🚲How to repair and replace a bike tube🚲

Good afternoon my Steemians!  Today I'm going to explain to you how to repair, or replace, your bicycle's tube 🙂 Even if you have got tubeless, you may get a road bike someday or stumble across somebody in an emergency situation where this information will come in handy😄 

So here you are, you're stuck on the side of the road or in your garage with a flat tyre and no one around to help you....what do you do!  Now provided you've got the right tools, I'm here to help you😁 

First things first, you're going to want to get the tube out the tyre...here's how to do that:  You're going to take your first tyre leaver and, putting it just inside the rim, you're going to "hook" the tyre wall over the edge of the rim, and fasten the other end to the spoke.  Next, you're going to take your other tyre leaver and do the exact same thing just about 3-5 cm's away from where you put in the last one, and instead of fastening it onto the spoke, you're going to slide it around the rim to loosen the tyre. You don't have to loosen it all the way, just enough to remove the tube.

Now once you've pulled your tube out you need to find the hole. If you can hear the air coming out but can't actually see the hole, pump your tube up again, get a bucket of water and put your tube into it; the bubbles will indicate where exactly the hole is🙂 

Now we get to the fun part😜  (If you're just replacing your tube without repairing it, you can skip these next few steps.)  Now that you know where your hole is, and you've got your repair kit and tube infront of you, you're going to want to grab the little piece of sandpaper or little grating device and sand all around the area of where the patch is going to be. I like to sand quite a wide section around the hole, that way I know I'm not going to land up with an unsanded area underneath the patch.  The point of the sanding is that you want to get a nice rough surface so the patch will stick easier without sliding around.

(If you have a glueless patch you can skip this step) Once that's done, you're going to take out the glue and apply a generous amount ontop of the sanded area.  Leave that for a couple minutes to dry. You don't want it to dry completely, so pay special attention. You want it close to dry, but not completely. You need to leave it to get tacky so it will stick but not too visibly wet. If it's too wet it wont be able to dry properly under the patch, resulting in the patch coming off and you having to do it again😄 (This has happened to me a few times so don't get discouraged if it doesn't work the first time!😄😎)

If you think you're ready to stick the patch on, go for it. Carefully tear the backing off the patch, and keep in mind that you want to touch the back of the patch as little as possible (dah Caela😄) but hey you want to keep this thing as sticky as possible!😜✔ To apply the patch, work from the inside out. This way you wont stand a chance of trapping air bubbles under the patch. I used to work the patch down for like over a minute just to make sure it definitely wasn't going anywhere😂😝 (I secretly still do)..

Great so now it's time to test your work 😏 The daunting moment of truth😅 This for me is the scariest and most exciting part😆 So now you're going to pump that baby up before putting it back in the tyre. Why? You guessed it😆 Sometimes it doesn't work out and we have to take the patch off and repeat the whole process😄 There is no reason to get discouraged! This has happened to everybodyyy. Just laugh at yourself and try to figure out what went wrong😁 For me, it's usually that I never let the glue dry long enough, or that somehow and air bubble got trapped inside and, with the pressure of the pumping, moved it's way to the edge and messed up everything for you😅 We only learn from our mistakes, and practice does indeed make perfect 😉 

So now you're finally ready to put the tube back in the tyre😁 Let out the air a bit, put the velve through its hole, and carefully stuff the tube up into the tyre. Now you're going to "clip" the tyre over the rim and into place. If you're struggling with the last bit, you can use a tyre leaver and kind of "reverse hook" it into place.  Awesome you guys!!! Now you're ready to pump it and take this baby for a spin! 😎 

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment down below if you have any questions, or just to let me know what you think 😜 

Follow me on Instagram @its_caelssss  Or on Strava @Caela Whall  🙂