bent-not-broken

30 seconds to change bikes!

I hooked my bag on the back of my main commuter this morning, but when a pulled it out of the garage I see the front tire is totally flat. Change a tire? Nahh.., I just go to one of my other half dozen bikes capable of making my commute, strap the bag on the rack and off I go, less than a minute behind schedule.

It sure is nice to have a back up bike (or a half dozen) on mornings like this.

goatforce5

That's nice.

condiment

If you preform pit-crew drills you can probably get your front tire change down to one minute, maybe two if you have arthritis or are a noodle-armed nerd (much like myself)

PunkMartyr

It took me two hours to do my first tire change (rear tire). I was in my house. I hope to get it down to a couple of minutes some day.

BroadSTPhilly

I once got a flat on commute jumped on the subway fixed my flat on te subway and road home from the last station. Woot

andrelam

That might have worked for me today was it not for the fact that the tire went flat half way to work. I was riding along and wondering why my front suspension felt so soft... few seconds later my brain finally puts two and two together. I try to ride faster to see if I can get closer to work. I've been lucky with a slow leak before and managed to get 2 miles further down the road and then be only a hundred yards from home. Not so lucky this time. Within seconds my tire goes completely flat. Good part was it was the front, so removing it was easier.

Take off the handlebar bag. Remove tools. Pull out vinyl gloves and spare inner tube. Disconnect generator hub. Pull off wheel. It took nearly a fullm minute to find the little road grit that managed to do the damage. Replaced the inner tube and seated the tire in no time. I love my Road Morph G pump No guessing the right pressure, set exacly at 5.5 Bar (max on these tires). Insert wheel on bike, hook up connector to generator hub and off I go. I don't think it took much more than 5 minutes. I was very glad to have the gloves. It has been rainy out to the tires were quite wet and messy.

I currently run 700Cx35 Bontrager Select Invert tires. These came on the bike and I have about 2000 miles on them. Every day I see road grit stuck in the silly tread.

Anyone have any good suggestions for a 700Cx32 tire? I looked the Performance Bike web site and they seem to have nothing of that size. They do have the Continental Gator Skins, but I think the 28's seem a bit skinny on my heavy hybrid.

Happy riding,
André

regulators

Well done. I see a future career for you

Bekologist

I think a backup bike is a ggreat strategy for those with the lucre and storage space to have a few steeds around the house. However, as Andrelam mentions, this strategy is worthless mid-commute.

jgrant75

unless you leave bikes locked up at regular intervals across the city...

ok_commuter

And there ain't just a whole lot of subway in PHL, so you must be quick! L33T

Junkdad

go with the 28 gators and don't look back. Do the Armadillos come in 32?

stevage

>It took me two hours to do my first tire change (rear tire). I was in my house. I hope to get it down to a couple of minutes some day.

Friend of mine spent an entire *day* doing hers. And she wasn't even patching it. And then, since she didn't check the inside of the tyre for debris, it went flat minutes later.

She now needs a new bike. I'm recommending Marathon Plus, thorn-resistant tubes, and an internal geared hub.

Steve

Throwmeabone

It took me about half an hour to repair my first flat tire. It was in the rear tire. I carry an extra tube but I patched it just to have experience doing it.

robatsu

I can't count how many flats I've fixed. However, I do know that I fixed 2 pinch flats trying to get the notoriously stiff armadillos installed, but since then, zippo of the flat situation. Prevention is a good strategy.

Takabrash

That's how I do it. Just like the old days of the Pony Express- when one is worn out just grab a new one at the next outpost!!

gmule

I use slime tubes.
Pull the object that caused the flat
rotate wheel to put the puncture on the botton that way the slime fills the hole.
give the tire a shot of CO2 and away I go.

Replace tube at home.

Barrettscv 

I replaced the OEM wheels & tires with a better wheel-set & 700x28 Gatorskins. If I do get a flat, I will use the OEM wheels & tires and fix the flat within a few days. I keep the OEM wheels in storage at the office.

Michael

brunop

i have seven (count 'em seven) excellent whips to choose from every morning. i win at life!