I thought I remember reading here or there that I can do this with a small patch cut from another latex tube and rubber cement? How big of a patch do I need for a small punture? A snake-bite?
What kind of prep is needed? Dry time?
This is what I do…
Take out old tube and look at it…
I add up what it is I make an hour when I am working and think about the fact that it will take me about an hour or more to fix the tube, and it will more often than not fail again at the same spot at latex is a PITA to fix…
Then I buy a new tube 
Ah, but if I have more than one, I can do them at the same time. The time/money trade off gets closer to parity.
I thought I remember reading here or there that I can do this with a small patch cut from another latex tube and rubber cement? How big of a patch do I need for a small punture? A snake-bite?
What kind of prep is needed? Dry time?
Actually…the regular “Rema-style” patches for use on butyl tubes (rubber cement applied, not self-adhesive) work just fine on latex tubes.
This is what I do…
Take out old tube and look at it…
I add up what it is I make an hour when I am working and think about the fact that it will take me about an hour or more to fix the tube, and it will more often than not fail again at the same spot at latex is a PITA to fix…
Then I buy a new tube
An hour? Really? Patching a latex tube is no more difficult than patching a butyl tube IME…then again, if you have failures with your patches, maybe you ARE taking the prudent approach? 
I have had the best luck cutting up one of the bad ones and using it as patch with contact cement in the past. High rate of failure at the patch however - often at the worst times. I would never ever race on a patched tube (or head out for a 100 mile ride for that matter) and when I am not racing a $3.00 tube does me just fine.
I thought I remember reading here or there that I can do this with a small patch cut from another latex tube and rubber cement? How big of a patch do I need for a small punture? A snake-bite?
What kind of prep is needed? Dry time?
Actually…the regular “Rema-style” patches for use on butyl tubes (rubber cement applied, not self-adhesive) work just fine on latex tubes.
Rubber cement? I always thought that the glue in those stupid-small tubes (I once found a multi-ounce tube, but only once) was some sort of vulcanizing fluid that really bonded the patch and the tube. Or is the vulcanizing fluid the only stuff to use on butyl tubes, but rubber cement is adequate for use on latex tubes? I have a box of about 50 patches just waiting for adhesive. How about contact cement (like DAP)?
I thought I remember reading here or there that I can do this with a small patch cut from another latex tube and rubber cement? How big of a patch do I need for a small punture? A snake-bite?
What kind of prep is needed? Dry time?
Actually…the regular “Rema-style” patches for use on butyl tubes (rubber cement applied, not self-adhesive) work just fine on latex tubes.
Rubber cement? I always thought that the glue in those stupid-small tubes (I once found a multi-ounce tube, but only once) was some sort of vulcanizing fluid that really bonded the patch and the tube. Or is the vulcanizing fluid the only stuff to use on butyl tubes, but rubber cement is adequate for use on latex tubes? I have a box of about 50 patches just waiting for adhesive. How about contact cement (like DAP)?
Yup…that stuff in the little tubes is just regular old “rubber cement”, a.k.a. “self-vulcanizing adhesive”…and it works great on latex tubes with the normal butyl patches.
I don’t think I’d use the DAP contact cement. You’ve got a bottle of that stuff left over from covering your wheel and you’re looking for something to use it on, aren’t you?
Thank you Tom!
I haven’t had much trouble with patches failing. (Maybe I’m just lucky?) Good thing, too, because at $15 a tube I’m not throwing them away!
I wonder: If we use Latex tubes to decrease rolling resistance and to ultimately minimize power-required-to-roll, how does adding a butyl patch affect it? Seems like the patch couldn’t do any good. Is a patch on a Latex tube so insignificant that it won’t really affect rolling resistance?
I wonder: If we use Latex tubes to decrease rolling resistance and to ultimately minimize power-required-to-roll, how does adding a butyl patch affect it? Seems like the patch couldn’t do any good. Is a patch on a Latex tube so insignificant that it won’t really affect rolling resistance?
Bingo. AFM has tested patched tubes in the past and IIRC, they were no different to “pure” tubes within the error of his measurements (of which any differences would be magnified due to the “Crr amplification” effect of the rollers).