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This topic has been cursorily covered by How can I repair a tyre with a deep cut? before, but less with empirical evidence. Tire patches as mentioned there are not available in my local bike shops anyway, so I'm considering using tank tape instead. (Temporary. Buying new tire anyway..)

Tank tape is certainly gluey and strong enough I think. And I've already read a few people swear by it as tire reinforcment against punctures. However I have a few 1 cm rifts in the tire sidewalls, so that would hold a few weeks at best. - Unless there's a special glue one could apply to the tire outside as well...(?)

My actual concern: I would have to cover around a 1/3 of the inner tire walls. How would that impact the grip between tube and tire? The tank tape has a rather smooth/sleek surface.

I would assume the tire sits firm on the rim hook, and is otherwise hold by the tube pressure. But I'm not sure how much of a (physical) influence (%) the friction between tire and tube has. Is there any danger if one is partially covered by more slippery tape?

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  • "A few 1 cm rifts"? Are you serious? That tire is dead - give it a nice burial and get on with your life.
    – Mike Baranczak
    May 2, 2011 at 3:39
  • @Mike. Yes, lol. But I really only want to buy a month or so to have some ease in picking a new one. Albeit I already discovered a possible replacement (low budget brand of a LBS network), which might incidentally be available in a shop not far.
    – mario
    May 2, 2011 at 16:03

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Friction between tyre and tube is almost irrelevant to the normal situation. There's only movement at that interface at the contact patch, and it's normally small enough that it's done by stretch in the tube rather than sliding. Tubes don't abrade away over time. But when you have big splits in the sidewall friction does play a small part, in slowing down the rate at which the tube buldges out the sidewall before bursting. You're more likely to have a problem caused by the sharp edge or end of a fold in the tape grinding through the tube and causing a puncture.

In your case, it sounds as though you're going to a lot of effort for a temporary solution. I'm not sure why - if it's just to get you to the bike shop to buy a new tyre then maybe, but I'd be walking rather than spending time with tape on a solution that may not work.

All you really need here is tape that's reasonably strong and at least slightly sticks to the inside of the tyre. I prefer a boot made from part of an old tyre, and have seen someone use an entire old tyre to reinforce one like yours. That is a fair bit of work, you have to cut both beads off the inner tyre, but it does work.

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  • Your assessment is correct. It's a bit overkill for a stop-gap measure. It's mainly because I do like how the old tires behave (in comparison to my city bike), and haven't found a suitable replacement in the 6 nearby bike shops (all just have 08/15 tires, which would be a "downgrade", even though it's a used bike and I'm not overly sophisticated with the stuff). Reusing an old tire seems a sound idea as well. Thanks a lot for the tips!
    – mario
    May 1, 2011 at 22:45
  • Have you tried online? If you're really keen on a particular tyre it might be worth paying a little extra to get them from an online bike shop. Or see if you can track down a local shop that stocks that brand by contacting the importer or manufacturer.
    – Мסž
    May 1, 2011 at 23:11
  • As a matter of fact, I've looked into one online shop already (might also be cheaper despite shipment cost). They didn't have that specific type anymore, so I'll have to keep looking/deciding, and I don't want to haste that.
    – mario
    May 1, 2011 at 23:15

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