The first tire patch kit I ever owned came in a big green box, had several patches of various sizes which were possibly made of old truck tires. It also came with a sheet of 60 grit sandpaper. The mild high offered from sniffing the glue while applying the patch almost made you stop caring you’d gotten a flat in the first place. Stoned on glue and hypoxic from the V is no way to mend a tire, and most times the patch would start to come off even before I pumped it up and I’d have to start over. Don’t even start me on peeling the clear cellophane off the patch.
The telephone capability of my iPhone is the least-used feature on the device; I email, schedule, text, voxer, browse, twitface, photograph, drop, forget, lose, and find my phone much more than I ever use it to place a call. It has replaced my wristwatch, alarm clock, and flashlight. For some of you, it has even replaced the cyclometer. All this is to say that in today’s view of the world, the value of a product is directly proportional to how useless its original function is.
By that measure, the Park Super Patch kit earns its place in the pantheon of the Reverence series by being more useful as a frame protector than it is as a inner tube patch. They are phenomenal tire patches – much better than the old orange-trimmed slabs of tire I used growing up, but who wants to use a tire patch, much less love one? Therein lies the answer; even as the world of Cycling irrevocably makes its departure from the tire and tube with one faction moving back to the tubular tire and another to the tubeless tire, these patches will continue to feature on frames around the world, dutifully keeping cables from scuffing paint.
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@DerHoggz
As a rule, I never use a tire that's been mended beyond getting home; I always replace it with a fresh tube when I get back to the house.
I bring the old tubes to REI for recycling with Alchemy Goods.
@The Grande Fondue
This. I ride with one spare tube; anything else is patch territory, though I rarely wind up using them. Lately I've been carrying the Lezyne patches because the package is smaller; they're basically the same patches, but I keep the Parks around for protecting the frame.
@Bigthumpa
Did you look at the photo(s)?
@JohnB
Ironically, I just found my phone on the sidewalk when I took the dogs out this morning. I am very light on my gear for the most part, and generally don't lose things or break them.
My phone somehow takes a massive beating and gets lost all the time. This is an inexplicable phenomenon.
@il ciclista medio
It wasn't my idea; someone suggested it. But it works great.
@Teocalli
In my 30 odd years of cycling, I have never once in my life seen a rider discard their tubes at the side of the road. Seems to me an urban legend.
@frank
Ah...
@frank Park Tools patches are great for getting you home. But yeah, just replace the tube when you get home. As for the phone, I might make 10 minutes worth of calls per billing cycle.
@Bigthumpa
My theory is that for the first 30 minutes that an article is up, people read it. After that, 50% of the people glance at the lead photo, skip the article, and jump to the posts. 50% don't even look at the photo.
It's hard to track the analytics on this, so I have to rely on people doing things like that to gather the data. So really you're just helping to support the theory.
Which is all to say that the quality of our writing is irrelevant to the experience of the Community. From this perspective, it amazes me that the book is selling.
@frank
Maybe it's a UK ID-ten-T problem as I see all too many over here. I guess I need to start picking them up and try to find something like Alchemy or just bring a bag over when I'm out in Colorado and drop them in at REI.
Very timely @frank
Did a ride around the Breacon Beacons this morning in the best part of a gale - crap all over the roads and falling from the trees; sure enough I picked up a couple of punctures. 1st one - new tube, second one I used some crappy Zefal patches. Apparently you have to apply pressure for 60 seconds...in the pissing rain and gusting wind. It was a case of 3rd time lucky and a sense of humour failure.
Zefal, if you are going to sell something, make it fit for purpose.
I turned on the pc to buy Park Super Patches - they work everytime.
It's not you, Frank. It's us.
@frank
I avoid new articles for days because I'm too lazy to read them, which I do before posting. I enjoy them, but it is such a major commitment.