Patchnride had a booth at the finish line expo in Torrey. I had a chance to look at the device and talk to the sales representatives. The meeting seemed pretty fortuitous since I had written a post about the device only a few days earlier. Overall, I came away with a pretty favorable impression.
There were a couple of things that I probably got wrong in my earlier comments. I made the assumption that the device was designed for clinchers only, not for tubulars. It turns out that the company believes that the repair of tubulars may be one of the strongest points of the device. The potential value in tubulars is elevated by the high cost of tubulars and difficulty in replacing them.
I also speculated that the process of inserting a patch might damage the tire. At the patchnride booth, they had some examples of high mileage tires which had undergone multiple repairs with patchnride. The reps contend that the thin rubber stem that protrudes from the hole in the tire after the insertion of the patch actually helps to provide a permanent repair to the tire as well as the tube.
The device utilizes a small disposable cartridge which contains a two step repair of adhesive and a patch. It looks line a smaller printer cartridge. They plan to market kits specific to various types of tires such as road, mountain, and I believe tubular.
Long time readers of the blog know that I own an American Classic Road Tubeless wheelset which I tested at the Ultimate Challenge last year by hitting a porcupine. I have never had a flat with the Road Tubeless and I believe that it is a potentially valuable and underutilized technology. Even though these tires are amazingly resistant to flatting, they still depend on fairly fresh sealant and punctures small enough to reseal. The current patchnride would not be able to fix a tubeless tire, but apparently they are developing a flat repair system for tubeless which reverses the order of the current system inserting the patch first and the adhesive second.
The biggest limitation of the patchnride system is that in its current configuration, it will never fix a pinch flat. The reps told me they are even working on that. The cost of each cartridge will be more than a replacement tube and you will still need a CO2 to inflate the tire, so it is not the most economical way to fix a flat. However, in circumstances that match up perfectly with the strengths of the device (typical penetrating puncture) it may well be the fastest repair method as well as a very viable option for people who lack the skills or just do not want to change a tire.
The patchnride booth was offering a promotion to visitors willing to preorder and pay by credit card. It included the device, some leak detectors, and a couple of replacement cartridges. All of this retails for $35, but they were promoting it at $20. I purchased one kit. The device itself is probably a little too big for most seat packs and I do not really intend to carry it on all my rides, but I will definitely stick it in a jersey pocket for the Tuesday Night Rides. The devices will not ship out for about 6 weeks. Hopefully, it will arrive in time to fix some TNR flats before the end of the season.
If someone else wants to try this out, the patchnride reps indicated they would be willing to send me a couple of additional units to demo with some strings attached. You would need to be willing to do a real evaluation of the device including a little write up on the blog maybe a picture or two. Let me know if you are interested in doing the demo.
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