How to Change a Flat Tire on a Bicycle

Series Summary

Most of our childhood memories that involve bikes include impressive knee scrapes, downhill romps and races to the end of the block. However, behind the scenes, our parents or guardians were doing our mechanic work for us, ensuring that the parts of our bikes were working properly and that our bicycles were reliable and prepared for all the use they were bound to get. Even the most prepared bike owner, youth or adult, can't be prepared enough for a flat tire. In time, you're bound to run over a nail or piece of glass and this can often result in a flat tire. Though many flat tires require replacement, it is possible to patch or repair many small punctures. Learning how to care for your bike yourself or with little outside help can help you and your child both feel more confident, and it will no doubt help you save a little money by avoiding the bike repair shop.

In this free instructional video clip series, our expert will explain the various types of bike tires, methods and tips for repairing them, ways to tell when a tire is bad and beyond repair, as well as instructions on how to patch a tire easily and correctly. Learn how to check the tire's pressure for optimal riding results and watch as he demonstrates booting techniques. Never feel helpless when you or your child's bike is in need again! You don't need a mechanic, and you won't always need a new tire, either, when you've got these skills under your belt.

Video Transcript

"I'm here on behalf of Expert Village to show you how to fix a flat tire. What we do is we begin with taking the wheel off of the bicycle. How that works is first thing you need to disengage the braking system. How we do it is we simply squeeze the brakes together and remove the cable from its little holder. At that point, we use the quick release. How the quick release works it holds the wheel in place. We start by flipping the lever open, unthreading it until it clears the tabs on the fork and the wheel comes right off. So we have our wheel and the worse that has happened is we've got a flat tire. We let all the air out to show you kind of how this works. Now when fixing a flat tire we are going to need a couple of tools. First and most importantly, our tire levers. They are designed to take the tire on and off of the rim. How they work is they have a shovel end on one side, its hooked and designed to take the tire off of the rim and two little tabs on the backside. I'll show you what they are for in just a second. So we begin taking all the excess air out of the tire. Then what we are going to do is we are going to take the tire lever, shovel hook side down and we are actually going to hook the tire, flip it over. Now what the tabs are on the backside is they actually hook onto the spoke and hold it into place. What you are going to do now is take your second tire lever, couple of inches away and repeat. Now take the first one out, move a couple of inches away still and over again. After 2 or 3 times of this, it is fairly easy to just push the tire lever around the circumference of the tire and it takes it right off the rim. We are going to remove the flat inner tube from the inside of the tire and either replace it with a new inner tube or patch it. The most important part of fixing a flat is checking to see what might have caused your flat. So starting at the label, we are going to run our fingers along the inside of the tire. What we are looking for are any sharp objects or any slice in the tire that might have caused the flat. Now what you want to do as you are inspecting with your fingers, you want to keep your eye on a point of about 3 or 4 inches ahead of your fingers because you don't necessarily want to catch your finger on something very sharp because then you have a flat tire and you are bleeding. We've gone all the way around, found the object and back at the labels. What we are going to do is reinstall the tire onto the rim. How that works is we simply put one side of the tire onto the rim. You will see it is somewhat on there, cavity is still open. We take our new inner tube or patched inner tube and put a little bit of air into it. I'm going to do that but you can use any sort of pump that you might have, whether it be a floor pump, hand pump, foot pump or CO2 inflater. Giving it just enough air, give it shape, we start with the valve. Put the valve through the valve hole and begin feeding the inner tube into the tire. Once we have the inner tube into the tire, we just start working that tire back onto the rim. You always want to use your hands for this. Don't use the tire lever once again because they can pinch the inner tube and give you another flat. With the palm of your hand, simply roll the tire back onto the rim. There we go; its back in place. Now what we are going to do is put air back into the tire. In this case, I am going to use the CO2 inflater. These things are super cool. All you need to do is there is a charge C02 cannister and the inflater, put it on, press it on and its full. We are done. "