How do you repair a bicycle puncture?

Question

I have all the tools and a spare inner tube just in case but have only got as far as taking my wheel off!

Now I can't ease the tyre off. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Remove the inner tube, by removing the wheel from the bicycle. Ensure the inner tube is fully deflated by pressing on the pin inside the valve. Remove the inner tube from the tyres using tyres levers failing that spoon handles also work well. Never use anything sharp.
Try to determine the cause if the puncture. There may be a thorn or piece of glass embedded in the tyre. Run your hand gently inside the tyre to check if there is something sharp. Remove if you find this with say a screwdriver. Alternatively check if a spoke is pushing through, ensure the tape inside the rim is sitting properly.
Inflate the tyre using a pump and fill a bowl with water and check if any bubbles escape. If they are escaping from teh valve you will need a new inner tube. If however they are escaping from a hole in the rubber remove the inner tube and dry this area, deflate the inner tube.
In your bicycle repair kit you will have a tube of rubber solution and a piece of rubber. Spread rubber solution on the area around the hole with rubber solution covering an area just wider than the rubber patch. Leave about 5minutes to dry. Check the rubber solution should be tacky. Peel off the backing of your rubber strip and apply that previously coated side to the rubber solution. To avoid air bubbles forming press from the center outwards. Once satisfied, grate and dust some chalk powder to prevent any extra rubber solution to sticking to your tyre.
Leave another few minutes before gently pumping up the inner tube again about half pressure. Check the hole is now fixed by placing under water again. If all is well then deflate position carefully inside the tyre and inflate to full pressure. Replace and tighten the wheel. You should now be ready to ride again.

Answer 2

They used to sell inner tube repair kits. Check your local bicycle shop to see if they are still being made. The best glue, for rubber, is in these kits.

You need to find the hole first. Fill the old inner tube with air, and then put it into a sink full of water. Keep moving the inner tube, underwater, until you have checked ALL of it (there could be more than one leak). You will find the leak where the air bubbles come out into the water. Remove and dry the inner tube. Use sandpaper to rough up the area around the leak, so the glue will have something to hold on to. Get a strip of rubber a little larger than the hole. Get either Elmer's Ultimate Glue or Gorilla Glue (Home Depot stocks both), this glue is stronger than super glue. Use it to glue the patch over the hole. Let dry and fill the inner tube with air, you will probably want to clamp it until it dries. Once again put it into a sink full of water and check for any air leaks. If the patch holds than you can replace the inner tube in the tire. Be careful not to puncture the inner tube as you replace it.

This is the same way tires on a car (that have inner tubes) are repaired. If the leak is not on the bottom of the inner tube then it is wasted. As you ride the tire puts pressure on the road, and conducts that pressure to the inner tube. When the rubber patch comes down then it is pressed between the inner tube and the road so it holds. If the leak is on the side or top of the inner tube then the pressure isn't as evenly distributed so it can leak.

Answer 3

If you have a spare inner tube, just remove all the air from the old tube/tire, slip a tire spoon (or a flat handled screwdriver) under the tire, and gently pry it off the wheel. If you have two screwdrivers the process might be easier. Place the new tube on the rim, and rub a little bit of dish soap around the edge of the rim. Put the tire back on the rim, using the screwdrivers to gently pry it on, being careful not to gouge the new tube. Inflate the tire, and remount it on the bicycle.
If you are going to patch the old tube, fill it with air, and submerge it in water. Wherever the bubbles come out, that is where your leak is. If you don't have a container big enough to submerge it, spray water with a little bit of dish soap in it all around the tube and look for the bubbles there. The dish soap helps the water stick to the tube, instead of just running off.

Answer 4

You can either repair the old tube (unless it's too far gone) with an inexpensive repair kit. New innertube? Pull the old one out. Put the new one in. Then put the wheel on the bicycle rim. Pump air in until it's a little bouncy. Then simply go in reverse. Put the wheel back on in the reverse way as you took it off.

Answer 5

it depends how big of a puncture there is but take the rubber off then remove the inner tube... after that then put the new inner tube inside of the outer rubber casing and put that back on the bicycle

Answer 6

They have little kits you can get at Walmart for tire punctures, with instructions.

Answer 7

if you have the spare, then just take the old one off, put the new one on, and then fill it with air to the proper psi

Answer 8

YOU BUY A NEW TUBE!!!!!!!! IT'S ABOUT 2 BUCKS!!!

Answer 9

ask a vulcanizer to help u with that