube are all dried up, so I wind up buying a new patch kit for every flat tube. Also, by the time I flat a tube it's been through a season and probably a set of tires, and the one I've been carrying as a spare has been sitting for a year. I've had tubes fall apart after 2 or 3 years in a bag. So maybe after a year it's time to rotate in that spare tube before it falls apart.
There are people on BF that have up to 3 or 4 flats a week; they ride in urban areas where there is smashed glass on the roads all over the place. It seems like most people on there get 4 or 5 a year though. For people getting a few flats a year, I still think patching is a good idea.
