Puncture repair... road side

[Dogtrousers]

My 2p: Always position the tyre with the makers name over the valve. This is so that, once you have removed the tube, put a bit of air into it and found the hole you know exactly where to look for the offending sharp thing in the tyre (or can at least narrow it down to two locations) because you can line up the tube with the tyre.

Finding the sharp is, in my experience at least, the hardest bit. If you give up the search too early and refit the tyre with it still there then you are doomed to repeat the performance.

The man in the video located and removed the thorn suspiciously easily.

 

[mjr]

Finding the sharp is, in my experience at least, the hardest bit. If you give up the search too early and refit the tyre with it still there then you are doomed to repeat the performance.

Pump the tyre up and it usually becomes obvious. If not and it's not currently raining, spin the wheel while dribbling water onto the tyre from your drinks bottle and it'll usually bubble. If not, then yes, it's time to remove the tube, find the hole that way and use the valve/label alignment trick to locate it.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Pump the tyre up and it usually becomes obvious. If not and it's not currently raining, spin the wheel while dribbling water onto the tyre from your drinks bottle and it'll usually bubble. If not, then yes, it's time to remove the tube, find the hole that way and use the valve/label alignment trick to locate it.

I'll remember the water bottle trick in future. Although, unlike your Dutch friend in the vid I don't have a hub gear so removing/replacing the wheel are the easiest steps - so I'll do it with the wheel out, and away from mudguards.

Oddly enough, my last puncture was incredibly easy. I pulled into a layby and then heard a funny noise. I looked up to see if I was underneath power lines making the noise. No ... what can it be? Ah ha! It's coming from my back wheel. I located it by ear.

 

[mjr]

unlike your Dutch friend in the vid

Oh www.reallyUsefulBikes.co.uk are quite English... it's only the style of bike that's currently called Dutch here... although other places sometimes call them all English 3-Speeds.

Ah ha! It's coming from my back wheel. I located it by ear.

Yes, punctures nasty enough to break through most modern tyres are usually pretty easy to locate, even without using water.

 

[mooingmilk]

This has been a an eye opener I didn't even know you could repair a punchure with out taking the wheel off .. awesome tip for total newbie

Big thanks !

Just found Evans cycle do a fix it class

 

[Okeydokey]

#mooingmilk that is where I was coming from, tbh! Makes this a great site. Many thanks to everyone.

 

[betty swollocks]

If you have a screw on screw off pump, check whether your inner tubes have removable cores.
No good pumping your tyre up again if when detaching the pump it pulls the core out.
This is how I discovered that inner tubes with removable cores existed. This discovery was accompanied by a walk home.

 

[summerdays]

Much of the above describes the racing orthodoxy. Slow Bikers tend to favour the Dutch-style repair, like this video except I use ready-adhesive patches:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz33ozlTvdo

That's Rob, and I've been to his shop err yard to buy bits or ride some of his various bikes! Never seen the video before though, thank you.

Rob's got various cargo bikes, Dutch style bikes etc in his barn, that's what he specialises in.

 

[byegad]

I recommend practising a repair at home. I'm not saying you deliberately jab the tyre with a nail, but going through what you need to remove, how much tyre needs to come off the rim and making sure your tools for each step actually work!

 

[Racing roadkill]

Put some anti intrusion tape around the inside of the tyres, and get some self healing tubes. You will greatly reduce the chance of getting a puncture, and if you do, all you need to do is find out where the pointy thing that's caused the puncture is on the tyre ( you don't need to remove the wheel ), get the offending article out, put the tyre back on, pump up the tyre, job's a good'un. Saves a lot of time and buggering about too .

 

[Pale Rider]

Another option if you don't want to/can't remove the wheel is a two ended or snake tube.

I have a Gaddi one, never had to deploy it, but it looks like it should work.

Available from German online retailers such as Rose and Bike Discount.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.gaadi.de/&prev=search

 

[Sittingduck]

Step 1. remove wheel
Step 2. await support car