My first flat tire: a photo essay

Observation: I enjoyed fixing my first flat tire in the same way that I enjoyed shoveling snow for the first time. That is to say, it was a cute adventure because it was novel experience during adulthood, and it happened in a context where someone else would have done it if I really didn't want to. However, I suspect that under different conditions (for either case), I would have ended up sitting at the side of the road in tears.

Introduction: It had to happen one day...

I think it's inevitable for all bike owners to one day get a flat tire, and I'm lucky that my first flat went down in the way that it did: 

• I went two years before experiencing a flat.
• When I did get a flat, it happened on my front tire, which was much easier to deal with than a rear one would have been. (For reference, see this NYCeWheels blog post on fixing a Brompton rear flat, coincidentally posted earlier this month.)
• I wasn't dealing with a flat in the middle of the ride; obviously it must have happened sometime during my last ride, but I didn't get the full effect of it until after I was already home. 
• I didn't have to get a lot of new equipment, and what I did get, I needed anyway now that I'm commuting on a more regular basis.

Required tools are surprisingly few

Auspicious circumstances aside, I wouldn't have been able to get through actually fixing the flat without a lot of help from the following, to whom I am thankful:

• The BicycleSPACE staff, who basically told me exactly what to do and what materials I needed get to fix my tire (a patch kit and levers, that's it). They even gave me a little hand-written note about their Thursday "Fix A Flat" class, in case things went horrible wrong! 
• D, of course, who talked me through the whole process via FaceTime from a couple states away, and calmed me down in various moments of panic.

I got through the whole thing, and successfully I think, but there were many steps along the way.

Trying not to panic

1. Yup, it's a flat

2. I choose orange

1. I wasn't expecting to have a flat at all, because I had made it home from my commute the night before without any problems. But I must have gotten something caught in my tires, so that all the air leaked out of my tires overnight. I was on my way out and had unfolded and rolled my bike out of my apartment, when I noticed a funny noise. When I looked down, I saw my rim pretty much touching the ground, and I realized I had a flat.

2. I was going to Union Market to meet a friend anyway, so I knew at least I'd be near BicycleSPACE, and figured I could go get a myself a toolkit or whatever else I needed for my bike--I had no clue. I eventually made my way to the shop, and tried not to be panicky as I explained that I had a flat and I needed to fix it. The staff was great and pointed me to a pair of tire levers and a patch kit, and--in case the flat-fixing failed--a schedule of their classes which included a "Fix a Flat" class. 

Figuring out what caused the flat

3. Found the culprit! (click pic to enlarge)

4. Blue painter's tape is infinitely handy

5. Here we go!

3. The first thing that the shop staff told me to do was to figure out what caused the puncture by inspecting the entire tire. Of course, before I could that, I had to remove my tire. I looked at it and panicked because I didn't have a wrench and couldn't figure out what to do! But D calmed me down, told me to look closer at the bolt holding my front wheel in place, and it turned out that all I needed was a hex wrench (I really didn't know what I was doing). Once that was done, it wasn't long before I found the issue: a staple that went through my tire and into my inner tube. What's funny is that D had actually guessed that before I told him I had a flat. It's hard to believe that something so small could wreak so much havoc.

4. The next thing I did was mark off the area on the wheel where I found the puncture. The staff had recommended doing that so I could more easily find the hole in the inner tube, though D suspected (and rightly, it turns out) that the hole would be so small, even marking off the rim wouldn't be sufficient to locate where to attach the patch. It ended up being useful to have that mark later, though.

5. Once I found the puncture, it was time to use my new tire levers! D gave me basic instructions on how to remove the tire from the wheel, and I had it done in a couple of seconds. D was surprised, he said that sometimes that's the hardest part of fixing a flat. Anyway, at this point I could haven just switched in a new inner tube, and I even decided to get one at BicycleSPACE since since it seems like a good idea to have one on hand just in case. But I thought I would forge ahead with patching the hole in the inner tube, so I started inspecting it around where I had marked off the rim.

Locating the hole in the inner tube

6. New use for salad bowl	7. "X" marks the spot	8. Bubble confirms it (click pic to enlarge)

6. D had warned me that I might not be able to see the inner tube puncture with the naked eye, and he was right. So, he suggested the method of submerging the inner tube in water and seeing where bubbles were coming out of the tube, indicating the location of the hole. I admit that I resisted at first, but it was actually much easier than expected. It helped that I had a white salad bowl that was the perfect size and shape for the job.

7. When I first submerged the inner tube, I thought I would have a hard time spotting the hole because little bubbles would form on the tube's surface, and I wasn't sure that I could distinguish between those and the bubbles from the hole. But when I finally got to the spot, the bubbles were clearly different--larger, and rising to the surface in a stream. I took my silver Sharpie and marked my place.

8. I wanted to confirm that I got the X in the right spot. Even though I knew the small area in which to find the hole, I still couldn't see it. I submerged the inner tube again to see how far off I was, and it looks like I almost had it--about a millimeter off.

Patching the hole

9. Patch kit instructions courtesy of Ikea	10. Sand-papered tire, dried glue	11. Successfully applied?

9. Once I had located the hole, it was time to patch it up. The BicycleSPACE staff basically handed me the one that I came home with. It's made for high pressure tires, and comes with a little rubber tube that has no function as far as I can tell (though it's included on the contents diagram).  I'm glad that the shop staff told me what to do and that I had D, because the instructions are all drawings, no writing. Without prior knowledge, I'm not sure I would have been able to comprehend them.

10. Per staff and D's instructions, I sanded a larger area than the patch would have covered, then put a thin layer of glue on it so I could let it dry. Afterwards, I attached the patch. Looking back, I probably should have made sure the X was centered on the area where I applied glue, because there a little edge of the patch didn't appear to be glued on. D said I could try putting more glue and letting it dry to catch that last bit.

11. I used the little rubber tube in my patch once, to add that last little bit of glue. I think there might still have been one little part I missed, but for the most part the patch looked good.

Getting the tire back on the wheel

12. Previously unnoticed, extremely useful detail	13. Validating patch location	14. Ready for a test ride

12. With my tube patched up, it was time to get it and my tire back on my wheel. But first, I had to figure out which side of my wheel was left, and which was right. I started by trying to find pictures of my how my hub was oriented, but it turns out that it's marked with an "L" and "R" for ease. One less thing to worry about!

13. I wanted to see how my patch compared to where I had marked off my rim, just in case the hole wasn't where I was expecting it to be based on where I saw the staple on my wheel. It was pretty much an exact match.

14. Getting the tire back onto the wheel was a little harder than getting it off, but I seemed to manage okay (see below for issues). I reattached the wheel to the bike, pumped my tire to ~100PSI, and got ready for a test ride.


Epilogue: Seating the bead, tightening the axle bolt

I was hungry by the time I finished my flat-fixing project, so I decided that going to get dinner would be a good test run. As I rode along, I kept looking down at the tire to see how it was holding up, when I noticed that the reflective strip along the side of my tire wasn't evenly spaced around the rim. At first I thought it was mostly an aesthetic issue, but D said that it might have to do with seating the tire properly. I made my way home, let the air out of my tire, and tried to see what was going on.

It turned out that the inner tube itself wasn't seated properly in the tire, and I had to use my levers to manipulate the tire and tube to get it right. Also, it seemed like there was one place where I just couldn't pull the tire out enough--it always seemed like that one area was too far into the rim. I tried different ways of pulling and tugging, deflating and re-inflating, even removing the tire at one point so I could reinsert it into the wheel. None of this was working to "seat the bead." I was about to give up hope, but D decided to do some quick research online, and made one last suggestion: people wrote that over-inflating the would force the tire to be seated properly, after which pressure could be reduced to the recommended range. Because the tires on my Brompton have a recommended pressure of up to 100PSI, D suggested ~110PSI (I may have gone a little over), and lo and behold, it worked! It's such an easy step, I wish I had started with it.

I had one more test run this morning as I went to get groceries. The reflective strip was even again, but I noticed squeaking as I rode. It heard a similar noise prior to fixing my wheel, but it was much more pronounced. As I was shopping, I noticed that my cart made squeaking noises as well because of a loose wheel, so I thought that maybe my axle bolt needed to be tighter. I made that one last fix, and as I set off again it seemed like the noise had gone away! Good thing too, because I had this waiting for me:

My first DC social ride!

Note: Publication date was altered to prior to midnight on 7/13/14, since that date most accurately reflects when the post was written.