Do-it-yourself Bike Repair on the Road: Tubes & Tubeless Tires

We share some tips to get out of trouble for the most common incidents happening on bike tours.

Turning your bike upside down to work comfortably

We can do this all the time, even in our garage if we don’t have a bike support. Before turning our bike upside down, we tighten the handlebar binding it to the seat post with an elastic, so the bike will neither fall nor suddenly lean.

Punctured tire – replacing or repairing the tube

First let me draw your attention on these puncture protected bike tires. If we’ve been wise, normally we should have brought an additional tube with us. In that case, we just need a couple of sturdy tire levers. In case we didn’t bring any air chambers, we can use patches. There are pre-glued patches, some working very well, others less. Those of ParkTool work fine. Traditional Tiptop bike air chamber patches do a fine job too.

Before applying our patch, we shouldn’t forget to mark the hole with a pen and rub it well with a piece of sandpaper before spreading the glue on it or before applying a pre-glued patch. In case we really can’t find the hole, we just inflate a bit the air chamber and dip it into water, we will see the air bubbles coming out the hole.

If we use this kind of patches, before leaving we should checkout the glue tube. Indeed this kind of glue is very volatile, so once we’ve opened the tube, even if we close it accurately, the glue could literally dry out and become totally useless in a few weeks.

What if we have neither replacing air chambers nor patches?

In this case, there are many possibilities. The first possibility is just detecting where the hole in our tube is, then just make a well tighten knot in the air chamber, of course leaving the hole aside in the knot.

The second possibility is just borrowing or getting a tube from another biker passing by, if we’re lucky enough. If the biker passing by has got a differently sized air chamber, for instance a 29 inches, whereas our wheels are 26 inches, no problem. We can just shorten the 29 inches air chamber pushing it inside for about 1 inch, just like a telescope. See pictures below.

As long as we can get another air chamber that is not smaller than ours, we can shorten it and use it comfortably, even if it is the air chamber of a road bike, and we have a mountain bike with larger air chambers. Air chambers are very flexible, we just need it to inflate them more if they’re smaller. The problem is if we’ve got 29 inches wheels and we can borrow only a 26 inches or a smaller diameter air chamber. It won’t fit.

Punctured tubeless are even easier to repair

Just insert the tire plug into the whole using its tool, then cut the exceeding part.

Last ditch repairs, out of desperation!

Be it tubeless or tube, we can always fill our tube or the tire with sand, grass, cous-cous, quinoa, flour, oatmeals, etc… (no, neitehr the letters of our ex nor unpaid invoices would work – lol). We won’t enjoy the smoothest ride, but it’s better than walking. Some even say that certain (chewed!) chewing gums can repair a tube for several kilometers, but we don’t know which brands yet.

You may want to read too: How to repair tires on the road by yourself – tutorial (ebike24.com)

Find more ebike tips here.