B'Twin 700 Puncture Repair Kit

B'Twin's 700 Puncture Repair Kit is designed to take the faff out of flats and get you back on the road in record time, and it does the job.

Your £7.99 buys a CO2 inflator and single 16g cartridge, a pack of glueless patches, emery paper and two bog standard, rim-friendly resin tyre levers. Once the preserve of well-heeled road racers, CO2 inflators are practical options for longer commutes and training duties, saving time and misery during the colder, darker months when combined with spare tube(s) and a standard pump of some description.

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One cartridge is included, although I'd be inclined to buy a replenishment kit containing three for £4.99 at time of purchase, especially since there's a shelf life of three months once coupled with the inflator.

I can remember a time when these discharged their contents in one uncontrollable hit, but thankfully, the tuneable head allows steady release, so the likelihood of blowing a tube to smithereens is pretty small.

Simply press it firmly on Presta/Schrader valves and depress the button. Even without a neoprene cosy, the cartridges never became painfully cold, and I concur with Decathlon's claims of 120/130psi in 700x23 – in literally three seconds. It was much the same story with wider section tyres/tubes – there's enough CO2 to raise a 700x32/35 from flat to 100psi in an identical timescale. Predictably, 1.9 and 1.6in mountain bike rubber only hit a modest 40 and 60psi respectively in seven seconds.

In my experience, self-adhesive patches can be hit and miss. I tend to substitute the wounded butyl in situ and mend them at cafe/rest stops. These look uncannily similar to a popular British brand and mimic their performance too. Supple materials and decent adhesives mean that they'll stay put. Only bargain basement, ten-for-a-tenner tubes proved troublesome despite proper prep and concerted smoothing.

Two resin tyre levers stamped 'made in UK' had my badge engineering sensor on red alert, and they can't hold a candle to the polyamide versions (which I would chance on carbon hoops), whose much better engineered lips burrow beneath tyre beads and grip spokes more convincingly, ensuring speedier tyre removal/fitment. Nonetheless, they've withstood a fair bit of abuse when refitting the tyre's remaining 20 per cent. Of the wider sections, only my Vittoria Street Runner mountain bike slicks required backup from another brand's extra-long model.

Ultimately, this is a good no-frills starter package and I'm pleased that most of the money has been ploughed into a decent inflator. That said, buy a refill kit and invest in the better B'Twin levers for this kit to realise its true potential.

Verdict

Competent kit for speedy recovery from roadside punctures, though I'd invest in B'Twin's higher quality polyamide levers