Getting a puncture is one of the most irritating things of cycling. Sometimes when you get a puncture, you then seem to get several punctures in quick succession. There are a few things you can do to prevent punctures and mending them with least difficulty.
1. Carry Inner Tube, pump and tyre Leavers
During a ride, you won’t feel like waiting for glue to dry, therefore, it’s best to carry a few inner tube spares and mend the punctured tyre when you get back home.
2. Buy Inner Tubes in Bulk
I like to buy inner tubes in bulk – you can get Inner tubes at Evans Cycles
you will also find some deals are even cheaper. When it is about £2 per inner tubes, it hardly becomes worth repairing them with a puncture repair kit.
3. Take off Wheel
The hardest thing about mending a puncture for some people is being able to take off the front wheel. This is why quick release skewers were a real boon – you no longer needed to carry a spanner to remove wheel.
4. Tyre Leavers to remove tyre and inner wheel.
Note. You can remove tyres without tyre leavers – you just need to manipulate the tyre closer to the rim and squeeze sideways when necessary
5. Don’t Use Tyre Leavers to Put the Tyre Back on
IMPORTANT – USING TYRE LEAVERS MAKES IT LIKELY YOU WILL PUNCTURE VERY SOON. I wish I had known this when I started cycling. Quite often I would mend a puncture, only to get another flat within a couple of hours. What happens is that when you use tyre leavers to put tyres back on – it is easy to pinch the inner tube between the wheel and tyre. This leads to pinch puncture. To put the tyre back on use your hands, methodically rolling the tyre back on.
6. The Squeeze technique.
It’s rather hard to explain in words. But, if you have difficulty putting a tyre back on try to squeeze the tyre downwards so it becomes wider. – Try to get an experienced cyclist to show you this technique, it is worth knowing.
7. Check for sharp objects Embedded in Tyre
Be careful you don’t get the dreaded double puncture. Sometimes the sharp grit that causes puncture, gets embedded in tyre. Make sure you locate the source of the puncture (see where air leaks out of inner tube in relation to the valve – then have a good poke around to remove any grit.
Related
External Links
- Puncture Repair at Evans
I use Schwalbe Hurricane Kevlar tyres which stop the regular punctures on my 75 miles a week to and from work in Manchester, UK.
I use my hands to put the tyres back on and the only thing i’ve found (with a lot of tyres) is the tyre is not uniformly placed. They fit so tightly around the rim that they cause a dip, which you will notice at high speeds. I now put in a little air and then use the end of an adjustable spanner (I never use tyres levers) to re-align the tyres.
Also be careful from places like e-bay that promise puncture protection. They may sell you the type I bought without the kevlar lining, which you can tell by the thickness of the rubber and it’s ability to lose its shape when deflated, and the ability to allow punctures to occur. The last one had me stumped as there was a fragment of glass inside the tyre.
I just put the Schwalbe Marathon Winter tyres due to the cold weather we’ve got at the moment. The studs are still promiment for their second winter of use so i’ll be leaving them on till March.
Also, thanks for the advice on tyre liners. Sounds like something I should add to my set up.
I use Schwalbe Blizzard as an all-round commuting & training tyre and find them good value for money. Cheaper the the Contis, I have used Armadillo in the past but only good for commuting really, feel rather heavy, on the plus side you definitely notice the difference when you put some decent tyres on!! The tread eventually wore out, though they didn’t puncture even when lacking in rubber!