How to repair a tyre

+1 on using a section of old tyre, always keep a few lengths is the saddle bag after going over some raised iron works a few years back, park tools also sell a tyre boot which is pretty handy.

I went over a nail down lanes in the Vale a few months back. It managed to cause 3 separate holes several inches apart, as it bounced around the rear, eventually wedging itself through both sidewalls.

I had a very similar experience, a screw went right through the sidewall and made a hole in the rim bed too. Changed the tube and rode on. The tyre was a Gatorskin and lasted several hundred more miles before I binned it, I just put a patch of helicopter tape on the inside and it held up fine.

Dollar bills are good for this. I always carry one or two with the PR kit for tyre patching duties.

I had a flint slice into the centre of a nearly brand new Rubino. Shredded the innertube which had to be binned. The neat little slit in the tyre I've reinforced with a heavy duty patch on the inside. They are 25mm and run at 80 psi, and there's no sign of the tube bulging out.

(I know they are cheap and horrible, but I can't bring myself to throw away anything that's still got life in it. So I'm determined to wear the bloody things out!)

I've had a tyre boot from a defunct Gatorskin (bit of sidewall) on a GP 4 Seasons for about 3,000km now. Works just fine. The sidewall cut was long enough that the tube could bulge through - maybe 4-5mm. That's £40 saved right there.

Always keep a 5cm strip of old ture sidewall in your saddlebag, for when you nick a sidewall.

Something similar happened to me a couple of weeks ago on my 6-week-old rear conti 4 seasons.

Out of interest more than anything, I tried just riding again with a new tube and not repairing the tyre and sure enough I got another puncture within a few minutes.

So I put a couple of patches from my puncture repair kit on the inside of the tyre then ran a couple of layers of duct tape over top of the patches. Then I filled the hole with rubber cement from the outside.

Seems to have done the trick so far - no more punctures since then.

Use a tyre boot. One normally comes with your p***ture repair kit, or use two layers of gaffer tape, or a gel wrapper, or something similar. It may make a lump in your tyre.

Sounds like maybe vandalism though? Never heard of a screw going straight in like that before.