How To Prevent A Flat Bicycle Tire
April 17, 2023 10:01 pm Leave your thoughtsHow To Prevent A Flat Bicycle Tire
There are many things riders can do to avoid flat bicycle tires. Learn more about them here!
Keep Your Tires Inflated
It’s important to keep your tires inflated properly for both your safety and your fuel economy. Tires under-inflated lose as much as 30% of their tread life, and tires over-inflated are more likely to blow out or roll off the wheel. The best way to check your tire pressure is by using a good quality pressure gauge. You can find a good one at any auto parts store, or at your local gas station (they usually have a free air pump). A tire pressure gauge will read the PSI of your tires in pounds per square inch. The recommended pressure is listed on your vehicle’s owner’s manual, which is typically located on the driver’s side door frame. To get an accurate reading, make sure your tires are cold and then press the open end of your pressure gauge into your air valve. After a few moments, you should see the pressure displayed on the screen of the gauge.
Have A Spare Tire Ready
Having a spare tire on hand is essential to getting back on your bike as quickly as possible. This can save you a lot of money in the long run since a flat tire is expensive to repair. If you have a spare tire, keep it inflated to the recommended PSI (printed on the side of your tire) and check it regularly to make sure it’s still intact. Also, keep it out of the elements and in a place that’s not susceptible to temperature changes. You may even want to store it in a garage or basement as long as you keep the temperatures stable and away from ozone-emitting devices like furnaces, electric motors and generators, hot water pipes and more.
Be Prepared
One way to keep flats at bay is to inflate your tires within the recommended psi range. The psi recommendations are usually printed on the sidewall of your tire. Having a spare tube on hand also helps when you need to change a flat. Just make sure it’s a good quality tube, because poor-quality tubes can cause punctures or blown out inner tubes. After you remove your flat, inspect the outside and inside of the tire to look for embedded glass or other sharp objects that could cause a puncture later on. This can be especially important after riding through a lot of debris on a route. This can be time-consuming, but it’s important to do it right the first time so that you don’t have to patch or replace your flat bike tire again. Then, you can be confident that the problem was a simple puncture.
Categorised in: Bicycle Maintenance, Bike Parts, Bike Repair, Bike Safety, Bike Shop
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