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I just had a flat, luckily only 2 miles away. It happened at night and occured when I crossed the road. I used the old style vulcanized patch that uses glue.
What about these: Park Pre-Glued Super Patch Kit
Are they just as well?
I have a small pump I can carry. I would need a wrench too.
Would it be better to just carry a new inner tube?
Personally I don't bother patching on the roadside - my success rate was low.
Instead I carry a spare tube (sometimes 2) and just swap the whole thing as a primary fix. Then I patch the tube at home where it's warm and dry, using vulcanising fluid and a patch.
I do carry a small pouch of pre-glued patches (stickers) but they're not ideal for high pressure road tyres and may not have a long life. They work better on lower-pressure MTB tubes.
I've only ever used these to help other stranded riders.
You need whatever tool is needed to remove the wheel if you're changing the whole tube. That might be a 15mm ring-spanner for nutted axles, or a QR should need no tool. A through axle might need a hex driver.
For applying a patch in place, you just need tyre levers to access the tube, and a way to find the hole/s and clean out the cause from the tread.
Both methods require you to carry a pump or air-tank to inflate the tyre.
They can be useful, if you use them right. In particular:
That said, unless you are actively trying to absolutely minimize your overall gear weight, you should be carrying at least one spare tube as well. Provided you remove the source of the puncture, a spare tube will always be more reliable than patches, and it will quite often be just as quick on the roadside as applying a pre-glued patch. I personally carry two most of the time, plus some pre-glued patches.
Note also that if you plan to be able to fix a flat on the roadside, you will at minimum need:
You may also want to bring a pair of good tweezers or better yet a hemostat, for removing thorns, shards of glass, or other such things that caused the puncture. Not essential, but I’ve had times where I actually did need these to remove whatever caused the puncture from my tire without risking cutting my fingers.
I keep one of these kits in my mobile toolbag for unexpected flats while out and about. When I can, I'll also carry a spare inner tube for good measure, but at minimum it's the toolbag and patchkit.
I had my doubts about their long term performance when I first purchased them, but I've since used them all up, and bought a second kit of them - so I'd argue they do the task just fine.
I have not used them to patch any incredibly bad punctures - the worst hole I've covered with them was maybe 1/8th inch, from a sheet metal fastener.
The Park Tools branded glueless patches I have used all have held up well enough to not only get me home after suffering a punctured tube while out and about, but held up well enough that I forget it even happened by the time I am home.
All in all, they're a product I'd suggest any avid cyclist might appreciate keeping in their travel kit.
They work well enough, they're convenient, inexpensive, and significantly less fuss than traditional tube patches are to install.
They share the same caveat as traditional patches that you need to find the puncture and clean the area around it, but with the noteworthy advantage that you aren't fussing with a tube of glue that went dry three months earlier. No fuss and no mess.
I don't think pre-glued patches should be used. There are concerns on whether they are as permanent repair as ordinary patches.
If you do patching properly, it's a permanent repair, and the tube becomes as good as new. What you do is to first remove the mold release using sandpaper, then apply a thin layer of glue with your finger (no, you won't get a cancer from that), wait for it to slightly dry (you will see it visually), apply the traditional type patch, create a slight slit in the middle of the plastic cover with a razor blade, stretch it along with the tube so the new slit becomes larger, and peel the just halved plastic cover away from the middle so it won't lift your patch, and NOT USE THE PATCHED TUBE YET. Yes, that's right, a recently patched tube should not be used for a day, because it takes a day for the glue to fully dry.
So if you can't use the patched tube immediately, you need a spare tube (and the recently patched tube becomes your new spare tube). Usually one is enough. In absolute worst possible case you get multiple punctures in the same day, and if that happens, then you obviously have to use a recently patched tube, but that's so rare that it's probably better to just use recently patched tubes and treat them as possible loss than to start carrying N spare tubes -- which wouldn't help in any case since you can get N+1 punctures.
Theoretically you could delay patching the tube so that you can start riding your bike faster, patching later at home, but then you may get a second puncture, run out of spare tubes, and need a recently patched tube as a spare. It's better to use a tube patched 30 minutes ago than a tube patched 1 minute ago. Also, patching is very fast so better to patch right away.
