Quote Originally Posted by wjduke View Post
I believed in patching 100% until.....I patched one of mine years ago, let it sit for the winter months, mounted it, and it leaked. What happened was, off the rim, the tire flattened out and the patch sat nice. Mounted and aired up, the tire rounded out and kinked the patch. Next time, I plugged the tire, it held fine, but I changed it before I had a long trip planned. I'm a plug believer now.
I've also heard that a patch is more likely to develop a leak than a plug. As the tire heats/cools and flexes, apparently the patch can loosen, but the plug stays put.

Over the years I've ridden nearly 700,000 miles and changed at least 100 tires. I've plugged dozens of them. The worst problem I ever had was one that developed a slow leak. Those sticky string type plugs work great and develop a nice, patch-like blob inside the tire. They're also inexpensive and easy to carry along.