Tawraste666

Plus 1 for buying the tools and doing it yourself.
With the greatest of respect intended, there's loads of bike shops near me and only one guy who actually does everything properly.
The other shops charge top whack and do not observe basic things such as torque specs or checking the wheel bearings before a true.
In fact, I have observed many bikes where the wheels have been trued but not tensioned correctly and on another I had to use a length of scaffold pipe as an extender on the wrench just to get the lockring off a cassette.
I learned what to do and how to do it bit by bit after I felt guilty asking the bike mechanic to get the bike back to me by the next day (it was my main mode of transport) and I have never looked back.

SkinGriz

That’s the deal. Whoever does it for a living should be able to do it better and certainly much faster.

BCRider

Even if you don't buy tools or do any other work of any sort on your bikes there's no altering the fact that knowing how to change inner tubes out in the world and having a pump to pump up the tire is a must have skill. It's the difference between continuing the ride after a 10 to 15 minute delay vs a long walk home pushing a broken bike or calling in a favor from a buddy with a truck or SUV.

A patch kit that has a couple of tire levers included will cost slightly more than a new tube. But you can save at least 6 tubes with the patch kit vs buying 6 new tubes. Pulling a tire off and switching tubes or patching the tube is a key skill. It's the difference between a long walk home or calling in a favor from a friend with a truck or van to fetch you from mid ride.

Hints that save me and I'm sure others a LOT of problems. Line up the sidewall label on the tires with the stem of the tube and so they are on the same side of the bike. The right hand side is the more photogenic thanks to the crankset and chain so I always used that side for the tire sidewall markings too. This will permit you to landmark where you find the leak in the tube to a location in the tire. With the leak in the tube tracked to an area of the tire CAREFULLY feel around inside the tire to see if you can find the shard of glass or wire that caused the flat. Remove the offender. Only THEN replace the tube and take the flat home with you for repair. Otherwise you'll have a second flat within a very short time. Only very seldom does something stick through the tire and then pull out. Usually the item stays in the tire to cause further trouble.

EDIT- I didn't see Sweek's post saying the same thing until I'd written my reply. I'll leave it here as reinforcement on how important this one sole skill is to anyone that rides a lot and rides out to some fair distances.

sweeks

Plus, it's quite rewarding to be able to fix a flat; you can even help out other riders and reap the karmic rewards!
This is a good idea. My variation is that I line up the tire pressure markings with the valve stem; that way I can find the right pressure range for a give bike more quickly.
Excellent advice!
A little reiteration never hurts!

TLit

I thought that a tire may be leaking based on an air pump and gauge downtown, but it seems to be ok. I do have my own cheapo gauge in my car that I will monitor the tires with. Thanks for the advice on what to look for!

It's definitely an unwanted maintenance pitstop when a tire blows on a long tour, in that case you have to know how to change your tires as there is no AAA for bikes. I have replaced innertubes around 40 years ago.

BCRider

Now that is darn fine idea! I might just switch my method.

I ride a few different style tires on 3 different bikes. If I don't ride one of them for some time this would make it easy to check and remind myself.

BCRider

Before I retired I commuted 20 minutes each way for the last 18'ish years I worked. It was pretty regular to have to stop and fix a flat about once every two weeks. This almost totally went away when I switched over to kevlar belted tires on a couple of the bikes.

TLit

I ordered a truing tool on ebay, but deceptively it was listed as based in the US but turns out China so I'm still waiting. Rear tire badly needs truing and I don't want to stress it until I get that squared away. I stopped at a bike shop out of my expensive area and they were $15-$30 or so to true a wheel. I will try to do it myself when the tool arrives, there are the wheel style truing tools and the one with the handle.

sweeks

There are lots of good videos on YouTube and other places on the web. Start slowly and thoughtfully and you may find that truing is the "gateway drug" to wheelbuilding.

I started wheelbuilding several years ago after I took a wheel from my commuter bike to a bike shop for a rim replacement. The wheel was rebuilt with spokes crossing over the valve hole... Oops. I took the wheel back to the shop and the manager told me the mechanic who built the wheel had quit, so I was on my own. Well, I wasn't going to pay to have it re-done, so I did it myself. They actually did me a favor, and I've built several wheels since then.

TLit

On the truing I ran the wobbling tire by a handyman who thought this was just going to be too challenging for an amateur to fix, too much wobble that could have damaged the wheel if ignored. I dropped it at Cycle Dynamics that turns them around in a day, $35 isn't bad for a professional truing. I can change innertubes myself though it is a pain on the reverse with the chain, etc.. I did the front one last week and the rear was laking this week so changed it out. Don't use the gas station air pump, learned that the hard way.