I'll usually take the whole thing off if I'm in the shop. It's a good excuse to give it a good cleaning anyway. When in the woods I do as others here have mentioned and just lay it over or prop it up the best way I can with whatever I can find. Spoon one side off and apply a good radial tire patch. Spoon it back on and forget about it. Yes hand pumps can give you a good work out but I've never had one fail on the trail.
Thats what I do usually on sand or grass. If youre worried about shiny parts, I always have NRC blanket with me.
I'm trying to pack what tools I think I might need but haven't even picked up the bike yet. What size are the nuts to remove the wheels?
Woke up Saturday to this... so I got some practice. I already had purchased the heavy duty tubes to replace the stockers. I changed it the garage only using bike tools, and it was pretty straightforward. I did use my jack to hold the bike with the rear tire removed. Had everything but a valve core remover, took care of that. Looking forward to not having to run to the dealer to swap tires.
Yeah, A few years ago the wife and I hired a couple of bikes in New York and rode across to Los Angeles. When I was passing Roanoke, don't think it didn't cross my mind to follow the Greensboro sign - just to say I went there - but we were already behind schedule that day. Just to stay on topic, the following morning, in Asheville, my hire bike had a flat rear tyre.
I used to carry co2 cartridges...and found I never get more than 5-8psi per cartridge in a 180/55-17 sportbike tire. Pretty much have to bring a bag of the damn things.... so I started carrying a cheap bicycle pump. These days I have a couple of Slime pumps
Is there a need to rebalance the wheels after taking the tire off the rim and putting it back on again and if so, how are you doing that in the field?
You're probably not going to need to take the tyre off the rim, just unseat one side to get a tube out/in. If the wheel was balanced, and you don't rotate the tyre too much it during the exercise it shouldn't go out of balance by much. Marking the position of the tyre prior to working on it should help.
Agreed. My brand new bead buddy doesn't even reach the spokes. I'll get one of these instead, as HARDER1 suggested. Dealer didn't have any, so I got the beast above.
My Endurostar trail stand came today. Neat idea, works way better than I expected, at least in the garage. I bought it for the in the field tire change, but it'll work great for cleaning/lubing the chain too. http://endurostar.com/ Front, using a slot in the Sw-Motech Skid Plate Rear using one of the foot peg holes. And ready to get stashed somewhere... Good stuff!
I've never used anything like this but it looks like something that could definitely come in handy. Thanks for the pics. I was wondering how well it would work. Time to order.
Another cool trick that some of you might already do is to use a foodsaver vac sealer for your spares. I put some baby powder in with the tube and vac seal it in the bag. The bag protects the tube from chaffing and the powder makes it ready for a change in the woods. Plus, it compresses the spare tube into a rubber brick. Works like a charm!
