Repair a Flat on the Rear Tire of a Bicycle - tool.sand.backtire PEP BB

When I have a flat back tire I don't remove the wheel. On my bicycle wheels are difficult to remove at home (or somewhere along the road). In my opinion it isn't needed to remove the wheel to fix the hole in the tire ...

Needed to replace a flat rear tire today:

Flat in situ


Tools for taking wheel on and off


Inner tube was really split open, needs to be replaced..


Took the opportunity to clean the gears a bit


New tube next to rim


All back together, pumped up and ready to go.

I was wondering when I'd get a chance to do this BB...

Hmph!! Manky staples!

Reparied with a rubber patch and contact cement.

Here is my submission for the Tool Care - Sand - Repair a Flat on the Rear Tire 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 rear tire on my bike held air but was apparently overinflated and blew out the bead.  I inspected the rim for damage (none found) and replaced the tube.  

A tech trick: inflate the tube with about 10-15 psi then insert it into tire.  Put tire/tube on rim then inflate while making sure the bead seats.  40-65 psi is recommended for my tires.  I inflated to about 50 psi.

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

Does replacing an inner tube count as a "repair", or does this BB require using a patch kit to repair a tube?

Unfortunately I missed the chance to do this one recently. My daily commuter got two flats last week, having not had one in 9 months.

I thoroughly recommend proper tyre levers, rather than the old tea spoon handle method.

Michael Cox wrote:Does replacing an inner tube count as a "repair", or does this BB require using a patch kit to repair a tube?

Hi Michael,
My tube blew out and I replaced it ( look at post above yours). My BB was approved, so yes replacing the tube counts as a repair.

I thoroughly recommend proper tyre levers, rather than the old tea spoon handle method.

I purchased these with my new tube and they work great!

I also got this tech trick: inflate the new tube to about 10-15 psi then insert it into tire.  Put tire/tube on rim then inflate while making sure the bead seats and the valve stem is parallel to the spokes.

My opinion is replacing the tube is a better repair than a patch. I would approve it.

I was initially intending to post/submit this as an oddball BB but I'm thinking now perhaps the rear tire repair is a better fit.  Most of my flats happen when I'm out on the trails/roads and since I don't do cell phones I don't get to photograph the on site repairs.  :)  This is actually a repair after the trail repair to hopefully prevent another flat.  If this is deemed not applicable for this BB that is fine.  I'm sure I'll get another flat at some point.  (I recently decided to start buying my tubes by the half dozen since I seem to go through them so often.)

The cause of my flat this time was the valve stem getting cut by the metal rim.  This is not the first time I've had the issue.  What seems to happen is that for some reason even though I make sure the stems come out straight from the rim hole they end up shifting to an angle.  (Still scratching my head over that.)  Then since I use my bike for actual work hauling stuff the heavy loads can cause the rim to bear down and cut into the rubber tube right at the base of the valve stem.  In my role of metalsmith educator I'm often telling my students to "pay attention to your edges".  I realize this is probably what I need to be doing here myself.  The edge of the stem hole in the rim was fairly sharp.  It seems to me that if I were to file/sand/polish that edge down then it would be far less able and likely to cut through the tube.

So after I fixed my flat and got back home with my load of groceries I took the tire off again, removed the new tube, reworked the valve stem hole in the rim, and replaced the tube in the tire.  It's been several days so far and all has been well.  I'm honestly not certain this will fix the issue, but I can't see why it wouldn't.

I had taken photos of the BB ages ago and never got around to posting it. Please note: looks like someone tried fixing this tube before I did really poorly, the silicone stuff is not my doing, I just went and replaced the inner tube.

- Before pic of flat tire
- Action pic of repairing a flat rear tire
- After pic of inflated good tire
- Describe 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:


Finish:

This is my little-est son's rear bike tire. It won't hold air, so we pulled out the tube to see if we could repair a hole. Luckily, the hole was small, so with a little slime and air, the tire is holding once again. oops, yep, I posted it in the wrong BB. Sorry!

After a ride the previous day, came out to find rear tire completely flat. Hadn't gone "whoosh" when I was riding, and didn't go "whoosh" when I pumped it back up, so it was relatively slow. If it goes "whoosh" and I can identify the location without taking the wheel off, I'll just take off a little section of tire and patch it without taking the whole wheel off, but since it was a slower leak, I had to take the wheel off.

After taking the wheel off and removing the tube, I inflated the tube and submerged it in a dishpan of water. Upon locating the stream of bubbles, I dried that section and marked it with a bullseye with a permanent marker. Pro tip: Marking in this way makes it easy to keep track of the location of smaller punctures after sanding the tube and applying glue.

I scuffed up the tube with a small piece of coarse sandpaper and applied a tiny dab of vulcanizing patch cement and schmeared it thin around the area. Upon allowing it to dry for 30 seconds until completely dry, I applied 1/4 of a Rema patch and pressed firmly for 30 seconds. Pro tip: Buy the box of 100 Rema patches, and cut them into quarters for patching the tiniest holes.

To avoid repeat punctures, I checked the inside of the tire for the offending sharp item. Pro tip: always align the logo on the tire with the valve hole in the rim to be able to know where on the tire to look for the pokey after locating the hole in the tube. I found a small piece of glass that had worked its way through, leaving a small cut about 1/8 of an inch long. The tire is fairly old, so is wearing thin and has more cuts like this, so will likely pick up more glass and get more punctures more frequently. I'm not sure if this will work, but I used some "Shoe Goo" adhesive to try to seal up some of the small cuts in the tire casing to prevent them from being weak points and picking up future glass and possibly slightly extend the tire life.

Reinstalled tube in tire, and tire in wheel, being mindful of tire logo orientation with respect to valve hole and ensuring that no portion of tube was caught between rim and tire. Upon reinstallation of wheel, rear cable-actuated disc brake was rubbing slightly indicating that the wheel was not sitting quite the same in the dropout as before, so I opened the quick-release back up and squeezed the brake lever while closing the quick release in order to make a tiny adjustment to wheel alignment in the dropout and ensure that the rotor was centered in the caliper.

Oh no...had a flat tire
oh yes... a chance at another badge!

pleasefind attached pictures of the flat tire, the hole, contact cement and fix and reinflating.