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A flexi-hosed, screw-on-the-stem, metal mini-pump; fat plastic tire levers; glueless patches, with no felt marker in sight. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]
What causes bicycle tire flats? Riding your bicycle does! The more your ride, the more flats you'll get, so get the kind of gear that makes repairing flat tires as trivial as possible. Most everyone knows the basics: little rubber patches, sandpaper, contact cement, fifteen minutes, and an air-pump, and away you go. There's more than one right way to do the job, so I'm not going to tell anyone what to do. I going to explain some of what I do.
Cheaply-priced, cheaply-made, plastic mini-pumps, with snap levers that friction-fit onto the valve stem, are false economy. They don't last; the friction-fit is finicky, awkward in the dark, and progressively more impossible as your tire size drops below 26-inches, like with kid's bike, or a trailer -- 20-inch tires, depending on the rim style may still offer enough clearance for the lever, but 16-inch tires likely won't.
By contrast, I use a mini-pump style modelled on the traditional floor pump: The connector, on the end of a flexible hose, screws onto the valve stem, and the whole thing is made of metal. They are not that expensive and have real advantages:
More than one company makes this style of pump, but a Lezyne hand pump is as good as it gets, for about $80 CDN. I had a Lezyne for many years, similar to the HP Pressure Drive model. My current pump, pictured above, is an older style of Topeak's RaceRocket Mini Pump. I've had it for about two years and it's maybe as good as the Lezyne was, and it was two-thirds the cost.
Some nylon tires have such a thick rim bead that real force is required to pop them off the rim. Metal tire levers (which are making a weird comeback) really can rip a tube, and plastic levers will just fold, like taffy, unless they are big, and thick -- so get big, thick, plastic tire levers. I love Pedro's tire levers. They work so well; they're easy to see in low light, and they snap together.
Imagine a future where you can fix a flat in well under five minutes -- two minutes, if all goes well; no messing with contact cement, waiting ten or twenty minutes for it to cure (tick... tick... tick...). I live in that future. I use glueless patches. There are many, many, brands, and they all work the same: Insure the puncture area is clean; roughen with included sandpaper/scraper; apply patch, and press-and-hold for 60 seconds; done.
I'm using Felzer Zippy glueless patches (12 patches for $5 CDN at Mountain Equipment Co-op). I've been using glueless exclusively, for over two years, with fewer problems than the traditional method. Still, it's controversial. MEC's own customer review page for the Felzer glueless patches they sell, gives the product a negative rating.
Normally I also carry a red or green permanent ink marker, for the sole purpose of marking the puncture, which I find by pumping up the tube, and rotating it slowly, very close to my cheek, so I can feel the escaping air -- looks damn silly, but it works. The marker sounds trivial, but I missed it last night, when I was fixing a trailer tire flat. You can skip a lot of this falderal, if you have the capacity to carry a spare tube, in addition to your tire patching gear.
A flexi-hosed, screw-on-the-stem, metal mini-pump; fat plastic tire levers; glueless patches, with no felt marker in sight. Click image to enlarge.[/caption]What causes bicycle tire flats? Riding your bicycle does! The more your ride, the more flats you'll get, so get the kind of gear that makes repairing flat tires as trivial as possible. Most everyone knows the basics: little rubber patches, sandpaper, contact cement, fifteen minutes, and an air-pump, and away you go. There's more than one right way to do the job, so I'm not going to tell anyone what to do. I going to explain some of what I do.
1. Mini-pump with metal body, flexible hose, and screw-on connector
Cheaply-priced, cheaply-made, plastic mini-pumps, with snap levers that friction-fit onto the valve stem, are false economy. They don't last; the friction-fit is finicky, awkward in the dark, and progressively more impossible as your tire size drops below 26-inches, like with kid's bike, or a trailer -- 20-inch tires, depending on the rim style may still offer enough clearance for the lever, but 16-inch tires likely won't.
By contrast, I use a mini-pump style modelled on the traditional floor pump: The connector, on the end of a flexible hose, screws onto the valve stem, and the whole thing is made of metal. They are not that expensive and have real advantages:
- Screw-on connector is fool-proof. You can do it with your eyes closed.
- The flexible hose allows you to easily make a connection on smaller tires, and keeps the cylinder out of the spokes altogether, for easy pumping.
- Metal construction makes them so much more durable.
More than one company makes this style of pump, but a Lezyne hand pump is as good as it gets, for about $80 CDN. I had a Lezyne for many years, similar to the HP Pressure Drive model. My current pump, pictured above, is an older style of Topeak's RaceRocket Mini Pump. I've had it for about two years and it's maybe as good as the Lezyne was, and it was two-thirds the cost.
2. Fat plastic tire levers -- can you say Pedro's?
Some nylon tires have such a thick rim bead that real force is required to pop them off the rim. Metal tire levers (which are making a weird comeback) really can rip a tube, and plastic levers will just fold, like taffy, unless they are big, and thick -- so get big, thick, plastic tire levers. I love Pedro's tire levers. They work so well; they're easy to see in low light, and they snap together.
3. Glueless patches
Imagine a future where you can fix a flat in well under five minutes -- two minutes, if all goes well; no messing with contact cement, waiting ten or twenty minutes for it to cure (tick... tick... tick...). I live in that future. I use glueless patches. There are many, many, brands, and they all work the same: Insure the puncture area is clean; roughen with included sandpaper/scraper; apply patch, and press-and-hold for 60 seconds; done.
I'm using Felzer Zippy glueless patches (12 patches for $5 CDN at Mountain Equipment Co-op). I've been using glueless exclusively, for over two years, with fewer problems than the traditional method. Still, it's controversial. MEC's own customer review page for the Felzer glueless patches they sell, gives the product a negative rating.
"X" marks the hole
Normally I also carry a red or green permanent ink marker, for the sole purpose of marking the puncture, which I find by pumping up the tube, and rotating it slowly, very close to my cheek, so I can feel the escaping air -- looks damn silly, but it works. The marker sounds trivial, but I missed it last night, when I was fixing a trailer tire flat. You can skip a lot of this falderal, if you have the capacity to carry a spare tube, in addition to your tire patching gear.
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Nice entry. I'm going to have to add a marker to my kit... great idea. I also carry an extra tube, for when I don't feel like patching. As a matter of fact, I've started carrying a couple tubes of different sizes - to help other stranded bicyclists that I come across.
Thanks for sharing.
I've lent pump, tools, hands, and given patches -- but tubes, and in a selection of sizes ... Wow! Does your bike helmet cover it, or does the halo, shine freely? Might be such a thing as being too good. Thanks for reading.