Share the Wisdom Wednesdays (on a Tuesday): Part... was anyone still keeping track?

I've been a proponent of carrying a Genuine Innovation Tubeless Repair Kit for some time now.  It's basically my first line of defense when I flat.  Find the hole, shove in the preloaded tool, pull it out, hit the tire with CO2... roll.

THIS POST IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE BACON STRIP TIRE REPAIR THINGS.  SCROLL DOWN A FEW IMAGES IF YOU HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A SQUIRREL.

Granted, I've only done this twice.  Once on my own bike on a ride in Pisgah, and another time on a friend's bike at the USNWC.

Both times, the tire held air like a champ.

Over the past few years, I've seen more and more people taping the tool to their bikes, on the handlebars, a hydro line, wherever.  I don't like that so much.

I keep mine in my Tülbag with my other repair stuff.  I shove it in a tiny plastic ziplock bag first tho.  As far as I'm concerned, part of what makes it work is the fact that the little rubber booger thing is sticky.  When I see them mounted/taped onto someone's bike with that bit exposed, I wonder how long it can be exposed to rain, dirt, mud... whatever before it loses it tackiness.

I realize pro-level riders prolly just replace them before racing, but for cheap people like me?  Am I gonna stick a new one on my bike before an event?  And what about on the reg for everyday rides?

No.

I should mention that the tiny ziplock bag does end up getting pretty beat up after awhile and needs replaced.

Anyways...

I almost always click the links on MTB sites that show setups of the pros looking for anything that might be useful.  Like this article on PinkBike, Pit Walk: EWS Round 5, Aspen-Snowmass.

Had I not been paying attention (and reading the comments), I might not have learned that long hair and power tools might not always play well together.

Something to keep in mind when my hair gets to pony tail length, and I'm in the presence of snarky teenagers.

Also, there was this:

"Joe Barnes has one of the neatest tire plug solutions we have seen so far strapped to his top tube."

Okay, I'm not Gorilla taping something to my bike.  Just won't.  A thousand reasons, only five hundred of them vanity related.

This is ten times better than taping the tool to the bike in a somewhat handy location, requiring the unfurling of said tape to get to the tool.  This is gonna save seconds for the anal (and more successful) racer types.

Being that I'm anal but not successful (and I hate tape), this is what I took from it:

I did have to file down the tool a bit to get it into a Sharpie cap, but the fit is spot on.

This should keep things nice and tidy, yet still plenty handy when shoved into my Tülbag.  The cap is also slightly less finicky than the tiny ziplock bag in my gloved hands.  So, bueno.  I shaved seconds off my flat repair time (which I haven't had to do in... years?), and I won't be going through so many little plastic bags.

Yeth, I know about that other product out there, the Sahmurai Sword, which tucks it all nicely into the end of the handlebar.   I guess my concerns would be the price (@ $35), the fact that I replace my bar end plugs almost every time I swap grips because they're all fucked up from abuse, and that I already have a solution that works.

So, there's that.