Can you change a rear flat?

[OakLeaf]

I am still not sure that someone who does all of this stuff intuitively can understand how my brain works. I don't mean this directed at you, personally, I just think it's hard to envision. The same way I can't understand how someone doesn't like to read.

You know, I really can't envision it, but as someone at the opposite end of the bell curve, I find it very easy to accept. If I can take one look at a wheel and frame and swingarm and instantly understand exactly through which opening and at what angle the new shock has to go in, why shouldn't there be people on the opposite end of that aptitude scale, too?

[owlice]

I can change a tire on a bike or a car. I don't patch my flatted tubes; I just replace them.

I probably knew how to do this as a kid on my no-speed cheap bicycle ($20 used), and I clearly recall soaking the chain in gasoline (or maybe kerosene) to clean it (and being just a little worried that something would ignite the fuel), but other than that, I didn't mess with a bike again until a couple of years ago.

I went to an REI bike maintenance talk -- no hands-on, just talk -- two years ago which was helpful, but what was at least as helpful was having a guy talk/walk me through changing my tire on one of my long C&O rides (prepping for doing the whole towpath). I enjoyed talking to the guy; he, his three kids, his wife, and his parents were spending the weekend on a 50-mile ride on the C&O, camping over the long weekend along the way. And he was a good teacher, too.

I've have more flats in the past four months than in the previous 8 years of riding. Should have paid attention to the size of the new tires and not been using tubes that were just a little big for them!

I carry gloves and wipes with me.

[tzvia]

Thankfully, on the MTBs I run tubeless so my flats have been ZERO in the last year off-road. Which is really good, as my Safire is a bit of a pain to reinstall the rear tire. The rear pivot point on the chainstay is kinda thick and right next to the cogs and it makes it rather difficult to get the wheel back on. Chain is not an issue.

On the road bike it's a no brainer; I've been fixing flats since I was a kid. I use USE Spin Stix so I just unscrew the skewer and the wheel pops right off. I only use those patch kits with the vulcanizing rubber and sandpaper- none of that crap peel and stick stuff, so the patched tube is good as new and I won't be dealing with dried glue and leaking patches down the road.

[pll]

Practice makes perfection (or, at least, it lowers the discomfort).

I attended a demo in my LBS years ago and I had been lucky never to have a flat on my own bike. First chance to practice, with some help, was on a friends hybrid.

Then in 2008, I had 3 flats in the rear tire in the middle of nowhere in Scotland. Not only did I learn to patch and change tubes, but I also learned about bad rim tape! Before those flats, I did not even know that existed. After the third one, I had to 'patch' parts of the rim tape with sport tape a friend was carrying, riding very gingerly for hours until we arrived to our destination and found a bike shop.

Last summer I had another chance to practice when I saw a family stranded in a trail -- dad's rear tire had a gaping hole! I recalled having read (in TE) something about using a folded dollar bill to cover the hole. It works!

[Geonz]

You know, I really can't envision it, but as someone at the opposite end of the bell curve, I find it very easy to accept. If I can take one look at a wheel and frame and swingarm and instantly understand exactly through which opening and at what angle the new shock has to go in, why shouldn't there be people on the opposite end of that aptitude scale, too?

Thank you

I also struggle with remembering how things are arranged, tho' perhaps not as far along the spectrum as Crankin. I *still* get the sequence out of whack changing tires -- and since I ride 8-10,000 miles a year, I do it fairly often -- if I don't read the box the tube comes in. (I only know that because it happened yesterday.) With this particular tire, I had first tried to put the new, nice 35mm tyre on and ... when it just wouldn't cooperate and seemed to &*( big, I put it away and grabbed an old tire ... but it was really, really old and so went flat the next day. Happily, it happened *not* out on the 20 mile club ride, but just got soft on the errand to the farmer's market a mile from home... which inspired me to load up that big new tire and the other hopefully not quite as old tire onto the back of the bike and then pump up that tire and figure it would get me the mile to the bike coop where I volunteer just so I can keep seeing how things work and know a ***little*** more... and I'll do triage and answer questions, so the people who like wrenching can spend more time doing that.
Oops, it *didn't* get me there... so I hopped off to walk it... but the ancient spineless tire even came free from the rim and the tube wrapped itself around things... so I had to toss it upside down in the road and jam it back in and then take all the parts to my bike blender out, since it was the weight that caused the problem, and limp it the rest of the way in.
Once in, with a little coaching, the "big fat" tyre wasn't too big. But I still put the tube in the tire before getting the tire halfway on the rim, which mattered.


... and this one **is** a lot easier to change upside down, because then all its skirts flop down so I can see things. If your bike doesn't have skirts, though, it doesn't matter as much.