If, like most of us, you’ve been merrily swapping inner tubes when you get a puncture, you’ve probably built up a sizable stock of perforated choobs – we found a box with over sixty in it a little while back. And when you think how much inner tubes cost that gets quite scary. So patching them is a good idea. If you can, get into the habit of fixing any that need it post-ride so they’re there for next time. Otherwise get yourself a load of patches and glue, make a cuppa and settle in for a bit of a patching binge…

This is another of those, “Everyone knows how to do that!” jobs. But actually, they don’t. Evolution is an amazing thing, but it’ll be a few millennia before people are born instinctively able to patch tubes. So bear with us.

Tools? A patch kit and a pump. Simple. You’ll also need the tube you’re working on. If it’s still inside a tyre then remove it.

First you need to figure out where the hole is. If there was an obvious thorn in the tyre look where it was relative to the valve (always putting your tyres on with the logo next to or opposite the valve helps here). Otherwise put some air in the tube and look closely at it. You might not be able to immediately see the hole but you’ll feel the jet of air. If all else fails, there’s always the bowl of water… Having located the hole, give the area around it a good going over with the bit of sandpaper in the patch kit.

Next it’s glue time. Only it’s not really glue. The stuff in the tube is actually unvulcanised rubber. The tube and patch are made of vulcanised rubber, which will stick firmly to unvulcanised rubber. Which is how it works. Take the “glue” and spread it on the sanded bit of tube (the sanding makes sure you’ve got a clean surface). Make sure the area of glue is bigger than the patch. Then leave it to dry. Sounds odd, but just wait.

Now prepare your patch. We’re using a Rema Tip-Top feather-edge here. They’re the finest patches made, no question. Peel off the foil backing and stick the rest (plastic film and all) onto the tube. Give it a good squish, paying particular attention to the edges.

Here’s one of the details that makes Tip-Top patches great. The plastic film is perforated across the centre. Fold the tube and patch and the film’ll split, allowing you to peel it off in two halves from the centre. This avoids the possibility of the edges of the patch lifting. Neat, huh?

And that’s it. Give it a few minutes for the glue to fully cure and drop it into a new box labelled “Good tubes”. If you’ve got into the swing of it, keep going until the box of punctured ones is empty…