How to Change a Tire on a Mountain Bike

The variety of tires available for mountain bikes is vast and bewildering. The one thing that all of them have in common, however, is that sooner or later they will puncture. Even the best puncture resistant tires, when have Kevlar belts under the thread to stop thorns or other debris from penetrating through to the tube, are susceptible to impact punctures, so fixing a puncture is probably the most basic skill a cyclist needs.

That being said, there are mountain bikers who lead an utterly charmed life and just don't get punctures. Australian mountain bike champion Tony Smith road from Britain to Switzerland without a single puncture. He was fairly lucky, however, when you take into consideration that he didn't know how to fix one. But it's obviously best to be prepared, as there is no way of knowing luck will always be on your side. Ask most bike shop mechanics to repair a punctured inner tube for you, and you'll get a strange look, usually accompanied by refusal to do so. Patching a tube isn't worth the effort for them. Taking their hourly rates into consideration, it is cheaper for them to fit a new tube than trying to repair an old one. The same is true of fixing a flat on the trail. There's absolutely no point trying to repair a tube if it's wet and cold, and even if it's fine, you don't want to hold everyone up while you wait on the glue to set. The best thing to do is carry a spare tube and replace the punctured tube with a fresh one. Save fixing the punctured tube until you get home.

This advice may sound pretty obvious, but there are some techniques that will speed up the process. These are especially useful to racers, but recreational riders can also benefit from fast tube replacement; who wants to spend time fixing a tire when they could be riding? The secret of fast tube changes is to carefully match tires and rims. Choice of tire is important. Some come off easily, while others need tools. If your choice of tires is down to a few, then take wheel into the shop and select the tire that most easily comes off your rims. It's advisable to use slightly undersized inner tubes, so that the tube doesn't impede tire fitting or removal. Polyurethane tubes, on the other hand, don't stretch and must be sized accurately. I mention them only for completeness. although they seem to have all but disappeared, it can accurately be said that they were never a good idea in the first place.

To fix a flat tire quickly, all you need if you've chosen your tires and rims carefully, is a pump or gas canister and a spare tube. Some tire and rim combinations allow you to literally pull the tire off the side of the rim. If your tires are a tighter fit, you'll need tire levels. Plastic levers are less likely to damage the rim and tube as you remove it.