Repair Flat on Front Wheel of Bicycle - PEP BB tool.sand.fronttire

My submission for badge bit.
I used the following to repair a flat on the front tire of a bike:
- gloves
- tire levers
- new tire tube
- bike tire pump

Here is my submission for the Tool Care - Sand - Repair a Flat on the Front Wheel of a Bicycle BB.

My sister and I each have a bike that has been in the shed for a while (I haven't ridden in a decade - my sister rides every summer).  All four tires were flat so I started by filling them to test tube soundness then washed both bikes and degreased the drivetrain.  The front tire on my sister's bike would not hold air and after inspection, a damaged section of the "bead" of the tire was discovered.  I inspected the rim for damage (none found) and replaced the tube.  I did not replace the tire and the bead seated nicely but a new tire is on the shopping list.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
 - Before pic of flat tire
 - Action pic of repairing a flat front tire
 - After pic of inflated good tire
 - Describe what the tire was repaired with

I'm blaming Permies for my luck on this one since just days ago for my BB on repairing a flat back tire I noted that my flats usually happen out on the trails where I don't get to photograph the repair cause I don't carry a camera with me.  Well today I went to ride my bike to the grocery store and... the front tire was flat!  I'm actually really grateful since I was last riding it in a thunderstorm in the middle of the night.  Road repair in those conditions would have truly sucked!!

So here is my BB submission documenting the repair of my front flat tire.  I have also opted to file, sand, and burnish the valve stem hole in the rim to make that metal edge much softer and far less able to cut a valve stem since that was my issue with the rear tire.  On this front tire though my inspection turned up a thorn as the culprit.  Mosquitoes got overly inquisitive so I did the repair inside the house too.  :)  

I don't get as much use of my bike now that I'm not living in a city. I used to cycle everywhere and managed to go without owning a car for almost 8 years. Now that I live more rurally everything is further away (and, living in the mountains, often very hilly!) and I'm lucky if I get out on the bike for three trips a week.

I do cycle to the gym whenever I visit, between one and three times each week. I also cycle to the post office and a few shops in town but I don't visit very often. For the last month or two I have noticed that my tires have slow punctures and lose air after a week or so. I'm forever stopping to pump them up and thinking "I should repair these".

This evening I replaced my front inner tube. If there was an obvious hole then I'd have used a repair/patch kit but I have experienced this issue before with these inner tubes and I know the valves can be faulty (they seem to give up after a while!).

I took the wheel off, partly removed the tire, pulled out the inner tube, replaced it carefully ensuring there were no pinches or snags, gave it some air to make sure it wasn't broken then refitted it all to the bike and pumped it up.

Here is a flat tire on my wife's bicycle.


I took the wheel off and removed the tire and inner tube.


The tube had a hole, I replaced with a new inner tube.


I pumped the tire up to recommended pressure.


Finished tire back on the bicyce

Finally I have an opportunity to do this BB! My front tire is flat. I will totally replace it, so first thing to do now is to order new tube, tire and tube protector tape. My back tire was replaced with a real Schwalbe tire and tube last year (not by myself). Now also my front wheel can have Schwalbe, the best bicycle tires I know.

- Before pic of flat tire
- Action pic of repairing a flat front tire
- After pic of inflated good tire
- Descrbe what the tire was repaired with

This bike has had a slow leak in both the front and back tires for some time. Upon inspection, the tubes were cracking from age. I've had this bike for almost 20 years and I think this is the first time I've changed out the tubes.

Start:


Progress:


Finished:

This is the front tire on my son's bike. It's quite a bit of up-keep to maintain 8 bikes each summer. So we use slime and patches whenever we can to save on new tire costs. Here is the squishy tire, which we decided had a small enough hole that it could be patched with slime. So we filled it up and it holds air well enough now to keep his little 35-pound-weight supported. Yay!

My franken bike had a flat I'd patched it and got a flat again. So here's the pictures of me putting a new tube in for this BB.

This is my submission for the BB relair a flat !

Here's the missing pic of the front tire inflated. Have not been able to include it in my failed submission.