if you're new to cycling or just in need of a bit of a refresher this video is for you correctly
inflating your tires is key to safe efficient and comfortable riding and it may seem like a simple
thing but trust me i've seen many experienced cyclists mess it up and get it wrong so in this
video i'm going to show you how to do that and i'm also going to show you a few little things such as
valve cores and how you can avoid them messing it up for you as well
first up you'll need a pump now a mini pump such as this is really useful for carrying about
and putting in your jersey pockets and taking with you on a ride but you know you don't want
to be relying on this day in day out they take a long time to pump up a tire all the way and they
don't have a gauge on so i'd highly recommend that you invest in a dedicated floor pump or track pump
such as this with a gauge on it and the idea is this just lives at home and then you can
check your tire pressures before you go out on a ride also they make short work of pumping up a
tire usually about eight or ten pumps and you're there you need to figure out what kind of valve
you've got on your tyres now most likely it's going to be one of these which is a presta valve
it's easily identified it's long and thin it's got a little knurled tip that you undo in order to
inflate it and then tighten it back once it's been inflated to keep the air in now if you're riding
an older bike for example an old town bike then it might have a schrader valve on the tires but
these are less common now if you're not sure what that is it's also the kind of valve that's used on
car tires many pumps will have a connection for either a schrader or a presta valve if you're
not sure which yours is then it's sometimes written on the pump if it's not written on
the pump then you can usually tell because the presta valve will require the thinner deeper hole
for the pump to fit onto the valve whereas a schrader is wider and shallower in most cases the
valve is attached to an inner tube which inflates from inside the tire but increasingly we're seeing
tubeless tyres on bikes and this is a tubeless tire i've got on my bike the valve is actually
just attached onto the inside of the wheel and there is no inner tube the air just inflates
on the inside of the tire another important detail it's worth knowing if you're a beginner
is you may notice i'm using these rather fancy aero deep section wheels and an important thing
here is that most valves on most inner tubes won't actually extend all the way through the deep
section and out the other side so you wouldn't be able to pump it up in that instance you often
need either a special long valve in a tube or a valve extender that you can then screw into
your inner tube valve to make it longer so that it does come all the way through like mine do here
what pressure should you inflate your tyres to well this depends on a number of different things
such as the width of the tyre that you're using the width of the rim the rider weight the surface
that you're intending to ride on as well as things like the weather conditions if it's
wet you might want slightly lower pressure so for example the bike that you can see behind me i've
got 26 millimeter tires on that they're set up tubeless and as a result i'm running them at about
85 psi but i'll drop that by 5 psi if the conditions are wet now a good starting point
is to just look at what's recommended on the tyres that you've got themselves it's usually written
somewhere on the side the recommended pressures and you can go from there alternatively certain
tyre brands such as pirelli actually have a useful chart that's available online or it's available
on the inside of the box as well that gives you a whole range of factors that you're able to factor
into determining what is the best pressure for you at the other end of the spectrum on my gravel bike
that has 43 millimeter tires on it i typically run those at about 30 psi but if you're unsure
of what pressure to use then i'd recommend asking your riding mates what they use if they're more
experienced than you or alternatively you could ask the question on the gcn community page on
facebook there's lots of friendly advice on there from the other community members if you're using
a presta valve as mentioned before you'll want to make sure that the little knurled pip on the end
is fully undone in order for you to inflate the tyre like so next you want to take your pump and
if it has a head on a track pump like this it's really important to put it on straight don't put
it on skew if or wonky as that can actually bend the valve or damage it or in some cases
snap it the same goes for when you remove it now most track head pump nozzles simply go on like so
you may need to use a bit of pressure by pushing on the actual tire and the pump head itself and
then there's usually a locking mechanism by way of a lever such as on this one pulling this lever
locks the track pump head onto the valve after you've done that you can then pump up the tire
some pump designs don't lock on to the valve in the same way they thread on
such as this one and this is a feature that's found more commonly on hand pumps
the kind of pump that you would take with you on a ride the same steps apply
simply undo the little pip on the valve and then you can thread it on by turning it clockwise
it only needs to be finger tight don't over tighten it if you're using a pump that threads on
to the valve as you unthread it and unwind it to remove it be very careful not to also unthread and
unscrew the valve core if you accidentally pull it off and take the valve core with it you'll hear a
big gush as all the air runs out this is really really annoying but if you're careful you should
be able to avoid it and if this happens it's not the end of the world you can simply put the valve
core back in and tighten it up either with a pair of pliers or with a dedicated valve key tool such
as this park tool one but also many multi-tools these days come with a little valve key built
into them somewhere valve cores are not always removable on every inner tube but many inner
tubes do have removable valve cores and tubeless tyre valves also have removable valve cores
so i'm going to remove this valve core so you can see what happens when the valve core pops out
yep if you're using a track pump to remove it you simply return the lever to the open position
and then pull the nozzle off
don't worry if there's a slight hiss of air that's pretty normal just be careful whenever you attach
or detach a pump just not to try and bend the valve and then after you've removed the pump
always ensure that you do up the little pit at the end to close the valve so the air doesn't
leak out as you're riding along a really common mistake that beginner cyclists make is not putting
enough air in their tires and then they get punctures all the time and this is because
they're getting pinch flats a pinch flat is when because there's not sufficient air in the tire
the tire can deform too much when it hits objects on the road and so you hit an object the tire
deforms and it compresses the inner tube against the wheel rim this causes a signature kind of
snake bite of both edges of the wheel rim cut into the inner tube and give you a puncture
so that's it how to inflate your bike tires i hope you found this video useful and if you have then
please give it a thumbs up and let us know in the comments if you've got any questions and also what
are the maintenance videos you'd like to see in the future and i'll see you in the next one bye