Grampy™

I told a guy I work with how fast I thought a flat could be changed (by someone faster than me, that is). He thought I was being silly.... now I'm talking Basic roadbike, stopping and getting off the bike, changing the tube and riding off...... Who is the speed freak? How fast? (I don't want to say what I guessed just yet......)

KleinMp99

Give me 1 minute, and i'd be riding off.

froze

1 minute is impossible, even with a tubular! Where do we find such screwballs? Even my old LBS mechanic could not do it that fast and he changed tires for races!

With a front tire, which is faster than the rear, with a tubular about 4 minutes including removal, replacing and pumping. With a clincher about 5 minutes including the same as the tubular except this includes patching the tube with a glueless patch.

The secret for a clincher repair is to only remove about 6 inches of one side of the tire with penetration point being in the center of that; next pull out about 3 inches of the tube with the hole of course in the center; buff the tube apply the patch (no glue step cuts about a minute off maybe more depending on weather for the glue to dry), check the outside and inside of tire for protrusions then stuff tube in tire, remount those 6 inches of tire and pump.

You could take off about 1 minute if you use a CO2 system; but with those systems your limited to the amount of air you can carry.

khuon

While 1 minute seems a tad unbelievable I wouldn't say it was impossible. If you're not patching and you're adept with the use of speed levers and a CO2 inflator, I can possibly see someone being able to zip the bead off, yank the bad tube out, plop a new one in, zip the tyre back on and inflate in around a minute. One thing that's interesting is watching MTB races where there's no such thing as outside support. You flat and it's all up to you to change it. There's no mechanic in a Citroen wagon that's going to come up to you and throw you a spare wheel. Some MTBers are pretty quick at changing a flat because they have to be.

Rev.Chuck

I give myself about five minutes. I can swap in a tube much faster but I like to find what caused the puncture. Wheel off the bike, stuff laid out, with a compressor, just see how fast I can do it, 12-15 seconds.

Hunter

1 min. while out riding is impossible. Even in a shop environment that is alomost ridiculous. I agree with Rev. about 5 min.

Retro Grouch 

I'm sure that 1 minute is possible but only with CO2.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to talk with a guy from Carbondale, Illinois who held the Guiness world record. Requirements include riding up to a pylon, removing the rear wheel from a derailleur bike, checking the inside of a clincher tire for debries, pumping up the new inner tube with a frame pump and riding the bike off. He was timed by the mayor of Carbondale at around a minute and a half.

Tricks included having a loose fitting tire, slightly undersized inner tube, the replacement tube was partially pre-inflated and he wasn't too particular about how well he checked for debries or how hard his tire was when he rode off.

timmhaan

honestly...10-15 minutes. i'm not good.

KleinMp99

It depends on how tight the tire is. If its a tire that goes on and off easy then that will slash the time.

I guess if you had to do everything then it couldent be under a minute.

Stopping - 5 seconds
Flipping the bike over - 4 seconds
Pulling the wheel off - 5 seconds
Getting levers and pump out of bag - 5 seconds
Pulling tire off - 15 seconds
Pulling tube out of tire - 5 seconds
Getting new tube out of box and putting minimal air in it - 9 seconds
Putting new tube in tire - 8 seconds
Putting tire back on - 17 seconds
Pumping up with a C02 Pump - 5 seconds
Putting wheel back on - 7 seconds
Getting back on the bike AND getting up to speed - 7 seconds

Total time without checking for why the flat happend - 1 minute 32 seconds.

If your working as fast as you can I am sure you could do it under 2 minutes.

RegularGuy

I'm the bronze medalist in the tire changing event from the olympics on a group ride I did last year. The deal was you used your own tire levers. The tire, tube, wheel and pump were provided. The tube had to be completely removed, then replaced and the tire pumped up to 100 psi. My time was just over 2 minutes. The gold medalist had me by a good 30 seconds.

I'm pretty good with roadside tire changes. Using a CO2 inflator, and exercising due care about what caused the flat, I'll be rolling again in 5 ...maybe 7...unless it is one of those narrow *&#$ tires that fit the rim so tightly.

dobber

With or without beer?

caloso

5 minutes minimum time. 10 or 12 is more realistic for me.

SanDiegoSteve

Beer helps. I can get the old tire off and tube out in like 20 secnods. Opening the beer, drinking some, and deciding what to do next is the time consuming part.

madpogue 

None of the times mentioned, however detailed, include the most important step: investigating the cause. Put a fresh tube in a tire that's just had a flat, without determining what did it, and you're cruising for another flat. I take at least a couple of minutes to find the original leak (meaning, pull the tube all the way out and air it up a bit), and find its corresponding spot on the tire and/or rim, to make sure I'm not gonna just repeat the process. This is another reason I'd rather carry a pump that CO2. This is gonna take longer than the rote mechanics of levering off the tire, peeling out the tube, replacing it, et al.

khuon

It all depends on the situation. The question was asked of how fast can a person change a flat and not necessarily how thorough. In a MTB race, most flats occur due to pinch or snakebites as opposed to punctures/FOD. In such a case, it's a safer bet to just yank and replace without doing a thorough inspection. Time will cost you position.

shaq-d

if the weather's nice, who cares? take a chill by the roadside, remove, patch/replace, clean it up, pump it as high as you can, and before you know it you're back on the road and well rested to boot.

in the rain, it's all pain anyway...

sd

Hunter

There are a couple of people here that could qualify for a world record attempt it would seem. I believer Guiness pays $10,000 for verifiable record breaks.

miamijim

In the shop...less than a minute. Real world.....2 or so. Been timed.

imapls

My buddy toured on tubulars (bad mistake!!) and got so good at fixng flats, he could pull wheel, pull tire, rip stiches, patch tube, re-sew and re-glue tire to rim in less than 10 minutes. I began to tease him that it became such second-nature, he'd be able to do it in a tux in a formal party and no one would notice him doing it!

Rev.Chuck

Just for grins I timed myself. Rear wheel, shift down, remove wheel, remove tire, check tire for sharps, install tube to tire, install tire to rim, inflate, reinstall wheel, shift back into usable gear. I used a floor pump because I did not want to waste a flate and did not have a frame pump handy. two minutes thirtyseven seconds.

DMulyava

Damn, you guys are fast! I took like 15 min in my first race when I flatted on first lap ):

Note that it takes me about 7 minutes just to pump the tire up.. my pump is SLOOOOW.

Phatman

yesterday, I got a big shard of glass in my tire, and I timed myself. I started at 9:24, and finished at 9:30, 6 minutes. this was on the side of the road, not rushing. I think the longest part was getting the stupid peice of glass out. I had to get a stick to push it out b/c it was very sharp, and i think that took at least 2 minutes.

The mechanic at my LBS told me not to keep the C02 in the tire, b/c it is bad for the inner tube. has anyone else heard this?

Laggard

Changing a flat was always such a miserable experience, especially in the hot summer months. Standing on the side of the road, the sun beating down on me and wrestling to get the bead back on the rim. Plus I ended up with grease from my fingers to my elbow.

I don't know why I never thought to bring along some wet wipes.

hsjb

Is there a secret to getting the bead back on? I've got tendonitis in my hands and thus my hands are weak. I have the hardest time getting the bead on. I tried the "palm" method and didn't find that to be very successful because I couldn't grip the bead with my palm.

khuon

You might want to try using the Crank Brothers Speed Lever. It makes peeling off and reseating the bead much easier.