Are You the Group’s Flat Fixer?

Jim’s Tech Talk

By Jim Langley

If you go on friendly group rides, this has probably either happened to you – or you were the one making it happen. Let me set the scene:

You’re all humming along down the road enjoying the day and company and getting nicely warmed up when someone hollers “FLAT!”

Nobody wants to run into the poor flatee who might slow suddenly and no one wants to leave them behind because they might not have what they need to fix the flat. So you all slow as they slow and then stop to ensure they can fix the flat to continue riding with the group.

At this point with the entire bunch stopped, the person who punctured either knows what they’re doing or they don’t and need help. But they might not realize they need help.

Time to Help

And this is where either something happens to that guy or you make it happen for him. First, the flatee usually demonstrates the need for someone to make something happen by preparing for the ordeal of flat fixing, first removing their helmet and usually also their gloves. Sometimes they’ll lay the bike in the grass and remove their seatbag and open it up to get out their tools and spare tube before proceeding to remove the rear wheel.

But as long as the right person is along on the ride, none of that will happen because that right person will be a flat fixer. And flat fixers can fix flats fast and would much rather get their hands dirty and take control rather than spending a half hour on the side of the road waiting for it to be fixed.

This can be an uncomfortable position to be in for the flatee who might believe they’re perfectly capable of fixing the problem. But usually they understand that’s incorrect when the group – champing at the bit already to get going again – encourages the flat fixer to take over.

What’s the Hurry?

Flat fixers get irritated because everyone’s already warmed up and in ride mode. Stopping for any length of time means having to start all over again. Also, it’s not always safe for a group of riders to stand around next to the road waiting for a repair to get done. 

Plus in some areas the weather changes quickly. And it shouldn’t take but a few minutes to fix a flat anyway so it’s unnecessary to turn it into a long project.

Bicycle Repair Man

Enter the flat fixer. Or in Monty Python parlance, that person would be the Bicycle Repair Man: https://youtu.be/Tq_xTeWiv6I. Flat fixers or bike repair people will see what’s going on and straight away ask if they can help – and before the flatee has a chance to waste too much time. Then they’ll proceed to fix the flat in a jiffy. 

Usually others in the group as eager as the flat fixer to get rolling again, will step in to hold the bike, maybe see that a quality pump is needed and provide that, and they could open up the spare tube and roll up the flatted one too. If they pitch in like this it’ll get the job done even faster and in a few short minutes the group will be rolling again.

What’s the Flat Fixer’s Secret?

If you’re a flat fixer you already know the answer. The secret is that all tires are designed to stay locked onto the rim unless you know how to unlock them. Bike tires (and car tires too) are just like those frustrating safety caps on medicine containers. They are designed to come off only one way. If you don’t do it the right way you will have to tear the cap off with a pair of pliers or cut through the container with something.

It’s the same way with bike tires. If you don’t know how they’re designed to work they’re much more difficult to take off and put on. Fortunately it’s not complicated. All rims have a low point in the center. And just like lining up the arrows on a safety cap to get it to come off, if you get both sides of the tire (called the beads) in that spot, sometimes called the “rim well,” you will create the slack in the tire you need to be able to lift it up and off and also lift it up and over when reinstalling the tire. And you can usually do it by hand only so there’s no need to dig for tire levers.

A Circle Inside a Circle

In other words the center of the rim is its smallest diameter. The tire’s smallest diameter is significantly larger than the rim’s smallest diameter. So by keeping the tire beads in the lowest part of the rim it’s possible to lift up and get the tire over the larger diameter of the rim at the sides.

For tire removal you can take the whole tire off pulling both sides up and over together opposite the valve stem. For putting it back on it’s easiest to do one side of the tire at a time and finish at the valve. If a tube is in the tire, the best practice is to inflate the tube just enough to remove any wrinkles and tuck it up inside the tire after the first side of the tire is on the rim. Then it’ll be out of the way when you install the remaining side of the tire.

Watch a Flat Fixer at Work

I’ve explained how to install tires by hand only with this technique in many articles such as this one: https://www.roadbikerider.com/tips-for-taming-tough-tires-d3/. Yet, while it’s a seemingly simple concept there’s more to it than it might seem. So as I was replacing a tire on my bike last week I filmed what I was doing so that I could show it, which I think might help more people become flat fixers. And in my opinion every group ride should have a flat fixer. If yours doesn’t have one, maybe it’ll help you become that person.

What about Tubeless Tires?

Tubeless tires can usually be fixed super fast with a plug since you do this when the tire is still on the bike. Here’s a review of a great plug kit by Dynaplug.

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Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.