So there I was enjoying my ride/day out around Bendigo on a Sunday arvo when I come out of Coles, jump on my bike and try reversing out, back on my merry way. When all of a sudden I notice, hey this isn’t to easy to push back, why is my bike not rolling back in its usual roll back kind of way? Look back, rear tyre flat as an 18y/o Gymnast.
Great! In Bendigo, 150km away from home, with a puncture the size of the Grand Canyon!
Luckily I have my mate with me who helps me push the bike half way down the road towards what used to be the closest petrol station. After a while of us both pushing I realise its REALLY not easy to push a bike that has absolutely no air in the tyre.
Anyway, my mate rings another mate to find what is open on a Sunday arvo in a country city, in the mean time I look around for this petrol station to find that there is no longer a petrol station there.
So we head for the next closest petrol station (which is close to a tyre place)that I know is open they also have some of that stuff you put in your tyre to stop it leaking, it’s a temporary solution but hey at least it will allow me to move my bike.
After moving my bike another 100meters I’m totally buggered and decide screw it, ill jump on chuck it in first and let it roll without putting my weight to much on the seat… this works well, and I get to the tyre repair place, of course its closed which we pretty much expected at 1pm. So next I head towards the petrol station to hopefully put some air in it see how long it will hold up, hopefully if worst comes to worst I can ride it to a mates place to leave it there till a better opportunity comes along.
So anyway we get to the petrol station, I start pumping it up with air and hear a hissing sound as I fill it. That can’t be good, if it’s hissing it’s big and will go down pretty quickly. We find the hole it looks like it’s a nail hole which no longer contains the hole.
The petrol station has no hole stop… of course. But luckily we’re not to far from a shopping centre that contains a Big W which has some according to the station clerk.
So we go for a walk to big w, half way there mate calls letting us know an open bike shop isn’t to far away. Beauty, they should be able to repair or do something!
So mate goes and gets his bike I pump the tyre up then get moving leaving the safety of the petrol station and the shopping centre.
Get to this bike place tyre after only one damn red light, (thankful for small cities with back roads) tyre is still just holding up, just. The guy takes a look at the bike the size of the tyre, said we could put a tube in it, which doesn’t sound right to me and I didn’t want to replace it with a new one due to costs and it being a decent enough Michelin.
So he goes inside and starts looking round for another thing he has. After looking around for a while he comes out with a pointy rubbery thing that really is the size of the Grand Canyon! Now the nail puncture is fairly large but I was exaggerating when I said it was that big, it was no where near the size of this thing, it’s about an inch in diameter. (What you do with it is glue it up and press it in with a stick/screw driver etc) so it expands the whole a little and fits in snugly sealing it closed.
Not to bad an idea, will keep me going but the size is much too large for the hole. The owner suggests we try Repco there are also a few other shops on the main drag. Lets me borrow the plug to show the other places in case they have a smaller one also offers to watch the bike while we take my mates bike… nice bloke had an ancient Kawasaki too, old school.
So I jump on my mates bike, can’t find any open tyre places along the way, get to Repco, they have the tyre stop leaks, the first one said, DO NOT USE ON BIKES OR TWO WHEEL VEHICLES, DO NOT EXCEDE 50kph. OK so that’s a no go, the second one said, not recommended for bikes or two wheeled vehicles max speed 60. Which is better than DO NOT USE… so at least I now have a back up plan, still means I couldn’t get it home, or it would take a few hours but better than the nothing I currently have. He thinks one of the tyre places down the road was thinking about opening all day Sunday. Bonus, I think, so we head down, Unfortunately its not to be the place is closed, so we start heading back to one of the other places we saw on the way, auto pro. I show them the rubber pointy thing, and he lets me know they don’t have anything like that…… BUT, they do have something else that may be useful.
He takes us to the tyre section of the shop and they have a weird looking repair kit. You stick the “patch’ strip inside the hole the self adhesive tar holds it in and seals it fully. Sounds exactly what I’m looking for… one catch.. Price tag 50 bux! Ouch professional repairs cost about 25, He lets me know what he can do on the price. He offers 40 bux, the kit has five puncture repairs included, so although I only need it for one now the value for the future sounds great!(even 50 wouldn’t have been to bad) As I was buying it there was a guy next to me who told me he was using it on his truck and it great for that too… I figure if it can hold a truck it should be able to do a bike as well.
The kit even has extra “patches” you can buy separately (without the tools) for 12 bux each there are about five in there so that’s about 3 dollars per repair once you have the two tools required.
Get back to the bike, the shop owner lets us use his compressor patch the bike tyre up and off we go.
It’s a great little kit that fits and now lives under the bikes seat. I patched it Sunday, got back to Melbourne and ridden to work the last couple of days, seems to be holding great.
I’d highly recommend them as a carry around thing for anyone who does a little bit of travel and will need to repair on the go.. You still need compressed air, but hell it’s a lot easier to get that at a petrol station then it is to get a tyre repair in the middle of no where. It seems to be a permanent fix too.
I’ve attached the packaging so you can see how it works. It certainly saved me having to leave my bike in Bendigo and having to arrange getting it repaired and getting it back to Melbourne. That wouldn’t have been fun. also seeing as we dont carry a spare on the bike i think something like this is essential.
No I’m not affiliated with that company
They work well. Michelin do a better one, with plugs which look like squarish kidneys. I have raced on these, and they work great. 
