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!!PUNCTURE!! DIY fix.

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Expand view Topic review: !!PUNCTURE!! DIY fix.

Post by Mucklegipe_as_guest on Mon Dec 17, 2007 12:40 am

Marko wrote:I just got my a-bike and the rear wheel got punctured on the very first ride :(
Bah, this better not be 'typical'.

Thanks for the tips in this thread.


Some people, perhaps most are yet to have one, I guess you and I are the unlucky ones.

I have to admit to noticing the valve of the rear tyre was not seated properly with all of the valve properly out the hole. this can be a problem in that it can cut the metal tube from the rubber of the actual tube, in this case that was not the problem, it was some grit had worked its way into the tyre and had rubbed a pinprick hole in the inside of the tube. That being enough!

However a good puncture repair kit works fine, and no need to replace the tube, unless it is totally 'banjaxed'. I have to say the tyres on my bike at least seem to be really thick and looks capable of taking all but a 'direct hit' with something sharp, and I guess any tyre will suffer from one of those!

Mucklegipe.

Post by Marko on Sun Dec 16, 2007 12:22 pm

I just got my a-bike and the rear wheel got punctured on the very first ride :(
Bah, this better not be 'typical'.

Thanks for the tips in this thread.

Rear tyre puncture.

Post by Mucklegipe on Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:35 pm

Just had the bike under a week and my first puncture! :( Rear tyre, slow puncture, which was surprising as we know the tyres run at 90PSI.

Wheel removal was not too bad, although the wheel nuts are a problem, two 10mm spanners on each nut and turn, one side slackened the other held fast. Used mole grips to hold wheel a for the other nut, protecting the wheel as best as I could with bits of paper folded between grips and actual wheel.

Had to remove brake band fixing screws first and movd the band out of the way, gently separated the sides of the 'gear box' so as the wheel axle dropped slightly in to it, and hooked off the final drive chain off the sprocket and over the end of the axle, then slotted out the wheel.

I used motorcycle tyre irons to get the tyre over the side of the wheel and worked out the tube. Trick is to pinch the tyre at the opposite side of to where you are going to insert the irons, this pushes that side into the wheel and lets the pressure off the side you are trying to work with the tyre irons. Found the smallest of pin pricks in the tube under the valve, in the inside of the tube, (next to the axle), I discovered a grain of sand had worked its way I assume past the valve and under the tube where it did its worst. A pin prick but enough!

Used a modern puncture repair kit to patch tube, holding well as the glue that came with the kit seems to be a rubber solvent a seemed to melt the surface of the tube and the patch, welding them together rather than gluing.

Tucked in the partial inflated tube, not much air needed just enough to give the tube some rigidity, this also forces the tube into the tyre and saves you nipping the dammed thing when trying to get the rest of the tyre back on the wheel. At this point the same nip the tyre the opposite side as the irons technique is employed and a little liquid soap on the tyre edge this helps the beading to slip over the wheels edge. Use talcum powder to coat the inside of the tyre, helps to avoid the tube sticking to the inside of the tyre. I put the valve through the hole and mad sure it was positioned before I tucked the rest of the tube in.

I fully inflated the tyre before I refitted the wheel to the bike.

So far so good, as they whee is staying up. I have to say the whole process takes a lot of time, and can be as frustrating as... :evil: Not some thing I would wish to have to do very often, well at least the intervals would need to be say yearly. Not a road side job! Unlike a 'normal bike'. Although I dare say it could be done.

Interesting to see how it lasts.

How will you know you have a rear flat. Well you will start to huff and puff at the effort the nonexistent hill is taking, the rear of the bike will have a small wiggle from side to side and then the bike will come to a stop as the effort of peddling will be too great to actually do. Well it did with me :!:

For a video on this follow this link:

http://abikesupport.ning.com/video/vide ... :Video:226

Mucklegipe.

Re: removal of tire and replacement

Post by andytaylor on Tue Nov 06, 2007 1:28 pm

Bruce wrote:I found it very hard to remove my tire to fix a flat in the tube
I have tire irons that I regularly use on my regular bike but the forces needed to get the tire on make it likely that I will slip and tear the tube. Its there a technique that others have found to do this?

Bruce


The Manual says to use plastic tyre levers only, perhaps this is the reason?

Post by newcross on Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:49 pm

!!CORRECTION!!
Remember I posted about using a clamp to fix tyre in position? This doesn't work when tyre is deflated = cannot be used when panctured!!!

sorry about that. :oops:

Re: removal of tire and replacement

Post by Amuro Lee on Thu Nov 01, 2007 9:58 pm

Here is a video showing how to replace the inner tube.
http://abikesupport.ning.com/video/vide ... :Video:226

removal of tire and replacement

Post by Bruce on Sat Oct 27, 2007 11:11 pm

I found it very hard to remove my tire to fix a flat in the tube caused by a tear in the junction between the valve and the tire.

I am concerned about how to get the tire back on with a new tube.

Is there anyone who could advice how to put the new tube and tire back on?

I have tire irons that I regularly use on my regular bike but the forces needed to get the tire on make it likely that I will slip and tear the tube. Its there a technique that others have found to do this?

Thanks

Bruce

Post by editor at large on Thu May 03, 2007 10:31 pm

One week on and the puncture repair remains intact, and I've been punishing the A-Bike over the usual dreadful road surfaces and hills and up and down wee kerbs and so on. I think it's solid.

Post by editor at large on Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:56 pm

Anyway, i will definitely let you know whether my repair survives. So far so good! I've ridden on it for a couple of days now.

Post by editor at large on Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:32 am

Hi
there's been quite a lot of talk about these "high pressure" tyres, but they're not. My road bike's tyres (20mm 700C road tyres) inflate to 120psi and i pump my everyday commuter bike to about 90psi. And a patch is always possible on both of those.

Post by newcross on Fri Apr 27, 2007 10:25 am

editor at large wrote:ok, got some fresh glue, got a patch on, tube back in, tyre back on, wheel back in ... and got straight back into commuting routine this afternoon. All pretty painless, apart from the manual's mistake.


It's good to know that A-bike's puncture can be fixed with conventional patch and glue! I kept thinking we have to change entire inner-tube to fix puncture because of the high pressure of the tyre.

Please let us know how your patched tyre is getting on (maybe in a week time?)

I onl have spare inner-tubes, so I will get patch&glue too. :D

Post by editor at large on Wed Apr 25, 2007 2:58 pm

ok, got some fresh glue, got a patch on, tube back in, tyre back on, wheel back in ... and got straight back into commuting routine this afternoon. All pretty painless, apart from the manual's mistake. Hooray! And all while baby daughter took her nap.

Thanks for tips, Newcross. You're amazing.

Post by newcross on Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:34 am

About the tyre removal, yes, the instruction confused me totally last time.

The instruction manual is WRONG!! :evil:

I hope they (DAKA, Mayhem) will fix it soon.

Anyway, here is a tip for tyre removal.

If you have a "quick action clamp" (*this tool have many names), use it to hold the tyre. This makes removing/fixing tyre a lot easier. :wink:

*You need 1/2inch (or 13mm) Ring Spanner. (halfords Deep Offset Ring Spanner shown in pic)

Image
Image

I've never tried by myself yet, but as it was mentioned in previous topic (
http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewt ... c&start=15 ), removing outer tyre would be very very hard due to the thickness of A-bike's small wheel size..... :?

Post by editor at large on Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:24 am

Me again

I should add: I got the tyre off without too much bother. I mean it was about as difficult as on a conventional bike. Plenty of frustration, a bit of swearing and the tyre levers pinging out and flying across the room a couple of times. But the tyre came off in the end. If you're not into fixing your everyday bike yourself, this would be a job for your local bike shop, of course.

Post by editor at large on Wed Apr 25, 2007 7:10 am

Well, I'm in limbo at present, because the "glue" in my two old puncture repair kits was all dried up, so I've ordered a couple of new innertubes from Mayhem and am waiting for them to arrive.

Story so far: getting the back wheel off is a bit tricky and the UK manual is misleading. It warns you that the left-hand bolt has a left-hand thread, but then says "so turn counter-clockwise". It means clockwise, of course. And getting the bolt to undo is not easy. When I eventually got some big leverage on the bolt, I found that the force needed was so great that the tyre actually slipped around the wheel in my hand other hand.

Anyway, i persevered and both bolts came off in the end, and the wheel dropped out as described. I'm fairly confident that when I get either some new vulcanising rubber glue, or a new tube, it'll be back on and up and running again without much bother.

Anybody else got stories/words of warning?

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