How To Fix A Puncture On A Bike

Bike punctures will happen, particularly if you cycle regularly or cycle any distance. It pays to be prepared and know how to deal with the scenario. Plus, if you can repair a puncture, you will save money in the long run and your tyre may give you many more miles before needing to be replaced.

The team at Europe Active has had a few happen in the past so we’ve used that character building experience to pull together this handy guide on how to fix a puncture on a bike for our blog:  

Preparation is key

Always carry a puncture repair kit and a portable pump – regardless of how long your cycle is going to be. If you are on your bicycle holidays or on the daily commute to work, pack what you need should it happen.  The kit for fixing a puncture should include 2 tyre levers, 1 small piece of sand paper, tube patches and some rubber solution.

First things first – remove the tube

If you do get a bike puncture, then the first thing you need to do is to get the punctured tube out of the tyre. So, the two levers in your puncture repair kit will help you to do this. With them, you can lever the tyre off the wheel rim. Use the lever to get under the bead of the tyre. From here, push down hard on the lever and lift the tyre up. And then do the same with the second lever. By this point you should be able to remove the tyre off the rim and when half of the tyre is off you can remove the tube.

Locate the puncture

Now you need to find the location of the bike puncture. You may be able to see it. If it is not obvious, then pump air through the tube and either listen or feel for air escaping. If you are at home, you can submerge the tube in water to detect the hole.

Repair the tube

Now you’ve located where the hole is, rub lightly around the area with the sand paper. This is so the area is flat enough to be able to take the rubber solution.

When you apply the rubber solution, you will be sealing the hole. So you need to apply enough to cover an area the size of the patch you’ve sanded.

Leave it to set for 1 minute. It should go tacky and sticky. Make sure it is not fluid or runny. At this point, apply the patch from your kit to the rubber solution to seal the puncture. Hold it in place for 1 minute to make sure it is secure.

Double check

Make sure the tube can hold air now that you’ve repaired the puncture. If it can’t then perhaps there was more than one puncture. Also, check there’s nothing sharp still on the tube and that all traces of the damage have been dealt with. 

Put the tube back in the tyre

Now the puncture is sealed you need to put the tube back in the tyre. Get the tyre back onto the wheel rim. Inflate the tyre to the correct pressure, remembering not to over inflate beyond the suggested pressure level for the tyre (this should be written on the tyre). Now that it’s dealt with you can get back on your way to work or on with you cycling holiday.

Tips to avoid punctures

Sometimes punctures are a fact of life on a bike. But, there are ways to help you avoid picking up a puncture:

-       Choose the right tyres for your bike / the type of cycling you are doing. Make sure they are the right combination of weight, speed and grip.

-       Inflate your tyres to the optimum pressure. This means that there’s less chance of the tube deforming and making too much contact with the rim of the wheel

-       Check our tyres regularly that there’s nothing sharp working its way into the wheel

-       Don’t ride at the edge of the road. Often, this is where you will find most of the items that can cause a puncture – glass, nails, stones etc.

-       Keep your head up and look ahead to avoid pot holes

-       Perhaps consider how technology can help you avoid punctures – for instance new tubeless tyres!

Fixing a puncture is a great skill to have if you cycle regularly. If you don’t know how to repair a bike puncture, then make sure you familiarise the steps laid out in this blog a couple of times before you set off on your cycling holidays.

For more handy guides and informative reads like this one on how to repair a puncture, have a look at the Europe Active blog for a whole host of cycling information from insider information on the best destinations in Europe for adventure cycling holidays, thoughts about what to pack for a cycling holiday through to how choose the best cycling helmet or cycling shoes. Our blog is a cycling goldmine!

If you are planning your cycling holidays, take a look at the Europe Active website at europe-active.co.uk  for more information on the very best cycling tours and destinations in Europe  - some of them as yet very undiscovered!