How to Change a Bicycle Tire Tube

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Will from the Outspokin Bicycle and Sport shop located in Newbury, New Hampshire. Today we are going to learn how to change a bicycle tube. Got a flat tire here the first thing I need to do is take this wheel off. In order to take the wheel off I've got to deal with the front brakes. It's a mountain bike basically the front brakes I just squeeze them, and their designed to remove the cable simply, and allow them to open up wide so the wider tire can come down. A road bike has a similar mechanism to it. Now that I've got the brakes out of the way I've got to deal with the quick release lever. The quick release lever I'm going to open it, but still the wheel won't come out. There is a safety built in just in case it happens to open by mistake. So I have to reach down, and actually un-thread the quick release a little bit to open it up a little more to go pass the safety tabs. Now the wheel is free from the bike. So now I've got no air in the tube, I take my valve cap off, put it in my pocket so I don't lose it. Just so happens I have two tire levers here, and now I've got to take the tire off the rim to get to the tube. I'm going to start on the opposite end of the valve just a little bit easier. A little more room to play. These tire levers are especially designed for bicycle tubes, they are a slippery nylon so they don't catch on anything rubber. They've got a little hook on one end, and a hole on the other. The hook is designed to grab the tire bead, which is the wire bead inside the tire. The hole is designed to help hold the tire lever to the spoke. So you have a free hand to continue down the way here continue popping out the tire bead. Once you get to a certain point you can usually just slide the tire lever around. Inside you can see the tube. So I prefer to take the whole tire off you can usually do that by hand once you get the first bead. Hold tight, but I'm just going to use the tire lever for display, for display purposes. Same idea, peel this off the tire comes out. Usually the valve will stick a little bit, I might have to finagle that out, there we go. First thing you want to do double check what is called the rim strip. It's a little strip of rubber or tape it protects the tube from the spoke nipples. Make sure that is all in tact, and covering all the spoke nipples. Next thing you want to do is pull your tube out it might be stuck to the tire, it might be vulcanized from the heat from riding. Now you can either patch your tube or I prefer just to put a new tube in. But before I do that I like to run my hands on the inside of the tire feel for any punctures, thorns that might not be easily seen you can feel them. Save you a lot of hassle on after putting the tire all back together. Now you have your new tube, I like to inflate them a little bit just to give them some shape. Tuck them into the tire, find your valve, find the valve hole on the rim, and you also want to take a look at this point some tires are directional. The chevrons point toward the front on the front tire, the chevrons point to the back on the back tire generally. It will tell you on the side of the tire right here it says rotation. Just want to make sure your tire is in the right direction. Put the valve in, and then start one side of the bead. You can do a lot of this by hand. In this case the tire is large enough where I can really thumb it over, but if you can't it's a little harder just get your tire lever in here and push it over. so now I've got one bead set inside the rim. Now is a good time to check make sure your valve is still in, and it is straight. You don't want it on an angle. Push it all the way in, start your bead at this point also. You can use your feet to protect the wheel from dirt that you might be around. Everything is straight work both sides down. Now this is always the hard part it usually doesn't cooperate. You get to a certain point this is the trick so that you don't get a flat tire. Finesse is the name of the game here. Slide your tire lever in make sure that you are not pinching the tube against your rim, and just gently lift over. And that's that. Double check everything, make sure it all looks nice, make sure your valve stem is straight pull it out a little bit. Turn it around double check everything here, everything looks good. Now I'm going to go ahead and put the tire on the bike before I air it up. So now I just turn it around so it is going in the right direction, make sure my quick release lever is on the non-drive side. Lift it up in, now I have to tighten the quick release lever again by hand. And using a lifting motion I am going to hold the tire up against these drop outs on the fork here. That is usually enough to center the wheel, and I'm just going to go ahead and tighten the quick release lever. Now the wheel is locked in place. Just have to adjust the brakes, simply re-attach like I unattached them. Make sure they work well. Now I've just got to put a little air in the tire. Now we are at the right inflation, going to unlock the pump head. The air you hear escaping is just the air in the hose, not in the tire. Pull it off, and I'm going to retrieve my valve cap, screw it on finger tight, and that is how you change a bicycle tire."