Tips for Mending a Puncture

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 10 inner tubes for £27.99

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.

• Puncture kits at Wiggle