While at home, you have the luxury of immersing the tube in water to find any puncture. But, on the road, you will quite likely not have access to that much water. Finding small punctures is not easy without water. And, on a busy road with a lot of traffic noise, looking for the sound of air leaking out through the puncture is also not much use. In such a situation, how does one find the puncture? About one and a half weeks ago, when I was out on a ride to Hesaraghatta with Sohom, we happened to come by a good technique. It is as follows.

Place the tube on some sandy or dusty piece of ground, and look for the dust being blown away by the air leaking out of the puncture. If the puncture happens to be on the top surface of the tube, you might have to flip the tube and repeat the process. Once you have found the puncture, make sure to clean the site well with sandpaper before applying the patch. If not, the patch will not adhere to the tube properly. And finally, before installing the tube back in the tire, be sure to properly wipe off all the sand and grit from the tube. If not, the abrasion might cause another puncture.