TheCROW

Hey All,
I have a couple of noob questions I hope you can help me with.
I have a 2009 Trek 3700 bike (https://tavola.ru/images/velosiped_trek_3700_2009-2.jpg) and I'm planning to go for a trip on a remote mountain trail, the problem is that I hate to have a flat tire in the middle of nowhere.
I've never had a flat before so I'm asking for your advice:

First of all, I'm not sure if this bike has tubes in the tires or not, is there a way to find out?
Second, I want to buy an emergency tire repair kit to be on the safe side, so I guess I have to buy a light manual pump, spare tubes and tube patches. Am I right? Is there anything else I should get?

Do I need a tire lever? Can I use something else instead, cos I'm pretty sure I cannot find it in stores here.

Anything else you'd advise to have in my backpack?
Thank you kindly in advance

njkayaker

Almost certainly, it has tubes. One way of finding out is taking the tire (casing) off. This is something that you might want to try doing before having to need to do it out on the trail.

Get a set of tire levers (they usually come it a set of three). If they sell Treks where you are, you should be able to get tire levers too.

Where is "here" (Russia, apparently)? There's this fancy thing called the "internet" that lets you order stuff from almost anywhere!

You have proven you are smarter than 99% of new riders!

It's easy to have the stuff to fix them and very inconvenient not to. Bring this stuff on every ride (unless it's really short)!

Yes, these things.

You might also want to include something you can use as a "tire boot" if you get a large cut in the tire casing. Things like "GU" packets (https://www.guenergy.com/) work fine. A "mini tool" with a chain breaker would be a good thing to have.

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Keep in mind that most people here are in the US. If you are from another "strange" place, making that clear will keep people from providing useless US-specific advice!

Good luck!

LesterOfPuppets

Are you in the same country that pic you linked is hosted from? If so, Chain Reaction ships to Russia, at least their site calculates shipping to Russia, so I assume they can do it.

I'd probably get a Morph pump, this seat bag o' tools which includes patches and tire levers, and a spare tube.

If the trip is REALLY long and remote and has lots of pointy things on the surface, I'd get some Mr. Tuffies, maybe add another spare tube and add a spare tire, perhaps one shifter and one brake cable if it's a week long in the middle of nowhere deal.

TheCROW

Thanks for your reply,
I cannot order online cos nothing gets delivered to my country, plus we have a lousy mail system.
I will try to find the levers.
As for my list, do I need to get anything else?
Thanks again.

curbtender

If you can find a tire patch kit, the levers should be available there too. Always keep proper air in your tires. Your tire would say tubless if it was. I don't think it is. One tube and a patch kit should work. Bring a phone if you have one.

TheCROW

Thanks for your reply, no I'm not from Russia, I'm from Lebanon in the Middle East lol!
So I doubt I wouyld find any of that cool stuff here, but I have to get by.
Well my trip will likely be for one day only, so I don't think I will need cabling, I was thinking about getting a couple of spare tubes and patches, pump and pliers and hex keys.

Steve Katzman

Since this is an entry level bike it is safe to say that you have tubes in your tires. Even if you didn't, you would need a tube to repair a flat on a tubeless system.

Not everybody needs tire levers to remove every tire from every rim, but most of the time a set of 2 or 3 is a very useful tool to have around. I highly recommend you carry a set in case of a flat.

Spare tube is nice, especially if you don't want to waste 15 minutes to put a patch on a tube. I carry a patch kit too just in case I get one (or more) flat than I have spare tubes. Some sort of inflating system as in a mini pump, frame pump or CO2 system is a must. I would tend to steer newbies away from the CO2 systems until you have more experience, as in the hands of a less skilled person, they can misfire and you are now without a way to fill your tubes.

Other things to consider carrying along. A multi-tool of various sizes of Allen wrenches and screwdrivers, a rag or wet-wipe to clean your hands afterwards. I also carry a chain tool, a spoke wrench, a chain repair link, extra cables, extra spokes, a leatherman, a cable cutter and some small misc. screws when I am going to be far away from help. But without the knowledge of how to use these things, that would not benefit you. If you have a cell phone, definitely pack it!

One more recommendation: Do a practice run before you leave for your trip. Take off your wheels, remove a tire and tube, put it all back together again and pump it up. This is not the kind of thing you want to try for the first time in (your words) "the middle of nowhere". Good luck.

TheCROW

Thanks for your reply, I'm planning to do a full tune up and clean my bike before going.
Of course I will take my phone and I will have a couple of my biker friends along for the trip

TheCROW

Thanks so much for your elaborate info You've been a great help!
I also have the bicycle tutor videos a great resource of info!

njkayaker

Interesting!

Cabling is overkill (the bike should be in good shape before you go). Yes to the other stuff.

Are you doing this alone? If not, what are your friends carrying?

njkayaker

This is good advice but too much information!

KISS (keep it simple "stupid"). If levers are likely to be hard to get, C02 would be worse.

There isn't much point in carrying a bunch of stuff that he would not know what to do with!

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Don't bring anything you or your friends (or other people you might run into) don't know how to use!

You should know how to remove a tire and tube and put it on before going out.

Even if you prefer CO2, you should carry a pump just in case you run out of C02 cartridges!

LesterOfPuppets

After noting the country code of the pic link, I thought the OP was gonna ride across Siberia there for a second

njkayaker

That would be cool but I'm not sure if he's ready for that!!

Steve Katzman

If you read my post carefully you will see that I said basically the same thing. "...But without the knowledge of how to use these things, that would not benefit you."

TheCROW

lol no i'm not riding into Siberia
Definitely I'm taking the tools that i can and know how to use. A couple of friends will be along with their bikes so we'll split the tools. I do not foresee any bike problems (beside flats) cos my bike is still relatively new, under 700 miles total on the odo
Thanks so much guys for all your help

njkayaker

I did (finally) notice that tiny bit buried in the other stuff. It's too much information! Why even bring up CO2?

njkayaker

If you are going with friends who have more experience than you, you should be talking to them! Sharing tools in a group is very reasonable. Since you are in a group, you might consider carrying an extra fold-able tire.

Flats are common enough that you need to be ready for them (ideally, there would be an extra tube for each rider).

How long is this ride you are planning on doing?

Steve Katzman

Why bring up CO2? Because I felt it was pertinent to the subject. I did recommend he stay away from it, but I acknowledged that it exists as an option.

What is your problem? I answered the OP with free information - NO CHARGE!!! The OP even thanked me for my thorough reply. Just because I gave him more information than you feel he required, you're going to make a big deal about it!?!

TheCROW

The trip will be from morning till evening, a bit short and meant to be a test ride in order to plan more in the future.
Thanks again

skilsaw

CROW.
It sounds like you have an excellent adventure planned. If you can't find a bicycle shop that will show you how to fix a tire, ask the mechanic at a local garage. Fixing a tire is not difficult, but doing it the first time after learning it over the internet would be a real challenge.

I'm excited to hear you and your friends want to get into mountain biking. Great! Have a good trip and be safe.

TheCROW

Thanks for your reply, in fact i've seen tires being changed at the shop a couple of times, so think i'll be ok. Also i've seen tutorial vids online And I'll give it a try myself just to be prepared.
Hopefully the weather cooperates and we do this, it'll be a new experience for me!

BCRider

Crow, do yourself a favour and learn to unmount and mount the tires and tubes a couple of times before you go out very far. It's not hard but there are a couple of small tricks to learn that makes it very easy.

First is you need levers to get the bead off even if you are good enough to not need them to put the tire back on. Do not even consider for a moment using screwdrivers, butter knives or other tools that are anything but well smoothened. Doing so is just asking for a hole in the tube from the mounting process.

If you can't find tire levers at the same place you got the tubes, patch kit and other small maintenance bits and pieces then that is one screwed up store. If they truly do not have them you can make your own from some 3 x 10 mm metal. Bend about a 30 degree angle on one end about 10mm from the end and then file and sand smooth all edges and corners so the ends look like a half used bar of soap. Smoothing them like that will go a long way to avoiding cutting into the tube by accident. Make at least two and a third one for a spare isn't a bad idea.


For unmounting;

1. Start by pushing the tire bead off the lip of the rim and well down into the center of the bead channel.
2. Insert a tire lever down between the rim lip and the tire bead without going too far in past the bead. Do this opposite the valve stem.
3. WIth some pressure on the lever to lift the bead away repeat the pushing the bead to the middle of the bead channel.
4. With that done the bead should easily come up and over the rim at the lever. Use a second lever to insert beside the first. Now try to zip it around the rim to lift the bead out. You won't get far but it'll go a short ways. Use a knee to hold the first lever in place and with the free hand again push the tire bead into the center of the bead channel.
5. Repeatedly centering the bead of the tire in the rim's bead channel will allow you to zip the second lever around. Once you get about half way it'll go real easy.
6. With the bead unseated all the way around reach in and peel out the tube. When you get to the valve push it through and move the tire bead over it to let the tube come out.

Did you notice a theme in that? The most important thing you can do is keep recentering the tire bead for the part still on the rim down to the center of the rim's bead channel. Doing so will give you the slack you need to easily move the bead over the rim on the other part. If you don't do this then you'll curse and swear and work much harder than you need to work to stretch the bead over the rim. Done right it takes very little effort. Done wrong and you'll think that tire changing is an impossible skill.


To remount here's what I do;

1. Blow up the tube just a little so it's just sort of inflated.
2. Fold down the tire bead and insert the valve stem into the rim. Fold the bead up and over the tube.
3. Tuck the rest of the tube evenly into the tire by poking in over the rim so it sits in the rim.
4. With that done start slipping the bead over the rim and into the bead channel at the stem. Use one hand on each side and work evenly around the tire.
5. When you're about 2/3's of the way around it'll get tough to do. This is where you let out the last bit of air from the tube.
6. WIth the air out of the tube hold one crossover of the tire under your knee so it doesn't slip and use your sprare hand to center the bead in the channel while your other hand on the bead works more of the bead over the rim.
7. Keep doing the centering sweep with one hand and working the bead over the rim with the other until you get over by your knee on the rim. At this point if you sweep the bead into the center a couple of more times you can typically flip the last bit of the bead over the rim just with hand pressure.
8. Sometimes if the tire is giving you a rough time you may need to use the levers to pry the tire over the bead for the last few inches. If you do find this is needed only lever over a very short section at a time. We call this "take small bites with the lever". If you try it with too big a section of the bead you won't be able to get it to stretch enough. It also means you probably didn't sweep the bead of the part already on the rim into the center well enough. I've run across only a few tires that needed help from a lever to re-mount them.

During the mounting it is also important to keep checking to see that the tube is not coming out of the rim and getting pinched between the tire bead and the rim. Once the tire is on and before you blow up the tube it is a good idea to go around the tire pushing the side wall in so you can look down between the bead and the rim. If you see tube sticking out you have to work the tire to get the tube to go back in under the bead. One way that helps is to put about 4 or 5 strokes of air from the pump into the tube and then work the bead around to inspect again. Just doing that with even a little air in the tube will usually make it pop back into the tire.

If you've never done this before it would be a good idea to do it a couple of times at home before you venture out onto the trails. It's nice to learn this when you're comfortable and not in some dusty, muddy, rainy, whatever outdoor condition. After all the darn things NEVER go flat when it's nice out and in a place where it's a pleasure to stop and take a few minutes to enjoy the scenery while calmly changing a tire.

TheCROW

Whoaa!!! Great step by step tutorial BCRider!! Thanks a lot for the time you put into it.
Really appreciated

njkayaker

Note that there are two valve types used for tubes. It's possible that not everybody in your group is using the same kind.

https://sheldonbrown.com/tires.html

There's other good stuff on that site.

peripatetic

(a) Practice removing and re-mounting a tire and tube before your trip. First time, it might take you 30 mins. or more. After you've practiced a bit, it shouldn't take you more than a minute or two.

(b) The best resource for tire flat fixing tips I've found is here. Langley also has a video demonstration of how to do it. Read through everything under "maintenance" talking about tire stuff, and work your way through his steps. Key thing that really really helps is to use a tube that's one size smaller than your tire. This will MOST times obviate the tire levers, though they're good to have for emergencies. I can't stress how much just swapping in a smaller tube will help you with un-mounting and re-mounting. It makes all the difference in the world.