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Taking care of your equipment: Changing a flat tire

Posted June 28, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Martinique Haller

Section: Her Fitness, Her Gear & Apparel

Cycling, like other sports requires the use of equipment--your bike. It’s important to know how to maintain your equipment whether that means tightening the trucks on your skateboard, or wrapping grip tape around your tennis racket. It’s a good idea to know how to do it yourself.  I decided to take myself at my word and learn how to change flat tires a few weeks ago. I have the grand advantage of being married to a woman who knows a lot about bikes; she’s worked in a bike shop for four years and is happy to take care of my bike for me from lubing it, cleaning it, to adjusting the brakes, airing up the tires, and changing my flats. But I have always been an avid cyclist of my own accord, and not knowing how to do any of the basics keeps me from crossing the line from avid to serious, or enthusiast to athlete. I decided to start with changing a flat.

I arrived home from work and removed my locking skewer and pulled my front wheel off. I found my directions, and pulled out a drop cloth and sat myself down on the living room floor to make my television time a little more productive. I removed the cap and unscrewed the valve. The directions didn’t say anything about letting the air out of the tire, but I assumed that was essential. I pushed down on the valve. Because the air coming out seemed really cold and highly pressured and I was unsure if I was doing it right (what exactly I thought it should feel like is beyond me).  I didn’t want to mess up anything that would prevent me from riding to work the next day so I opted to wait for my wife to come home to give me the demo. After all, learning is good no matter how it’s done and I don’t think learning from a handout or a website is superior to learning by being taught someone else.

I laid the tire on the floor and waited for the wife to arrive home from work. She was proud when she realized I was finally following through with learning to change a flat. It was something we had talked about doing for awhile, but we kept not getting around to it. She confirmed that I needed to let the air out of tire and that the way I began was correct. After that we went step by step through the process of removing one side of the tire from the rim, pulling out the tube, putting it back in, getting the tire back on without pinching the tube and airing it back up. And then we did it again. Then I did it by myself, and did it by myself again.  Finally, I learned how to remove the back wheel.  Once I learned how to remove that wheel I realized it was nothing to be intimidated by. I had to make sure to put the wheels back correctly and check the brakes.  The mystery of flat tires was finally revealed to me and I was proud of myself. Now I’m just waiting for my first real flat tire.

Next time a piece of your equipment needs to be cleaned, replaced, or repaired think about asking questions instead of just dropping it off at the shop. Ask if they’ll show you how to do it. If the repair is relatively minor you could try it yourself by looking in a book or online before taking it in. The payoff in pride is worth the effort.

This video walks you through changing a flat tire.

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Tags: athletic euqipment, biking, cycling, flat tires, martinique haller

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