h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just had a look and it seems your tyre is only flat at the bottom

The "how to fix a puncture" entry may lead people to use a lot more glue than is really necessary, or indeed useful.

To "cover the [punctured] area with a big dollop of rubber cement" often means that the patch will:

-- slide off the punctured area during / after application

-- take too long to dry

Of course different brands of rubber cement may produce different results, but a drop of glue measuring no more than 5mm cubed suffices for a 2cm square patch.

Therefor, a suggestion for this stage of the process would be to:

-- Apply 5mm cubed drop of rubber cement onto the puncture

-- Spread the glue over the area to be covered by the patch
using a *clean* finger (to avoid getting grit and dirt caught
inside)

-- The crucial stage: Keep rubbing it gently until the adhesive
becomes tacky to the touch. This means that the patch will stick
instantly to the tube, rather than sliding around uselessly on a
film of glue.

-- Now apply the patch, position it, smooth it out, check for air-
bubbles etc...

Following the above procedure means that the patch has dried completely by the time you've given the inside of the tyre a quick sweep to check for protrusions, and put the tube back in place. The tyre is now ready for inflation.

Frogmallet