- If you've got a flat tire on your bike,
it's more than likely that you've got
a hole in the tube inside the tire.
Now there are two ways to fix it.
You either replace the inner tube with a brand new one,
or you actually try and repair the old one,
which is more environmentally friendly and it's cheaper.
So here's how to do it.
Start by removing the wheel from your bike.
Now this might be a case of opening the quick release,
or unscrewing the bolt, in this case, or the nuts.
What you'll need for this job,
are tire levers, a pen like a sharpy,
and a puncture repair kit, with sandpaper, patches and glue.
Oh, and of course a pump.
To access the inner tube we need to unhook
one side of the tire from the rim,
and in order to do that we need some tire levers.
Insert the thin end of the tire lever
underneath the bead of the tire,
and then lever it over the top.
You'll probably then need to use a second one,
a little bit further around the tire
to lever enough of what's called
the bead of the tire off the rim.
Then slide the tire lever around the wheel.
Then finish the job with your fingers.
When half the tire is off you can then
simply pull the inner tube out from inside it,
and finish by taking the valve out of the rim.
Now with the inner tube removed,
what we need to do firstly is to try and find out
what caused it in the first place.
That means when you've spent time fixing your inner tube
you don't pop it straight back in the tire,
only for the same thing to puncture it again.
So it's a two step process.
We firstly check the bed of the rim,
so that is this bit here,
and it should be nice and smooth,
no sharp edges sticking through,
and there is a layer of tape normally that goes around it.
First you need to check that is still in one piece,
and then we need to carefully check the inside of the tire
for any sharp objects that might be sticking through.
So a piece of glass or a thorn.
Hence you can see why I think you should be careful.
Just run your fingers around the inside,
and you'll feel for anything
that's potentially sticking through.
And now finally, we get on to our inner tube.
The next step is to actually try and reinflate it,
and that is then gonna allow us then
to find out where air is escaping from,
so that then we can put a stop to that.
As a general rule the faster the inner tube goes down,
the easier it will be to find that hole.
But you may find that you end up needing
to actually run the inner tube next to your face,
to hear and potentially even feel any air escaping.
Then finally, a great tip if you're at home,
and you're really struggling to find the hole,
is to actually submerge the inner tube under water,
then you can actually see any air bubbles escaping from it.
When you've found the hole put your finger over it,
so you don't lose it again and then
mark the spot with a sharpy or some kind of pen.
Then using a piece of light sandpaper,
which is normally included in your puncture repair kit,
you need to very, very lightly sand the inner tube down.
That means that when you actually
come to stick the patch on there,
it'll stick much, much more effectively.
Now for the gluing, and this is not very nice stuff,
so you need to be quite careful with it.
Effectively we need to apply a really
fairly thin layer on the inner tube around the hole,
and we need an area on there that's bigger
than the patch that we're about to stick to it.
Then the thing to remember above all else,
is you then need to allow the glue time to dry a little bit,
before you then stick the patch to it.
So three or four minutes should do it.
This is probably about as interesting
as watching paint dry I guess.
There is at least one job you can do
whilst waiting for your glue to dry,
and that is choose the correct size
of patch to go over your hole.
In this case it's not an absolutely monster hole,
so I can leave the absolute monster patch there,
and choose one of these neater, rounder ones.
Okay, we are in business now.
The next step is to peel off
the backing paper from our patch.
Then avoiding actually touching
the surface of the patch itself,
we need to put the center of it over our hole.
That's why I put a little cross on there,
because it makes to much easier
to actually find the hole again,
even when its covered in glue.
So you ready for this, there we go.
Keep pressing on it for a good couple of minutes,
and frankly if you're not in a rush,
then what might be a good idea,
is to leave something resting gently on it,
like a book or something,
then come back to it a little bit later on,
just to make sure it's really firmly stuck down.
If you are in a hurry, i.e you're out on your bike
and you need to get going again,
then it's worth bearing in mind
that as you inflate the inner tube
the pressure actually between tube and tire
will of course help keep the patch stuck down.
So that is one option, but if you have the time
I thoroughly recommend that you actually check,
using your bucket of water, to make sure
that the job you've done on patching the inner tube
is sufficient to stop the air leaking out.
That way you don't spend time
putting the inner tube back in the tire,
and the wheel back in the bike, only to find that
you've still got some kind of puncture.
Right, the moment of truth.
Whatever you do, don't put too much pressure in,
because no matter how good your patch job
you might still blow it off the inner tube.
But just enough to be able to tell,
to see if any air leaks out.
Ahhh, there we go, like a pro, look at that.
When you're happy it's simply a case
of putting the inner tube back in the tire,
reversing the process that we started with.
It's a good idea to keep it partially inflated,
because as you can see it then
gives it a little bit more shape,
and it's easier to actually put it back on.
So we start at the valve this time.
Then push, gently place the inner tube back inside the tire.
Then using your thumbs,
start to lever the bead back inside the rim.
This is the point at which it might
start to get a little bit tricky.
When you've done all you can
with your fingers and your thumbs,
we need to get our tire levers back in the mix.
Using the tire lever the other way up this time,
you need to very carefully insert it
between the rim and the tire,
and then lever the tire upwards, and back onto the rim.
You do need to be really careful at this point
that you don't trap the inner tube
between the tire lever and the rim,
because at that point you could end up puncturing it again.
So just be very careful, and also,
that's another reason why it' a good idea
to actually partially inflate the inner tube.
Because then you kinda know where it is,
as opposed to just flapping around in there.
Okay, ready?
Jobs a good 'un.
Now you might find that your tire
is a little bit tighter on the wheel than this one is,
in which case you'll probably need
to put a little bit more effort in.
It just depends on what tire you've got.
Even when you've been super careful it's still a good idea,
once the inner tube is safely inside,
just to make sure that it's not stuck at any point
between the wheel and the tire.
That way when we inflate it we know
that everything is going to be absolutely a-okay.
If it ever does look like it's stuck,
then normally just pushing the tire
and the inner tube around a bit should free it up.
Right, start to pump up your tire again,
but don't do it all the way, stop half way through.
So if you've got a pressure gauge,
maybe it reads at about 20 psi on there,
which is about one bar,
and at that point we can then just check again
to make sure that it's all seated as it should do,
nothing is bulging out where it shouldn't.
Meaning that we're in the clear to pump it up
to the pressure that we'd like it to be.
Then it's just a case of putting the wheel
back in the bike and away you go.
Now if you did struggle to get the tire back on the rim,
then we've got a video that shows you all the tricks
of the trade to help you do that,
because as I said some are particularly difficult,
and if you wanna check that one out it's just down there.
Then the other thing as well,
is actually getting the wheels on and off your bike
can also be tricky when you don't know how.
So if you would like that process explained nice and simply,
we've got a video just there for you.
Otherwise, do make sure you give
this video a Like, and happy riding.