Wednesday 29 February 2012

Tyre boot

Tyre boot is a temporary solution for a tyre that is cut or badly damaged, when one doesn't have a spare one. It's a piece of material that is put between the tube and the tyre and which prevents the tube to bulge out through the cut in the tyre and explode. The boot material could be of any kind, as long as it is strong enough to hold the pressure and soft enough not to puncture the tube. It's often recommended to use a piece of  the old tyre, although from my experience even a boot made with duct tape did last more then 1500 km (on tarmac).

My hint is that before putting the boot, it very much helps to sew the tyre. If the tyre casing is cut or damaged, I sew up that part with the needle and thread, just as patching a hole in a sock. Then I apply the tyre boot, which in this case can be as simple as a piece of duct tape or a tube patch, applied from the inside of the tyre. A piece of wrapping material (for chocolate bars, for example) might be just as useful.

I have such patched tyres on my commuter currently, both at front and rear, as an experiment of how long this would last. This is a road bike with a pressure of 6 bar. I've been riding 18 months now with patched front tyre and 14 months with the back one, but after I'd confessed it, and Murphy is reading it, I suppose I'll have a blowout tomorrow - will let you know.

6 comments:

  1. How's the boot going?

    I use this stuff: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sludge-Puncture-Resistant-Tape-Hybrids/dp/B002LXLV84/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

    It's like a strip of thick flexible plastic inside my tire, held in place be the inner tube.

    Since fitting it, it caused a couple of punctures (from rough edges rubbing the tire) but since then I've had months and months of hard inner city riding without a puncture. I also have a gash in my front tire I've been keeping an eye on. Since this stuff spreads out the pressure of my tube it seems to be holding up better than I thought.

    These would add some weight to your bike, but what price for not getting punctures? Note the bad review seem to be from people using this skinny strips on wide off road tires etc.

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  2. Hi Liam,

    the front boot is Ok. I changed the rear tire few weeks ago - it was so worn that the tube found its way through the decaing casing (not on the pathceh spot) and blew.

    Sorry, but the tape is not for me. It's additional weight and that what you said about rubbing-type punctures. I've had a few of those when using duct tape.

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  3. You're a Guru, man. I like your style of continuous experimentation. Inspiring to say the least!!

    -- Ganesh (India)

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  4. Thanks Ganesh,
    I'll try to keep up the good work :)

    Cheers,Igor

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  5. Pieces cut from empty toothpaste tubes make fantastic tyre boots. A friend once tried the skin from an unripe banana - not recommended.

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  6. Hey,nice blog, it provide the information about Tyre Patches thanks for posting.

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