Can you change a rear flat?

[lauraelmore1033]

I can change a rear tire. I took a beginning maintenance class. I think you're right about confidence growing from the ability to change one's own tires. When I'm riding with dh, and one or the other of us gets a flat, we divide the task of changing the tube between us; I remove and repace tube and tire and then hand off to hubby who pumps it up. We're back on the road in no time.

[Catrin]

I experimented with changing my rear tire on my LHT - tire change was EASY Getting the rear wheel back on was not More practice is required. Last night I learned that wider tires also makes things interesting!

[soprano]

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

[alice]

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

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.

[Bluetree]

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

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.

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.

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.

[Velocivixen]

I forgot to mention that during my class with the hands on the bike was upside down and that made it very easy because the bike supported itself. I stood behind the bike and used my left hand to pull the derailleur back toward me and used my right hand to grab the wheel and pull it up out of the dropouts.

[Susan]

I can change a rear tire and fix a flat. I think I learned a lot this stuff, like finding the hole in a flat tire and putting it on or oiling or cleaning things, from my grandpa when I was 3 or 4. My family still laughs about how I always wanted to "operate" my scooter and my first bike when I was small.

Still, I always have to find out how to put the chain in the right spot again if I have to change it or the tire or the jockey wheels, it's a bit confusing.

[OakLeaf]

Glove or no glove, how do you do it without getting your handlebar tape dirty? Once the new tube is in, you still need to pick the bike up to put the wheel back in, and touch the chain afterward. Having a clean rag between hand and handlebar is probably the way to go, but it just seems like an extra level of hassle. Anyone?

[chryss]

I changed/fixed many flats, front and rear, with hub gears or derailleurs, in my teens and twenties, but admittedly haven't in a while. (Tires seem to have become a lot better in the last years and I was blessed with a lack of flats lately.) Because I feel a lot less competent at dinking around with my bike, I'm taking a 6 week maintenance course that starts in two weeks .

[buffybike]

I've ONLY had rear flats. Once I had rear flats twice on the same ride (turns out there was a piece of metal in my tire). I learned by asking a girl at my LBS to show me how to change it when I first bought my bike. Then I flatted on a group ride and I made one of the leaders walk me through changing it. The next time I flatted, I was alone on the side of the highway and it was sprinkling. It took me about 15 minutes, but I changed it myself. I felt like such a bad*ss afterward.