After a long couple of days at the London Bike Show, Dave started murmurings of a ride happening on Sunday and having just got new riding kit I was pretty keen to get on board. Problem being that I didn’t have a bike, a definite stumbling block.

Dave did remember that there might be a test bike waiting back at Bikemagic HQ that I could use – brilliant. After a disastrous use of the tube map (can I claim colour-blindness?) we made it back and sure enough, there she was – a beautiful 29er Van Nicholas titanium. Much like a on old western gold panner, I started to sift my way through what was pretty much an entire box of packaging and began building up the machine.

When I’d almost got to the end and starting to pump up the tyres, I started to hear the infamous sound of the slimy, snake like hiss of air escaping rubber and the feeling of it all starting to go wrong began. What was odd about this one was it was coming from the sidewall – the tyre defect was about to ruin a highly anticipated weekend of riding. We’ve all been there, no replacement in sight and no time to sort before the meeting time the next day I was seemingly screwed.

So, I reached for the nearest roll of parcel tape (no duct tape) and started to layer strips over where the two (yes TWO) leaks at the seam on the tyre were. I had no hope, really I was clutching at straws for a solution and knew it wouldn’t hold. At least I would’ve managed to get the bike to Dave for some long-term testing and had my first ride on a 29er.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that when I got home, one of the seals had magically sealed itself after one of the tape plasters had fallen off on the ride home. So unless the tyre had developed the properties of human skin (unlikely), something odd must’ve happened.

This lead me to wonder what other magical fixes must be out there, so let’s open the floodgates of the internet and tell your stories in the forum or comments box below: