A quick post for users of latex inner tubes. Using this method, I fixed latex inner tubes and its proven out with 5 months on the road, no problem.
What you need
A donor latex tube
Sharp scissors or knife.
Regular vulcanizing glue / patch glue
Method
- Find the hole, this can be tricky and harder than butyl tubes, sometimes I have to use water to find a bubble stream.
- Cut a patch from the donor latex tube, try to cut a a flat non distorted place that doesn’t have a seam, make clean sharp non distressed edges.
- Cut the patch square and oversized. You can round the corners a little to ensure it doesn’t catch on things.
- Clean the patch well with water, no chemicals remove any contaminants, dry well.
- Apply vulcanizing glue to the hole area and the patch. Kinda stick it on thick, don’t be shy. Let it dry a little so it will bond well, but don’t let it dry all the way down like you would with a regular patch. You want to keep it moist.And its probably good here to use too much vs too little.
- Apply the patch, clamp together, I used a stationary bulldog clip and a stiff bread bag clip I found lying around. The clamp force doesn’t need to be crazy, just needs to have a little pressure and hold it in place.
- Let it dry. I leave mine overnight. You can see the results below.
This technique could also be used for other damage, as it bonds the latex well.
Reading over this again as I’ve just bought some latex tubes. They’re not going on the bike yet, but I’m very interested to feel the difference (and glad they can be patched, although I’ll need a donor tube first).
Awesome. I patched a lot recently had a spate of bad luck. I have been using butyl tubes for the last week then switched back to latex. sooooo good, especially with a nice tyre.
Great to hear! For now, the latex tubes will be for my time trial bike, but if they’re as good as people say I might have to switch on my other bikes too.