How do you plan to fix a roadside flat?

[LewSchiller]

Kid Lew would flip his Dunelt .."Ride Awheel on Sheffield Steel"..English Racer upside down on the bars and seat - remove the wheel and fix the flat.
Now.....I don't think I can bring myself to do that..and I don't see how I could in any event what with all the accessories attached to the handlebar.
So planning ahead for what to do in this scenario...
Tow a Burly Trailer that doubles as a service stand?
Invent an inflatable cushion onto which my bike can be layed down?
Call AAA?
What's your plan?
(Maybe I'm over thinking this...I do that sometimes)
Lew

 

[DDBB]

Gaddi tube! Learned about it right here on this site!

 

[DaveMatthews]

Gaddi tube! Learned about it right here on this site!

Love love LOVE the idea, and I want it. BUT...
They do not come in 27.5 x 2.6 so I'm hooped. If they had even a 2.4 I'd get it, but sadly no. At least not yet.
So... I have been investigating various slime/sealant possibilities for tube and tubeless.
Both my rims and tires are tubeless ready, so I may make the jump, but dayum… would love to have a Gaddi as a spare.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Why do you have to flip the bike over to fix a flat?

 

[LewSchiller]

Love love LOVE the idea, and I want it. BUT...
They do not come in 27.5 x 2.6 so I'm hooped. If they had even a 2.4 I'd get it, but sadly no. At least not yet.
So... I have been investigating various slime/sealant possibilities for tube and tubeless.
Both my rims and tires are tubeless ready, so I may make the jump, but dayum… would love to have a Gaddi as a spare.

I had my rims lined and heavy duty tubes installed when I bought the bike. They also treated with Stan's so I'm hoping to avoid flats in the first place..but I think we can all agree they're inevitable. The Gaddi tube is a great thing to have. Still wonder how to put the bike in a place where I can work on it.

 

[LewSchiller]

Why do you have to flip the bike over to fix a flat?

Well - I don't want to but I'm trying to envision how I'd be able to dismount the wheel - or work on it to install a Gaddi - when it's on its kickstand.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Well - I don't want to but I'm trying to envision how I'd be able to dismount the wheel - or work on it to install a Gaddi - when it's on its kickstand.

I just lay the bike down with the drive side up. You might have to loosen the skewer before laying the bike down but otherwise there isn't any problem with removing or reinstalling a wheel that way.

 

[DDBB]

It's a pretty big ordeal with my wife's Gazelle so Gaddi tube is on the way.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

 

[Stromer2work]

Why do you have to flip the bike over to fix a flat?

right? I try not to flip my bikes upside down too much as the concrete scratches the hell out of the black anodized bits like the shifters and brakes.

Had to fix countless natural asperated bike flats. With ebikes, I've had to fix a flat on the road, and a few in the home (slow leaks next morning flat). The ones at home get put in the park stand. The one on the road was on the kickstand as the rear thru axle was loosened, and as the wheel came out of the frame, the bike went down on the left side. As the fixed rear wheel was put back into the frame, the frame was held upright and the wheel inserted and tightened. About a 10 min job. i got a pinch flat by going a little too fast in an urban environment.

The numerous other flats I've fixed at home were tire cord (thin steel wire) and thorn punctures to the tube, as well as a couple instances of the presta stem separating from the tube. I was using up some old tubes I guess, and the rubber was not great.

 

[DDBB]

Great idea Mr. Coffee; if you can easily find the hole. I'd try that before I deploy the Gaddi tube.

 

[ebikemom]

Since we lack experience, our family solution is... a Thule Easy-fold rack and getting rescued! I also looked into roadside assistance, and figured for the number of problems I'm likely to experience when nobody can come and get me, I can just call a local towing company. I called a couple of them and they said they can carry an ebike, no problem.

Not that that answers your question.... but till I get more skills to do these jobs at home, I am not going to attempt them on the road.

 

[indianajo]

I ride some places there is no cell phone service, so noone is going to come get me. The wife works when I am out on the bike, and it wouldn't fit in a Elanta anyway.
I lift weights 4x a week so I'm strong enough to do jobs like flipping my bike over for flats. Currently I'm curling 7 lb, I'm not a strong man. I weigh 150 lb summer. Touching my toes every other is also important. Watch a Pilates show like Margaret Richards; that's where I learned these exercises. You start losing muscle at age 55; I'm age 68. Upped to 7 lb this summer because 5 lb wasn't good enough for some jobs.
I lay the bike on grass, not concrete. Not a problem finding grass on my routes. Unplug & dismount the battery before doing this, and empty the panniers or baskets. I designed the mount for my display to flip down with two screws. The basket or aluminum frame I installed on the back keeps the rear fender from being damaged, also the rear light and rain cover. Last time I changed the tube I laid the bike upside down against a cable TV generator rather than lower the seat so the bike wouldn't fall over. Trees and road signs also work.
I carry wrenches for the axle nuts, two flat screwdrivers to pry the tire off, a schrader valve core cap from the auto supply, a pliers to pry back the takeup on the back and to wind it up installing, two tubes, a schwinn foot air pump. Two tubes because this ****ese garbage is all we can buy. One new one split immediately one time, I had to push the bike 6 miles. Tie wraps and a diagonal cutter to remove and reinstall the rear axle wiring.
I have a tube with a split in it that doesn't require removing the rear tire to get it on. I bought at at meiers discount store. I don't know if it works yet.
I removed the thin tire from the power wheel that came with it and replaced it with a thick Kenda that shouldn't go flat till the tread wears off. That should be enough at-home practice. Last flat was from a split cord off road tire from a $10 mountain bike. Don't use tires over 6 years old, like the NHSTA suggests.

 

[rich c]

The biggest hassle is making sure something is not sticking through the tire. Both my flats were slow leaks and was able to pump up on the trail and repair at home. One was a thorn sticking through the tire, so very easy to find. It did require a needle nose pliers to pull the thorn. Those things can be jagged and only remove easily in one direction. The second flat must have been a piece of glass, or pinch flat. All I could find was a scuff looking mark on the tube, nothing in the tire. That's two flats in over 7,000 miles.

 

[6zfshdb]

I saw a guy on the trail fixing a flat last month using a pair of these:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018WIOGK...&pd_rd_r=1085e37a-d924-11e8-bd66-fd11a13cb987


He tied them to a tree branch and hoisted the bike high enough to work on it standing up.

 

[6zfshdb]

Love love LOVE the idea, and I want it. BUT...
They do not come in 27.5 x 2.6 so I'm hooped. If they had even a 2.4 I'd get it, but sadly no. At least not yet.
So... I have been investigating various slime/sealant possibilities for tube and tubeless.
Both my rims and tires are tubeless ready, so I may make the jump, but dayum… would love to have a Gaddi as a spare.

I'm going to try a Gaadi 26 x 2.25 tube with my Fat Frank 26 x 2.35 tire. I'm hoping a tenth of an inch too large will still work. At least to get me home anyway. In the past, I've used conventional bike tubes .25" larger than spec with no problem. I don't know about the Gaadi though.

 

[AHicks]

I think the AAA plan (or some sort of wrecker service) would be for me as well. Has nothing to do with whether I'm able to fix it myself. It's way more along the lines of having to ride around with all the "stuff" necessary to fix anything that happens, including a flat. I love riding on trails, but those never wander far from where I would have to be "rescued" as I live and ride in a fairly suburban area. -Al

 

[LewSchiller]

I think the AAA plan (or some sort of wrecker service) would be for me as well. Has nothing to do with whether I'm able to fix it myself. It's way more along the lines of having to ride around with all the "stuff" necessary to fix anything that happens, including a flat. I love riding on trails, but those never wander far from where I would have to be "rescued" as I live and ride in a fairly suburban area. -Al

I wonder how long it would take to be picked up and at what cost. Facing a $100 tow bill for a flat would be...unpleasant.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

AAA is pretty inexpensive, and depending on what plan you have the tow might actually be at no cost to you.

One thing to keep in mind about services like that is that you might be waiting a long time in the rain to get picked up, depending on how busy they are. The other thing is that if you are in a remote area you will be waiting even longer and their service coverage and effective services might not be up to the standards you expect. Something to think about if you go on a cycling vacation in western Montana or northern British Columbia...

I've had direct personal experience with two different roadside service companies that ended up involving hours of negotiation on the satellite phone in the middle of the howling wilderness. My elderly parents RV'ed to Alaska last year and had a mechanical in the middle of nowhere that also took a couple of days to resolve.

So these services, while awesome, are far from perfect.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I think a lot of people on this board tend to massively overthink things, and this thread is a shining example of that.

Fixing a flat tire on a bicycle is not a high-skill task. Most ten-year-olds can easily master it. And you don't need very many tools for the job. Some tire levers, a patch kit, and a pump will most likely do the job. A spare tube and a tire pressure gauge are nice but you don't really need them. If you don't have QR skewers or through-axles you might need a wrench to get the wheel off but as the previous video I posted showed you don't need to remove the wheel. But that is about it. Beyond that you are just getting fancy (a spare valve cap, valve core, and a valve core tool are nice but you will again very rarely actually need them).

The reality is if you properly maintain your bike well north of ninety percent of the "mechanicals" you will suffer on a ride will be simple flat tires. If you mostly ride on paved roads and aren't a maniac that number will be much more like 99 percent.