Changed my first *&^)_&&^%$ tire

**staceysue** · 10-20-2009, 10:17 PM

Glad I could provide some entertainment!

Update: I skipped doing my hair and makeup so I could get the stupid nut out of the stupid tire. It wasn't too too bad - I didn't have to take the wheel off to do it. Everybody at work was wondering why I looked so awful, though.

Tomorrow I'll try to ride the thing. Hopefully everything's on right!

**krisl6** · 10-21-2009, 12:30 AM

I feel your pain too. For some reason something always seems to go wrong when I have to fix a tire. I can do a patch job ok, but I'm terrible at replacing tubes. Can never seem to get enough strength out of my spaghetti arms to get that last bit of the tire on. Very frustrating!!!

**papaver** · 10-21-2009, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by krisl6

I feel your pain too. For some reason something always seems to go wrong when I have to fix a tire. I can do a patch job ok, but I'm terrible at replacing tubes. Can never seem to get enough strength out of my spaghetti arms to get that last bit of the tire on. Very frustrating!!!

Hey Krisl there is a Flemish cycling forum where there's a thread about which tubes go well with which types of wheels. Very handy!

http://www.wielertoerist.be/forum/vi...p?f=55&t=20961

**Crankin** · 10-21-2009, 03:25 AM

I have no problem replacing the tube, getting the tire back on. It's putting the rear wheel back on. I have been to at least 3 classes, where I manage to do it, and practice every winter, but the last time I practiced, my DH came home to find me sitting on the front step, crying, with my bike in pieces.
Yea, I know the tricks (putting the chain on the biggest cog, big chain ring), but I can't manage to lift the bike with one hand, pull back the deurailler with the other and get the chain back on. More than once, I've hurt my back trying to do so!
Well, I have had only had flats twice while out on the road in ten years. Thankfully I was with someone else at the time. Pretty much, this is why I don't do long rides alone. And I pump my tires every time I ride, don't ride in the rain if I can help it.
I know, I'm hopeless.

**OakLeaf** · 10-21-2009, 03:59 AM

Oh goodness, it's putting the chain on the smallest cog to take tension off the chain/derailleur springs, and have the derailleur closest to the dropout.

No wonder you're having trouble!

Try it that way next time...

**krisl6** · 10-21-2009, 04:19 AM

Originally Posted by papaver

Hey Krisl there is a Flemish cycling forum where there's a thread about which tubes go well with which types of wheels. Very handy!

http://www.wielertoerist.be/forum/vi...p?f=55&t=20961

Wow that is very handy! Thanks for the tip!

**Crankin** · 10-21-2009, 04:20 AM

No, I just wrote it wrong.... I know which cog to put it on.
I am trying everything I can to avoid working on my part of a group therapy simulation I have to do for a class, so my mind is kind of jumbled. In fact, I think I am going on a group ride and will do my work afterwards!

**OakLeaf** · 10-21-2009, 04:30 AM

Hmmmmm...

Learning to trust people you might not ordinarily interact with.

Mutually allowing each other into a position to do each other serious harm, trusting that they won't.

Learning to set appropriate boundaries, getting very close to get the "job" done, but not so close that you get interlinked and bring the whole group down.

Letting other see you at your worst.

Is that group therapy, or a paceline?

**Biciclista** · 10-21-2009, 09:42 AM

My consolation is that my commute is 4 miles and I've already walked it a half dozen times this year; so if I do get a flat, I can push the bike up the hill and get to my nice warm house to attempt to fix a flat (or wait for DH to get home!)
ps if i didn't have DH, I'd go to the LBS for flats, probably!

**Crankin** · 10-21-2009, 10:48 AM

Very funny, Oakleaf. My co-leader and I are doing a simulated group for teenagers (14-15) of deployed parents in the military. We have developed a good activity, developmentally appropriate, based on research, blah, blah, blah. I have to write up the rationale, which is the biggest part, and I have some good sources. It's just sitting down to do it. Of course, who knows how the people playing our clients will react. I just have to remember to make my process comments. It's not for another month. Oy, I sound like a therapist and it sounds weird.
I went on the group ride and kept saying to myself, "I can leave at any time," since the ride was never more than 7 miles from the start (although it was a 35 mile, fairly hilly ride). I did not go to the lunch, though, as it was at the local bagel place, 3 miles from my house. I rode home and led a few others back.
OK, now I have to work. After I shower, etc.
And I will practice the tire changing again.

**MartianDestiny** · 10-21-2009, 11:29 AM

Sorry you had a bad first time! Sounds like most of your trouble was with the quick release axle. A few (hopefully helpful) hints on that front: 1) you don't need to unscrew the nut and take the axle out of the wheel. Pop your quick release open (yes, it's not fun) unscrew 2-3 turns and pull your wheel straight out. This allows you to leave the axle in the wheel and not worry about the little nut or spring going flying (and is why it's called a quick release). 2) when you put it back on don't tighten it all the way and then try to flip the lever closed, the lever is designed to take the last bit of tension (hence why there are springs, etc. in this contraption). This takes some feel because you don't want it too loose, but if you can't close your lever with the meaty part of your hand back the screw out 1/2 a turn or so until you can.

**tulip** · 10-21-2009, 12:21 PM

Crankin, try turning your bike upside down to replace the rear wheel.

**Crankin** · 10-21-2009, 02:36 PM

That makes it worse. Everything is backwards. My spatial relations are not ah, too cool. I just have to practice. My DH can do it in like 2 seconds.
I have hardly had any flats. I had one in 2004 and then most were on the one century I've done in 2006, when something actually slashed my tire and I had 3 flats. Interestingly, the next and last time I had a flat was in the *exact same spot in Maine* on a group ride. Well, I don't know if it occurred there, but I was at that spot during the ride and when I got home and took my bike out of the car, the tire was flat.
Don't ever ride up the hill at Nubble Lighthouse in York Beach!

**Biciclista** · 10-21-2009, 02:37 PM

Originally Posted by Crankin

That makes it worse. Everything is backwards. My spatial relations are not ah, too cool. I just have to practice. My DH can do it in like 2 seconds.
I have hardly had any flats. Most were on the one century I've done, when something actually slashed my tire and I had 3 flats. Interestingly, the next and last time I had a flat was in the *exact same spot in Maine* on a group ride. Well, I don't know if it occurred there, but I was at that spot during the ride and when I got home and took my bike out of the car, the tire was flat.
Don't ever ride up the hill at Nubble Lighthouse in York Beach!

you're not alone, sometimes I do it by accident. Once my car mechanic came out to do it for me after watching me struggle for a while.

**VeloVT** · 10-21-2009, 02:57 PM

I like to use tubes with threaded stems. I find that when I'm fixing a flat on the road and using C02, the process of getting the C02 pump seated straight/correctly on a presta valve on the first try (and therefore not wasting any of the C02) is made much easier by having the valve held in place. The nut goes on the outside though

.

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