Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
That's because I use a method taught to me 40 years ago by an older cyclist that most people today have forgotten about. A lot of flats can be repaired without ever removing wheel from the bike and the tire or tube completely off the rim. All I do is leave the wheel on the bike then remove about half the the bead off of one side of the rim with the hole being at the center, I then remove about a fourth to a third of the tube again with hole in the center, then I do the patching thing, and restuff the tire, and inflate.
One time I had a flat while riding with a friend and was able to repair the flat with the wheel still on the bike, and the friend told me couldn't believe how much faster that was...after he commented about what the hell I was doing!
That's fine IF you:
a. Can locate exactly where the puncture is in the tube.
b. Can find the thing that caused the hole and remove it from the tire before patching and reinflating the tube.
Most flats I get are caused by such small items like a sliver of glass or a tiny wire that I can't find the puncture even by inflating the tube with my mini-pump and it takes immersing it a bucket of water after I get home. There is no way I could find it while the tube was still mostly in the tire. Also, with the tire completely off the bike I can carefully inspect the inside and locate the cause of the flat. Otherwise what you wind up with is a very fast repair followed by another flat 100 feet later.