Okay, so most of you might chuckle at this one, but it’s surprising how many riders don’t know how to correctly patch a tube.

Now the first thing to point out is that the best course of action is to always carry a spare tube with you. The quickest way to sort a puncture is to remove the damaged tube a put a new one in, and stick the old one in a jersey pocket to repair later. This is especially good protocol on group rides where, if the group has been kind enough to stop and wait for you (as it should, really), the quickest form of action is also the most considerate.

But sometimes, you’ll have the bad luck to puncture twice on a ride, and unless you’re doubly prepared and have taken the decision to ride with two spare tubes, you’re going to have to fix that puncture.

So, remove the tube from the wheel and identify where the hole is. If it’s a big tear you can sometimes find it just by looking, but failing that pump air through the tube with your mini pump and listen/feel for where the air is escaping.

Then, roughen the area around the puncture using the small piece of very fine sandpaper in your puncture repair kit. This will help the patch to eventually get a better purchase on the tube.

When that’s done, spread some puncture repair glue over the affected area. The important thing to remember about this glue is that it’s not strictly glue in the way that you think of glue. The key thing to remember is that with this solution, you have to wait about 60 seconds until it goes tacky before sticking the patch on. If you just slap the patch on while the glue’s still wet, you’ll get precisely nowhere. Some puncture repair kits have self-adhesive patches but we’ve generally found these to be less effective.

Once the glue goes tacky, stick the patch on. Make sure the whole area underneath the patch is covered with glue, because you’ll want the maximum adhesive area to make sure it stays on. Press the patch onto the tube for at least 30 seconds or so, just to make sure it sticks properly, then put the tube back in the tyre (make sure you’ve checked the tyre to ensure whatever caused the puncture isn’t still there), inflate and you’re good to go.