Anyone patch tubulars with superglue?

[victorduraace]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdYntNxK6g
does it work like that? any experience? I heard pro mechanics use elastic superglue on small cuts

[ghostinthemachine]

I've glued the tread back onto a hand made clincher with flexible superglue. That did another 1000+km with no issues.
One or two of my mountain bike tyres have had the knobs glued back on with the same stuff. No idea of mileage as I have no idea which tyres they were and where they now are. Don't think they've been thrown away though.
So probably still in use.

[Rick]

superglue has a nearly miraculous ability to bond rubber.
But it has to be with clean/dry rubber. I have patched some nasty cuts in clinchers that end up wearing as strong as the original rubber. But it doesn't help if the underlying casing is cut.
1. scrub the cut with soap/water or alcohol and rinse thoroughly.
2. let dry thoroughly
3. inflate tire to maximum you ever use, or a little more.
4. squirt in some superglue.
5. deflate tire so cut closes and wait 12 hrs. If there was excess glue you can wipe it off when wet of abrade it when dry.

If the casing is cut, Rema tip top makes some patches specifically for casings, reinforced with some strong fabric material. These also work well applied from the inside.

[victorduraace]

good to know, I think there are some alcohol wipes (hospital style) for cleaning/degreasing on the road
I assume elastic bond glue is way to go?

[drchull]

Never tried that.

Glued up lots of bleeding neighbourhood kids with superglue though. Great stuff. Not really that different from the skin glue in Emergency department. Stings more though. Keep the single applicators on hand knowing that somebody is going to show up bleeding at my door every few weeks.

[Geoff]

I think it would work for sealing-up a cut in the tread, but if the casing is damaged or the tube punctured, you're SOL, I'm afraid. The guy in the video said he had Stans in the tube, so if the tube sealed-up, that is probably why.

I know a guy who is running tubeless and is trying that for a punctured tire. I don't know how it is holding-up. I'm not sure how well sealant would work in a tubular anyway, so I cannot personally recommend it. Unlike a tubeless tire, the presence of the tube separate from the casing and tread with an enclosed environment between them suggests to me that sealant will not work as well in that application as it seems to in tubeless tires. In addition, if it doesn't work, then it may prove difficult to repair the tubular later in the 'conventional' way.

[TheKaiser]

I have heard of this too as an effective way to fix small cuts in clinchers, tubular tire treads, and tubeless tires, however I have always been a little confused as to what is the actual type of glue people are using. The "superglue" that I usually see is a generic version of Crazy glue(R), which is cyanoacrylate, and that stuff is usually kind of hard and brittle. It works well on ridged or infrequently flexed items, but I would think that it wouldn't stand up to the 1000s of flex cycles that a bike tire sees. I have seen a few versions, one being more thin and watery, and another being a gel type consistency and able to bridge small gaps as a result, but both seemed pretty hard when dry.

I've used rubber cement, shoe goo, etc... for other stuff, and they are all pretty flexible, but when it comes to tires everyone says "superglue".

Can you guys who have had success with this post either the active ingredient to look for, or the brand names of the types that you have used?

[Rick]

Yes, it is the cyanoacrylate superglue.
I am using "Loctite Professional Super Glue" that I got at Home Depot.



It works well when bonding a very thin layer. That's why you want to inflate the tire to max, drip a little in the cut, and then deflate it while it cures, so the cut closes up on itself during cure, bringing the cut edges together fairly tightly. Don't disturb until fully cured. I usually wait overnight at room temp.

[ghostinthemachine]

http://www.amain.com/rc-cars/bob-smith- ... 119/p37066
This is similar to what I've used. You can get various versions. Thick, thin, fast cure, slow cure, with rubber, without and so on. The thin versions go off in seconds. Thickest take a few minutes.
I've glued myself to many RC car tyres.....

[speeddemon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_Goo

[nickf]

Hobby stores sell black super glue. I use it to glue r/c rubber to the plastic rims. Similar to this stuff. Works well. Keeps large cuts from cutting latex tubes.http://www.amazon.com/Starbond-KBL-500- ... B00BUVAVC0

[greentimgreen]

I have tried this, with poor results. On my last set of tubs, using Conti Competition tyres, I decided to try Loctite super glue to patch any small holes where glass, stones, etc had cut the surface of the tyre. What I found was that the glue turned brittle, and filling in a sharp cut, the glue would pierce the tube just like a piece of glass would. First time out, having tried both tyres, and both popped within 20miles (with only one can of Pitstop on me!!)

On googling a better solution, I found that the glue used for repairing wetsuits (a black polymer of some sort) is less brittle and worked a treat.

Perhaps I was unlucky first time round...?

[victorduraace]

You should have used elastic version IMHO

[TheKaiser]

I have tried this, with poor results. On my last set of tubs, using Conti Competition tyres, I decided to try Loctite super glue to patch any small holes where glass, stones, etc had cut the surface of the tyre. What I found was that the glue turned brittle, and filling in a sharp cut, the glue would pierce the tube just like a piece of glass would. First time out, having tried both tyres, and both popped within 20miles (with only one can of Pitstop on me!!)

Yes, that was another of my concerns...that the dried glue could actually become a puncturing object itself. It seems like there are people having luck with it though, even in the less flexible versions. As you point out, the angle of the cut could come into play here too.

A few of the glues linked to above sound like pretty good stuff in terms of CA adhesive but retaining flexibility. It would be interesting to just dry a blob of it and see how "hard" it got, to compare with the surrounding tire rubber.

[TheKaiser]

Yes, it is the cyanoacrylate superglue.
I am using "Loctite Professional Super Glue" that I got at Home Depot.



It works well when bonding a very thin layer. That's why you want to inflate the tire to max, drip a little in the cut, and then deflate it while it cures, so the cut closes up on itself during cure, bringing the cut edges together fairly tightly. Don't disturb until fully cured. I usually wait overnight at room temp.

Thanks for the info! I don't see a specific mention of flexibility in the marketing info on his stuff but it sure gets some good reviews on Amazon, and I specifically see references to gluing o-rings and rubber gaskets, so it sounds like they may intend it to be flexed.

Out of curiosity, what is your experience with this stuff when dried? Like, if you were to poke at the repaired area, does the tire flex and bend like you would normally expect, or is it more rigid?

I guess when you mention "very thin layer" that may play a role too, but I am just wondering about the other fellow on here who found that the glue itself created a puncturing object.

BTW, I just saw that Amazon has a category dedicated to CA glues which contains 2,195 items, which is a crazy number of variations! From a quick look, it seems that some are miscategorized, but still, there are a ton, and the Loctite one you suggested is the 1# seller.