Can you change a rear flat?

Ha, I'm just like lph. I don't remember ever not knowing how to fix a flat ... and I don't remember my parents owning so much as a screwdriver. They must have, I suppose, but it wasn't part of our home culture. When I was about 15 I disassembled a freewheel, down to the pawls that went flying everywhere, just because. :D And got it back together and working, with nothing but a kid's perseverance, cheap hardware store tools I bought for myself, and some paperback book that I don't even remember the title.


I let the LBS replace my freehub last summer, although when I found out that the guy used YouTube to learn how, I kind of wished I'd just gone ahead and done it myself. :rolleyes: And I'm a little intimidated by bleeding hydraulic lines - I don't have any on my bicis, but I always get DH to supervise when I change the brake fluid on my motos.

I haven't had a headset, bottom bracket or hub apart since I was in my 20's. I'd probably be a little shy about doing it now. :p

Everyone should know how to change both tires and do routine emergency maintenance on the road. Seriously.

For all the feminism promoted on this site, not being able to change your own tires smacks a bit like "poor little girl" syndrome. If you don't know how...learn. Call your friends. Call your LBS. Watch online videos. Practice at home. Stop making excuses.

Buck it up, TE'ers. I know you can.

Help is always welcome - a tire change happens a lot quicker with two people. Once the wheel's off, one person pulls the tire off and the tube out, while the other gets the supplies out of the seat pack, prepares the new tube and CO2 inflater, etc. I've never had a guy act like he thought I couldn't change a tire.

Except, the last time a guy stepped in to help me change a tire he put it on backwards. :rolleyes: I didn't notice until I aired the tire the next time.

Fortunately it was the front tire, so all I had to do was reverse the wheel in the dropouts. Fortunately or unfortunately, I never got another flat on that tire, and I think I ran the wheel backwards for another 2,000 miles until the tire wore out (yeah, I know I could've taken it off and put it back on the right way). It's good for the hub to run the other direction sometimes, right? :p


ETA: thanks everyone for not pointing out to my idiot self that all I would've had to do was reverse the skewer...

I can fix most of my rear flats in about 10 minutes. I taught myself out of one of the Zinn maintenance books. Usually the part that takes the longest is finding the cause of the flat. My vision is not so hot, so I usually have to seek out really good light in order to find the gravel/glass/thorn/whatever, although sometimes I haul out my headlight for help.

Every so often I see someone walking a bike with a flat, with a devastated/lost look on his or her face. When I offer to help with the flat, they always act very surprised that it is a repair that can easily be done on the spot, with simple, cheap tools. I'm of the opinion that a big barrier here is ignorance - if you don't know that it can be done, you aren't going to learn.

I tend to get a little excited whenever something goes wrong with my bike, because then I get to learn how to fix it. Last week I got to adjust the headset :D

I can change rear flats, but the horizontal dropouts on my red Merckx are frustrating, and it can take me a long time to get that wheel back on, and there might be some hair-pulling and throwing of things :rolleyes:. Since I just got new wheels for that bike, the other night I practiced taking it off and on a couple of times with the best results ever, so I think I finally have a handle on it. I think it helped that I was in the right frame of mind to practice. It was not stressful, and it went right on.

I can and have done both a front and rear tire change, but I agree with Oakleaf...in that help is always welcomed. It goes much faster with a helping hand. And since the majority of my riding is always done with at least 1 other person, I'm pretty much covered. :cool:

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Originally Posted by Bluetree

Everyone should know how to change both tires and do routine emergency maintenance on the road. Seriously.

For all the feminism promoted on this site, not being able to change your own tires smacks a bit like "poor little girl" syndrome. If you don't know how...learn. Call your friends. Call your LBS. Watch online videos. Practice at home. Stop making excuses.

Buck it up, TE'ers. I know you can.

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My sentiments, exactly. It's not rocket science. Practice until it hurts and then practice some more. There is no excuse for being stranded because of one doesn't know how to fix a flat. Same thing goes for cars, by the way.

Bluetree, the fact is that some of us have a hard time learning or doing this. It's not that we "won't." I can do every part of the tube/tire thing, but I cannot get the rear wheel back on. I know what gear to put the derailleur in before taking it off, but by the time I do that and lay the bike down, I am lucky if the chain isn't totally disengaged from everything. If I manage to not do that, it is almost impossible for me to hold the rear end of the bike up, position the chain over the ring, pull the derailleur back, and get the bike into the drop outs at the same time. It's like I need 3 hands. I have actually pulled my back out, twice, from trying to do this. And my bike weighs less than 15 pounds. I am totally uncoordinated, have really bad fine motor and spatial skills, and while I want to be independent, if there's someone else there to do this, at this point, it's fine with me. Of course, I have only had 3 flats in 10 years. Two were at home, thankfully. My DH can change a flat in like 2 minutes, and I am not exaggerating. He can also do it without tools, if need be. So, believe me, it's extremely frustrating to not be able to do this. And when I've tried to practice at home, I just end up with my bike in pieces and me crying, pretty much. Frankly, I don't want to break my bike by bending something while "practicing." I am not kidding when I say that sometimes, I can barely zip a zipper. For me to be riding 3,000 miles a year is a miracle in itself.
I hope this gives you a perspective on why some of us have trouble.

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Originally Posted by tulip

Same thing goes for cars, by the way.

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Ha, the one time I had a flat on my car while by myself I couldn't get the lugnuts to budge and decided that a stretch of divided highway with cars whizzing by at 75+mph was no place to dicker-around with a flat tire on the traffic side of the car (especially as I had my kid with me...seeing mom get pasted by a semi didn't seem like the best memory for him to have). I wasn't far from home and called my hubby...even his 250# self struggled to get them off. That's what cell phones are for, IMO. :D

I have been lucky to not have a single flat while on my bike in nearly 5k miles of riding. *knocks on wood* I know I could change the front tire on my own...and the back. Like others, I have simply struggled to get the back tire back on and wish I had 3 hands.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

but I cannot get the rear wheel back on. I know what gear to put the derailleur in before taking it off, but by the time I do that and lay the bike down, I am lucky if the chain isn't totally disengaged from everything. If I manage to not do that, it is almost impossible for me to hold the rear end of the bike up, position the chain over the ring, pull the derailleur back, and get the bike into the drop outs at the same time.

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Turn your bike upside down and rest it on the handlebars and saddle. (You make need to take your computer off. I do.) This is my strategy for not having to balance anything. Plus, gravity is your friend - it helps the rear wheel slip into the drop outs correctly.

With the miles I ride, flats are inevitable. I had one just this weekend in the middle of nowhere. I carry TWO tubes, a spare TIRE and a patch kit (which I check regularly for glue consistency.)

I ride alone a lot, especially at night on long brevets, so knowing how to change a flat is critical. And knowing how to do it well enough when I'm tired, hungry, it's cold or dark (or all 4 of those things at once! :eek: ) is really important.

I've trained myself to change my tires without the aid of tire levers. You can to. It does NOT require great strength (I'm a wimp.). It requires technique. We have a very good " how to" on the TE website. I've had gals print it off and then practice in their living rooms until they get it down. Doing it at home when you don't NEED to is way less stressful than when you are out on the road and HAVE to.

http://www.teamestrogen.com/content/asa_levers

Try it! :)

Thanks for trying to help, Susan, but I won't turn my bike over for 2 reasons. One, I don't want to damage the bike, especially the handlebars, but two, that would be death for someone like me, because then everything is in a different place. I would have to visually learn and memorize where all of the parts are again and I would be very confused. I can't even put air in my tires when the valve is not on the bottom of the tire, because then the action of the lever on the pump/latch thing is backwards and I can't figure out what to do....

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Originally Posted by Crankin

...that would be death for someone like me, because then everything is in a different place. I would have to visually learn and memorize where all of the parts are again and I would be very confused.

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I have this same problem. Luckily, I've never struggled too much with getting the rear wheel back on, but when someone was first trying to teach me how to do it, they suggested turning the bike over. I tried, but I spent so long staring at it trying to reassemble the order of the parts in my head that I just ended up frustrated and annoyed. It just didn't work with the way my brain works.

Brains are weird.

Yes, I can change a rear flat by myself :)

Actually, what worried me most the one time I had to do it alone was remembering exactly how to use the CO2 inflater. I can't take off a tire w/o levers, but I can put it back on without levers.

Usually I am with someone else when I get a flat, and it is easier with two people. I prefer to set the bike upside down as well.

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Originally Posted by soprano

I tend to get a little excited whenever something goes wrong with my bike, because then I get to learn how to fix it.

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Me too!

I learned how to fix a rear flat (okay, admittedly how to fix a flat altogether) when I got my first one; I took it to the Bike Garage, and a bike-handy girl with a very bad attitude taught me how, without getting my hands too dirty, and without using tire levers. It was a good first lesson (minus the attitude).

Getting a rear wheel out/in isn't an issue for me at all, but getting the tires off/on my 16" wheels is killer; I don't have the brute strength to do it without help, though I can do it on 700 cc wheels no problem.

I'm all for people learning how to do repairs on their own, but I don't feel right judging people who simply choose not to do those repairs on the road. If you have a phone and a friend with a car, and that's the way you want to take care of it, it doesn't bother me at all.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

I won't turn my bike over for 2 reasons. One, I don't want to damage the bike, especially the handlebars

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Poppycock. I guarantee you my handlebars cost way more than yours and I'm not afraid of hurting my bike(s). Sounds like you're grasping for an excuse.

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Originally Posted by Crankin

two, that would be death for someone like me, because then everything is in a different place. I would have to visually learn and memorize where all of the parts are again and I would be very confused.

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So what's wrong with learning where everything is again? Obviously what you've been doing before doesn't work.


Crankin, I don't want to sound unsympathetic, but you seem to have a lot of "can'ts" and "won'ts" in your vocabulary and quite frankly, nothing will change if you keep that attitude. You CAN do it, especially if you decide to stop acting like a sulky child and be the person you want to be, and the person we know you can be.