In any listing of the highest 10 repairs each bike rider ought to be taught, fixing a flat might be Numero Uno. And, except you’ve embraced tubeless-tire know-how, that inevitably means you’ll must patch a tube. We’ll cowl the fundamentals right here, but in addition verify your patch package’s directions and defer to them the place particulars differ.
Listed below are the everyday steps for patching a tire tube:
Seize your provides: At a minimal, that’s a patch package and tire levers for eradicating the tube from the tire.
Discover the leak: Carefully verify the tube; tiny holes require detective work or submersion in water to find.
Resolve whether or not to restore or change: Severely broken tubes can’t be saved.
Clear, dry and tough up the floor space the place the patch might be: It helps the adhesive stick.
Unfold the glue and apply the patch: As soon as the glue is cheesy, press the patch down, holding it firmly in place.
This text describes how you can apply a patch at dwelling, utilizing a standard glue-on patch. For many flats, you are able to do an analogous repair within the discipline.
Be aware that many patch kits now include glueless patches—the steps are basically the identical, minus the glue software. Early era glueless patches tended to not maintain in addition to glued-on patches. At this time’s glueless patches have severe endurance, although their chief attraction stays that they’re faster and simpler to use.
Video: Find out how to Patch a Bike Tube
Provides for Patching a Bike Tube
Most patch kits embrace the next:
Patches
Glue
Sandpaper or tube-scuffer device
Extra provides:
Marker (a lightweight colour)
Pump
Tub of water (to search out tiny leaks) and a small towel
Store Tube Patch Kits
Find the Leak
Once you take away your bike’s wheel after which the tube out of your tire (see Find out how to Repair a Flat Bike Tire for particulars), search for the origin of your flat. Test the tire’s outer floor for injury or put on—issues like a thorn or piece of glass lodged within the tread, or a minimize within the tread or sidewall.
For those who discover one thing, that may level you towards the tube leak. Look in that very same space, checking each the tube and the internal floor of the tire for related injury. Take away any imbedded object from the tire, and mark the placement of the leak on the tube.
If no outer tire wounds level you towards the tube leak, then verify the skinny strip alongside the within of your rim. Search for protruding spoke ends or areas the place the strip could also be distorted, permitting the tube to get pinched in opposition to a spoke-hole opening.
Tube injury may be tough to identify. For those who do not see any apparent clues, then it’s time to seize your tire pump:
Pump some air into the tube.
Maintain the tube near your ear and slowly rotate it round to see should you can detect a hiss.
For those who can’t, then submerge the tube in a bath of water, rotating it slowly till you see a tiny stream of bubbles.
Wipe and dry the spot, then mark it.
Restore or Substitute?
For those who assume the injury is just too in depth to patch, then a spare tube is your repair. Any time a tube’s valve is broken, even on the base, then it’s positively not repairable. In a borderline case, you’ll be able to strive a patch and let its success or failure dictate a full tube substitute.
It’s clever to hold a spare tube if you trip. Many riders default to changing the tube on a trip as a result of it is the best manner to make sure they’ve a reliable repair. On the very least, it is best to have spares in your house restore provides. Tube dimension data needs to be on the sidewall of your tire; it must also be listed in your bike proprietor’s handbook.
Some riders will use a patch as a discipline restore, then they change the patched tube with a brand new tube at dwelling. A patched tube may be simply as reliable as a brand new one, although, so long as the patch is completed properly and the patched tube isn’t a number of years outdated or dappled with a number of patch jobs.
Store Bike Tubes
Prepping the Patch Web site
When you’ve situated the leak and determine to proceed with a patch, then it’s time to wash and scuff up the floor of the tube:
Deflate the tube.
Completely dry the patch space; if it’s soiled, clear the positioning, then dry it.
Use sandpaper or the tube-scuffer to tough up the realm across the puncture: This helps the glue stick higher.
Making use of and Checking the Patch
Dab a small quantity of glue on the outlet, then evenly unfold a skinny layer of glue round it, masking an space no less than as massive because the patch.
Wait a couple of minutes for the glue to get cheesy.
Take away the backing from the patch and press it onto the tube.
Maintain the patch firmly in place; you’ll want to press out any air bubbles that may have gotten below the patch.
After you apply your patch, let it set for a number of minutes. Then add some air—however don’t totally inflate the tube as a result of that stresses the patch earlier than the glue has totally cured. Take a look at the tube underwater once more, checking for any bubbles popping out from the patch.
One closing verify: Go away the tube out in a single day, too, and verify the subsequent morning to see if it’s misplaced any air. If not, you’re able to insert the partially inflated tube again into the tire. Then it’s a matter of reseating the tire onto the rim, totally inflating it and placing the wheel again on the bike. Our Find out how to Repair a Flat Bike Tire article reveals you these steps intimately.
Associated Articles