Puncture Repairs
Step One • Undo the plastic valve cap and un-screw the valve and press in if you use presta, or press in the internal valve if you have a Car valve and release any air that may be still in the tyre. If you have a presta valve you may have to un-screw a small silver lock nut from the valve stem also • Quickly inspect the surface of the tyre and try to see if there is any obvious reason for the puncture, this could speed up the repair if you know where the problem started from. You may see large cuts or thorns, glass etc…still in the tyre.
Step Three • Take one side of the tyre off the rim and leave the other side still embedded on the rim. • Reach in and remove the tube, but leave the valve inserted into the rim hole. Get your pump and pump some air into the tube and listen for any leaks. This will point you directly to the cause of the problem. If it’s leaking from a small hole in the tube…track back to the corresponding area on the tyre where the tube once lived and look for glass, thorns and cuts in the tyre. You may have to feel for it, but be careful not to cut you fingers! • Once you have found the cause, remove the cause of the puncture from the tyre. This is very important.
Step Two • Use your tyre levers and hook the first one under the bead of the tyre. Some levers have small hooks on the opposite end and once you have got under the first bead you can bend the lever downwards and latch them around the spokes below and they should hold securely. • Repeat this across the tyre until about one quarter of the tyre is off the rim. Depending on the condition of the tyre, it may be easy to take the tyre from this point. If not…remove the middle lever and try and prise open another section until you feel the tyre release from the rim.
• Pump a few strokes of air in the tube, just to give it shape. Don’t let the tube twist. Insert the new tube, valve first into the valve hole in the rim. Then tuck the tube into the tyre all the way around the tyre. So all you should see now is the bead of the tyre over hang one side of the wheel…the tube should be so well tucked into the tyre, it’s almost hidden.
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