How fast do you fix a flat?
 

I don't flat very often. In fact, it's been nearly two years. But I got one yesterday. Not on the commuter (armadillo's have been bomb proof) but on my road bike on a club ride. It took me about 10 minutes. That's replacing the tube, not patching the existing tube. It was cold, raining, starting to get dark - it was so wet, I'm not sure that I could get a patch to stick. If I had actually patched the tube, I imagine I would have been there at least another 5 minutes.

What's typical? How long should it take?

3 minutes to swap a tube. Maybe 2 if it's a front. CO2 makes it much faster.

I would expect that from anyone that has 17,000+ posts! I hope I don't have the opportunity to "practice" enough to get that fast.

really depends on what you have at the ride, you can pull out a tire by finger or you can have something that needs a third level(cough..my pos conti)

co2 vs mini-me pump etc.

it takes about 250 stroke to get to 90psi with my blackburn SL airstik, that alone will take up most of the time

Depends on the situation.

In reasonable warmth and weather- a few minutes, maybe 10 if I'm just patching the tube and have to let the glue dry.

On a warm spring day of mountain biking- maybe 30 minutes, if the sun's out and I decide to take a lazy lunch break at the same time.

On a rainy winter's night- 15 minutes, or even 30 if I'm wet and cold, dealing with a fussy tire bead that won't go back on the rim.

Depends on the bike, the weather and the situation. On my commuter bike it'd take a while since I have to remove the panniers and I have no quick release. On a light bike (no bags, quick release) on a warm day it can be easily done under 5 minutes (no patching, tube swap, I patch later at home).

agreed. depends on circumstances. I have literally changed thousands of bike tires in my lifetime and when I want to I can tear through the process really quickly- 3 minutes or so- but sometimes I just use it as a chance to take a break.

The last flat I had was last summer, and the one before that, in spring 2008. In that time I've changed around a dozen other tires due to non-flat reasons. Just today I ran over a pile of broken bottle glass on my midnight snack run, and nothing happened. I don't get much practice patching tubes.

10 minutes?

I do it so infrequently that I'm not all that good at it. 10 minutes. I only do it once a year or so. I'm just changing tubes.

I don't think CO2 would make it very much faster, because it only takes me about 2 minutes to pump up. Most of the time is spend horsing with the thing, getting stuff out, finding all the crap I dropped in the grass, stuffing it all back in one of my bags.

7 - 10 minutes when I'm just taking my time.
Under 5 minutes if I'm really in a hurry.

Should I include the time spent stomping around and cursing?

For me it depends on the weather, how late I am, and the tire/rim combination. Some tires are a bear to get on and off.

I carry a spare tube and a patch kit but the patch kit I hope never to have to use on the road except for maybe to help another rider.

I never hurry so I don't even know if I can. I start by looking for the leak from the outside, and if I can find it, crack the tire bead and try to pull and patch the tube w/o removing the wheel... 10 min is kind of what I think it takes, although something unpleasant or other can always make it take longer... If it's nasty out like right now I might just go straight to a new tube and not try to patch.

In my garage, it takes me 3 minutes. These are normal tire changes such as studs to normal tires or replacing worn tires, no flats. For flats on the road, it depends on the conditions. Changing a tire in the dark or in the cold can take quite a bit longer, especially if I can't find the reason for the flat. I had one in winter 2009 that took me 30 minutes because my hands were frozen and I just couldn't get the tire off with my tire irons (tire was very tight because it was so cold). It was snowing, dark, and very early... just miserable. I ran my finger inside the tire to find the cause and sliced my fingertip pretty deeply on the shard of glass that penetrated the tire. Put in a new tube and pumped it up to a measly 50 psi due to my cheap pump, bandaged up my finger, and off I went.

It's the same as getting to Carnegie Hall.

I need to learn how to fix a flat. Right now I usually just walk to the nearest train stop, ride home, and then pay my bike shop $8 to fix it.

Ah now we're getting to the truth! A pro-wrench fixes a flat in 3 mins for $8... that's $160/hour! WOW!!! ;) :D

Honestly, I've never been in that much of a hurry to change a flat. If I get one, I take my time getting all the stuff off the bike, I go ahead and take the wheel off (I know a guy who just pulls the tube out and slaps on a Park glueless patch then CO2's it up again - he can be rolling again in about 3 minutes). it's probably at least 3 or 4 minutes before I even introduce the tire levers to the tire.

I guess I've been lucky in that I have never had to change a flat in a driving rainstorm or something. If it's reasonable weather and I don't have anywhere special to be (which I really never do) sitting by the side of the road on a nice day isn't so bad.

Also, I'm super careful about not pinching the tube. I've pinched the tube before and had the thing go flat immediately.

So maybe I could change tires faster, I just have never really tried to do it fast.

It's not very hard to do, you just need practice. I think it took 45 minutes the first time I changed a flat (rear tire). I now do it in under 10 minutes.

The most difficult part for me is pulling out the tube when it welds itself to the tire in hot weather (talcum powder doesn't seem to help much), and getting the last 3 inches of tire back on the rim (I'm a woman and don't have a lot of hand strength).

10 minute or less on my road bike with folding tires. 15 min for my commuter with Armadillo and 700x25. I have to use a Quik Stix to get the last 5 inch into the wheel. Then they don't always seat right even if I overinflate it, and they will be slightly out of round. I usually have to try to seat more center around the whole rim. Luckily, the Armadillo has not flat out on me yet.

My latest flat is the ride on my Scott bike 2 weeks ago and resulted in 2 Goathead in the rear tire and 5 goathead in the front. Yes, got it all in one stop off the pavement. After some thinking, I decided to walk the bike home since it was two miles from home. If I had to fix those two tube, it would not been a 10 minute job even with the spare tube I had cause one of the goathead was lodge where it can only be found with cotton ball at home. I even had to use a tweezer to get it out which was something I used to not carry but now I do in my kit.

Oh yeah, fastest time I changed my tube was 0 minute. I was riding in my neighbor and flat out. One of my neighbor kid offer me to do it for $3, so I took the deal and watch him changed it while I was yapping on my cell phone :)

I use it as a break also when riding. If I'm home changing out a tire or tube it's just a few minutes.

I'll say +1 to around this speed. It really isn't hard, especially if you practice by fixing the flats of other who have no idea how to

I should add that I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy. I usually carry a spare tube and a patch kit, CO2 and a pump. Multiple flats have been known to happen. The first flat gets the spare tube and CO2. After that, it's patch and a pump.

On the road, under 5 minutes. Sorry to say I've had lots of practice. This is for a tube change not a patch.

+1 on all counts.

Also I'll usually take a couple extra minutes to inflate the flatted tube, find the puncture and look at the corresponding position on the tire, rim. Having just switched my commuter over to non-studded tires I was getting a little vibration from the rear wheel, like it was out of round, but not bad. Last week it flatted on my ride home, kind of medium fast. When I noticed the flat my tire wasn't quite flat but when I got off my bike it was completely flat about 30 seconds later. Pulled the tube out, had trouble finding the hole at first, it wasn't very big. Finally located it, checked it against the tire and found I had a very small hole in the *SIDEWALL* that was on it's way to being a 3 inch rip, just above the bead. I booted the hole with a dollar bill, inflated it enough to get home, and promptly threw the tire away. The whole change probably took me about 25 minutes whereas if I threw a tube in real fast it probably would have held for a little while longer, but may have failed catastrophically when it finally let go.

I had a flat before I left work last week and it took about 5 minutes, until I gave up with the mini pump and left it somewhat under inflated for the ride home.