Ingredients:
1 punctured tyre
1 fork
1 puncture repair kit (containing patches, glue, chalk, sand paper)
1 sheet of kitchen roll
1 bicycle pump.
- Start by deflating the tyre completely if it is not already so.
- Take the tread bit (I forget what it's called) of on 1 side by pushing it hard to one side and levering it out with a fork. Run the fork (or whatever you happen to be using) around the inside of the rubber that now should be forced away from the rim.
- If you haven't already done so, remove the dust cap from the valve. Push the valve through the hole and work it away from the rim and out of the tread. Pull the rest of the inner tube out of the tread.
- Inflate the tyre slightly and listen for the telltale sound of air escaping. When you identify the hole go to step 7
- If the last one didn't work, try immersing the inner tube in a bowl of water. The sign you're looking for is the bubble of air escaping from the rubber. You can just immerse a bit of the tube at time if you can't fit it all in easily.
- Mark the hole with the chalk to make it easier to find later.
- Get the sand paper and rub it around the hole to roughen the surface up a bit.
- Apply some glue to the affected area, covering a patch larger than the patch you're going to put on. Don't put too much glue or the patch will come off. If you make it as thin a layer as you can without scraping the glue away, that should be about right.
- Leave to dry for 5 minutes.
- Apply the patch to the glue and press it down firmly for a couple of minutes.
- Inflate the tube slightly again, to check for more holes.
- Taking the chalk, rub it over the glue to make sure any that is not covered by the patch is no longer sticky. If no glue is exposed then you probably didn't use enough glue.
- Check the inside of the tread for any foriegn objects that could cause another puncture - believe me, you'll get tired of fixing puntures every time you use your bike!
- Fit the inner tube back into the tread of the wheel. Start by putting the valve back in its hole and then pushing the rest into the tread.
- Starting at the opposite side of the tyre to the valve, push the tread back over the side of the rim, working your way around the wheel until it is all in place.
- Inflate the tyre and replace on the bike.
There, that wasn't so painful now? Was it?