How to change a tire tube...

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

I'm getting a lot better at it with practice, and I can now do it most
of the time without mangling the tube with my tire levers, but I'm sure
there are tips and tricks I could benefit from to speed up the process.

The guys at the LBS do agree that my front wheel (spare Alex wheel, not
the Bontragers) is unusually tight and its not an easy wheel to change
a tire on, so maybe I'm not a complete 'tard, but any further tips
would be welcome, especially since next time I change a tire and tube I
probably won't have the luxury of doing it at home, I'll be working in
the dark by the side of the road somewhere..

Travis

Start removing it at right angles to the valve stem so you're not
pulling the tyre onto the valve stem when you push it off the ridge into
the center of the rim. That way you can get the tyre looser and you
won't damage the valve stem.

Same goes for putting it on, start and finish at right angles to the valve.

Friday

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

I'm getting a lot better at it with practice,

I'm wondering why you are getting so much practice. Huey will strike me
back on this morning's ride for saying this, but I don't get enough
punctures to stay in practice. I put this down to five things:

- good rim tape such as Velox to prevent punctures from the spoke or
rim
- keeping tire pressure high with a track pump around once a week if
not every ride
- Vittoria Rubino Pro tires, which seem very puncture resistant (dead
cheap at PBK)
- riding out in the lane if there is debris near the edge
- wiping my tire if I go over glass (haha, I know Jobst says this is a
waste of time).

Donga

sounds like you gotta tight combo of tyre and rim, which can happen especially with the faster/lighter folding tyres...

some things that 'may' help...

try and avoid using tyre levers. If at all possible, you can work slack in the tyre (starting at one side , say 120oclock for eg sake, and progressively collecting said slack over at 6 oclock...)
Pulling tyre off to one sides 'should' be easy/ier.

When you take tube out and replace with the one you are carrying/using,
put a few pumps of air into it so it can hold its shape and not get displaced or creased/folded as you are replacing tyre back onto rim.
Also will help to gt tube snuggly 'up' into cavity away from rim and possible pinching during tyre reseating.

Apparently talc can help too in all this. havent tried it myself but that 's more due to bad maintenance than choice 🙄

Donga said:

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

I'm getting a lot better at it with practice,

I'm wondering why you are getting so much practice.

Because I got my new wheels yesterday! Yay!

Paid $215 for these:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7249999669&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

http://tinyurl.com/jaepd

But I haven't had that much practice, apart from that time I got a
puncture while out riding on a glass strewn section of Tonkin Highway,
most of my practice has been from the last week or two, and the
punctures were from clumsy installation, not punctures on the road.

I bought some cheap tires from Torpedo7 a fortnight ago, and put these
onto my spare (Repco) bike to replace the really crappy whitewalled
tires I had on it, mangling a tube or two in the process. So I had to
repeat the process several times and used a lot of patches...

When I banged my front rim on a rock last week, I didn't puncture the
tube (even pinch flat it) but the rim was dented and whacked my brakes
so I put my decent tires on a spare wheel and rode around on that.
Punctured three or four tubes with clumsy tire levering while changing
the tire, giving me the experience of having to remove the tire and put
in new or patched tubes about half a dozen times.

Then last night when I got my new wheels I had to remove the tires from
my spare wheel and the undented (but worn out) Bontrager. First thing
I did was instal a tube with a stem that was too short (my new wheels
have a fairly deep dish), so I couldn't pump it up. Had to start
over... Then I installed a long stemmed tube I've had lying around for
a while and a few hours later it was flat, so it had a slow leak
somewhere. It was one of those very slow leaks that doesn't give off a
stream of bubbles. Had to take that out and put in another one. I
installed the tubes but mangled one with a tire lever and had to remove
it and patch it, then reinstall.

I've now got them in, my tires did not deflate over night. It works.
I've had to do at least ten tire/tube changes in the last few weeks.

But for future reference, any tips people might have on the proper
technique for removing and replacing tires without screwing up tubes
would be appreciated. I'm getting better with practice, but its still
difficult and time consuming for me and tips are appreciated.

The Sheldon Brown site has some good stuff of course. Anyone know
where I can get one of those "bead jack" things mentioned in this
article?
http://sheldonbrown.com/flats.html

Travis

"Travis" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

Fer chrissakes, can't anybody spell 'tyre'? Or are you posting from the US?
Sometimes I think we should go down the French path and enforce the sanctity
of our culture and history.

Claude said:

Fer chrissakes, can't anybody spell 'tyre'? Or are you posting from the US?
Sometimes I think we should go down the French path and enforce the sanctity
of our culture and history.

.... should we be calling said rubber thingys "wire-ons" or somesuch?
Sheez.

Donga

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

1 - Op shop, old spoons with rounded ends, or
2 - there are tyre levers with rounded and curved ends., but always
3 - take care.
4- depending on tyre and rim combo and strength of hand and thumb, it
can all be done with one (okay, involves scrapping lever around rim)
spoon, but it is fastest with three and practise {:-).

quote='Terryc'Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

Never use tyre levers to put it back on, cultivate strong fingers and thumbs. To get the last bit on I sit the wheel in front of me, open side away, put both thumbs on rim and roll the tyre back towards me with the fingers of both hands.
Once on, a few puffs from the pump, just enough to open the tube up then I go round the whole wheel pinching the tyre in and jiggling it to centre it on the rim and check for any caught bits of tube . Then pump it up hard
I favor plastic levers

RoryW

"Terryc" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

1 - Op shop, old spoons with rounded ends, or
2 - there are tyre levers with rounded and curved ends., but always
3 - take care.
4- depending on tyre and rim combo and strength of hand and thumb, it
can all be done with one (okay, involves scrapping lever around rim)
spoon, but it is fastest with three and practise {:-).

My tyre levers are fairly [censored] steel ones, bought after the plastic ones I
had gave up and folded fairly quickly. Mindful of potential tube damage I
took some files to them and got rid of all the burrs so they're actually
fairly nice to use now.

Donga said:

.... should we be calling said rubber thingys "wire-ons" or
somesuch?

They're HPs. Here's a quick list of acceptable aus.bicycle words:

Tyre
HP (tyre with beads)
Single (tyre with glue onit)
Fixed wheel (bike with no freewheel)
Fixed (as in "I'm riding fixed today"😉

Unacceptable words:

Tire (except when yer talking about how ya feel at the end of a ride)
clincher
wire-on
sew-up
tubular
fixie

Anyone caught using unacceptable words will be dealt with by Lottie and her Shotty.

Cheers,

Suzy

And if one more person uses "peddle" rather than padal...

suzyj said:

And if one more person uses "peddle" rather than padal...

Wot's a 'padal' ????

Dutchy said:

Wot's a 'padal' ????

My [censored] typing. Geez, you'd think I'd get the spelling right in a spelling flame, wouldn't ya.

Cheers,

Suzy

I changed one the other day. Many ways to do this, but:

1. I lever off one side of the tyre first, all the way around.

2. Then reach in and pull the tube right out. Leaving naked tyre for
the lever.

3. Then put tyre lever in and lever the other side of the tyre over the
near rim.

4. Take the tube and tyre out, lay on the ground and pump the tube up.
Find the whole and then (important!) find the bit of glass that caused
the puncture. This can take quite a while, but its worth it.

Reverse 1-3 to put it all back on. Then:

5. Go all the way around looking for pinched tube anywhere.

6. Pump it up as hard as you can. Then pump 20 more times.

Related topic: over-sized tubes.

I've been using 35mm tubes inside my 32mm tyres for about three years
now. In my perverse logic I figure more rubber, less stretched, might
result in less punctures. Seems to work, but of course more rubber on
the outside may be the main contributor. I use Conti 2000 tourers,
recently replaced by Schwabe(?) Marathons. More rubber means the glass
has to burrow through more rubber.

Yes, I go slower, but I really, really, hate punctures. I learn to
smile and wave as the rest of aus.bicycle speeds past. HoHum.

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

I'm getting a lot better at it with practice, and I can now do it most
of the time without mangling the tube with my tire levers, but I'm sure
there are tips and tricks I could benefit from to speed up the process.

The guys at the LBS do agree that my front wheel (spare Alex wheel, not
the Bontragers) is unusually tight and its not an easy wheel to change
a tire on, so maybe I'm not a complete 'tard, but any further tips
would be welcome, especially since next time I change a tire and tube I
probably won't have the luxury of doing it at home, I'll be working in
the dark by the side of the road somewhere..

Travis

flyingdutch said:

suzyj Wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And if one more person uses "peddle" rather than padal...

Quoted message said:

Wot's a 'padal' ????

A new product Suzy is peddling?

Theo

"Resound" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Terryc" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Travis said:

This is going to sound like a really lame question, and it is, but I
was wondering if anyone could give some pointers (or pointers to web
pages) on removing a tire (clincher rim), fixing a tube and replacing
everything quickly, easily and without pinch flatting the tube.

1 - Op shop, old spoons with rounded ends, or
2 - there are tyre levers with rounded and curved ends., but always
3 - take care.
4- depending on tyre and rim combo and strength of hand and thumb, it
can all be done with one (okay, involves scrapping lever around rim)
spoon, but it is fastest with three and practise {:-).

My tyre levers are fairly [censored] steel ones, bought after the plastic ones I
had gave up and folded fairly quickly. Mindful of potential tube damage I
took some files to them and got rid of all the burrs so they're actually
fairly nice to use now.

Egads!
Go get yourself a nice set of Michelin Tyre levers.
They're nice and thin, and I've never broken one yet.

Theo Bekkers said:

flyingdutch said:

suzyj Wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

And if one more person uses "peddle" rather than padal...

Quoted message said:

Wot's a 'padal' ????

A new product Suzy is peddling?

Theo

Boom Tish

Gemma_k said:

Go get yourself a nice set of Michelin Tyre levers.
They're nice and thin, and I've never broken one yet.

1.5" slicks, large tubes, and Sun Rhyno lites/Ditch Witches. Allegedly.

Not that anyone would ride a silly duallie for Sydney to the Gong and some.

--
Dave Hughes | [email hidden]
There are some things so serious you have to laugh at them. - Niels Bohr

Random Data said:

Gemma_k said:

Go get yourself a nice set of Michelin Tyre levers.
They're nice and thin, and I've never broken one yet.

1.5" slicks, large tubes, and Sun Rhyno lites/Ditch Witches. Allegedly.

Michelin Comp S UST and Mavic 819 rims on a very cold day

Quoted message said:

Not that anyone would ride a silly duallie for Sydney to the Gong and some.

Would that have been a silly duallie or a very silly silly duallie?

Parbs