Can you change a rear flat?

[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!